Their Borders, Our World: On Solidarity with Mahdi Sabbagh and Ellen Van Neerven

“Solidarity is not an abstract skill,” writes PalFest co-curator Mahdi Sabbagh, “that you come across only when you fight for something specific or you try to stand with someone once or twice. It is a way of living in our day to day, intertwined with what it means to be Palestinian.”

In this conversation, Mahdi talks with the Aboriginal Australian writer Ellen Van Neerven about Their Borders, Our World: Building New Solidarities with Palestine, a book he edited, which was published last year as a partnership between PalFest and Haymarket Books. Their conversation touches on global struggles against colonialism, the promise of Indigenous solidarities, and the surety of Palestinian survival.

You can read the whole feature at Buds Digest. And if you haven’t already, be sure to check out Their Borders, Our World, which features contributions from Yasmin El-Rifae, Jehan Bseiso, Keller Easterling, Dina Omar, Tareq Baconi, Samia Henni, Omer Shah, Kareem Rabie, Ellen Van Neerven, Omar Robert Hamilton and Mabel O. Wilson.

New York: Celebrating Elias Khoury and Mahmoud Darwish, March 14

Join Archipelago Books with Lost & Found: The CUNY Poetics Document Initiative in celebrating the lives and work of Elias Khoury (1948-2024) and Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008), two of the most revered practitioners of Arab literature.

Both Darwish and Khoury were unwavering advocates for social justice and the Palestinian cause; the poets and translators Ammiel Alcalay and Sinan Antoon will come together to speak about their exceptionally rich lives and work.

This event will be held at CUNY Graduate Center. It is free and open to all and will have a reception to follow. The authors’ books will also be available at a discount.

Sinan Antoon is a poet, novelist, translator and scholar. He has published two collections of poetry and five novels. His most recent work is Postcards from the Underworld (Seagull Books, 2023). His literary translations from Arabic include Mahmoud Darwish’s In the Presence of Absence. He is associate professor at the Gallatin School, New York University. He is co-founder and co-editor of Jadaliyya.

Ammiel Alcalay is a poet, novelist, translator, essayist, critic and scholar. He is the author of more than 20 books including After Jews and Arabs, Memories of Our Future and Controlled Demolition: a work in four books. He is Distinguished Professor at Queens College, CUNY, and the CUNY Graduate Center in New York, and the General Editor of Lost & Found: The CUNY Poetics Document Initiative.

Reserve your tickets here.

Subscribe to the PalFest Bookshelf

We have been amazed by the reception of the PalFest Bookshelf since we launched it two weeks ago. Years in the making, the PalFest Bookshelf is an annual book subscription service that delivers the best new books on Palestine right to your door.

Each of the books featured in the PalFest Bookshelf will be accompanied by a special artwork or extra chosen by the author themselves. With the first book, Mohammed El-Kurd’s Perfect Victims and the Politics of Appeal, subscribers will receive a postcard image of the cover’s original artwork by Maisara Baroud.

Support Palestinian writers and help sustain PalFest as we work to build new networks of solidarity and new languages of resistance.

Find out more about the Bookshelf, and sign up, here.

Book of the Week

Each character feels as familiar as kin, with Gaza as the effervescent, maligned and transcendent protagonist.
—Zena Agha

Sambac Beneath Unlikely Skies is written for those who had to leave—collected remembrances of a childhood in Gaza by a woman far from Palestine’s sun and sea. Overindulgent, chaotic and sentimental, Heba Hayek’s narrator struggles to navigate life in colder, unfamiliar worlds. She holds tightly to memories of home, hoping they will lead back to her sisters and mothers.

With brilliance and grace, Hayek’s vignettes explore the methods of survival nurtured by Palestinian women in the face of colonial occupation and patriarchy—the power of community care, and of loving what’s not meant to be loved. Her reflections reveal the intimate magnificence and quiet devastation of everyday life: a family drive on the shore, waxing for the first time with aunties, or peeling figs while waiting at a checkpoint.

Winner of the Creative Award at the 2022 Palestine Book Awards, Sambac Beneath Unlikely Skies was also chosen as a 2021 Book of the Year by The White Review, Middle East Eye and The New Arab.

You can buy the book from Hajar Press.

Reading Roundup

Nakba Denial – Esmat Elhalaby writes about the battles over the writing of Palestine’s history, describing attempts by Zionist historians to obfuscate the centrality of colonialism to Israel’s inception and its ongoing occupation of Palestine.

Genocide in Gaza — Never a ‘War Against Hamas’ – Gary Fields documents how, over the course of its history, Israel’s statebuilding project has always already been violent, and its attempts to impose ‘order’ in occupied Palestine have always been genocidal in nature.

Tribute to Elias Khoury: Mentor, Friend, and Literary Giant – Maysaa Ajjan, a friend to Elias Khoury in the last two years of his life, argues that while Khoury’s impact on world literature is significant, his heart was always on the liberation of Lebanon and Palestine.

Gaza's Lost Embryos – Haya Ahmed interviews Gazan families who were undergoing IVF treatment when October 7th happened, and whose chances at becoming parents have been destroyed by Israel’s bombardment of medical faciltiies.

Unchilding Palestine's Children – Writing about the children that Israel has killed since the intensification of its operations in the West Bank, Yara Hawari tracks how Palestinian children are treated as adults or future terrorists, justifying their murders.

Living in the Open: Palestinians in Gaza Still Face Israeli Attacks and Impossible Conditions as They Return Home – Hossam Shabat and Rasha Abou Jalal report on how Israel’s sustained violations of the ceasefire agreement prevent Gazans from experiencing the relief of the ceasefire deal.

Gaza Ceasefire is Reaching a Dangerous Crossroads as First Phase Nears an End – Qassam Muaddi writes about the stalled negotiations for phase two of the ceasefire and the uncertainties plaguing the process as the first phase reaches its putative end.

A Hungry Father, an Israeli Drone – Shahad Ali shares the tragic story of a relative whose son was killed by an Israeli drone while he searched for bread.

Murky Vision, Bloodied Trees – A meditation from Najwa Shamun, translated by Elena Pare, on the terrible solace of writing against loss.

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