Palestinians

===Literature===
{{main|Palestinian literature}}
[[File:Susan Abulhawa.jpg|thumb|left|Palestinian novelist and non-fiction writer [[Susan Abulhawa]]]]
[[File:MahmoudDarwish.jpg|thumb|[[Mahmoud Darwish]], Palestinian poet]]

Palestinian literature forms part of the wider genre of [[Arabic literature]]. Unlike its Arabic counterparts, Palestinian literature is defined by national affiliation rather than territorially. For example, Egyptian literature is the literature produced in Egypt. This too was the case for Palestinian literature up to the [[1948 Arab-Israeli war]], but following the [[1948 Palestinian exodus|Palestinian Exodus]] of 1948 it has become "a literature written by Palestinians" regardless of their residential status.<ref name=Kochavi>{{cite web|title=Hebrew Translations of Palestinian Literature&nbsp;– from Total Denial to Partial Recognition|author=Hannah Amit-Kochavi|publisher=Beit Berl College, Israel|access-date=17 August 2007|url=http://www.erudit.org/revue/ttr/2000/v13/n1/037393ar.pdf|archive-date=8 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160308142142/http://erudit.org/revue/ttr/2000/v13/n1/037393ar.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=Suleiman2006>{{cite book |editor-last1=Suleiman |editor-first1=Yasir |editor-last2=Muhawi |editor-first2=Ibrahim |editor-link2=Ibrahim Muhawi |title=Literature and Nation in the Middle East |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |year=2006 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zlbtyGIZyZQC&q=%22palestinian+literature%22+%22arabic+literature%22+palestine&pg=PP6 |isbn=978-0-7486-2073-9 |access-date=29 November 2023 |archive-date=29 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231129193623/https://books.google.com/books?id=zlbtyGIZyZQC&q=%22palestinian+literature%22+%22arabic+literature%22+palestine&pg=PP6 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Contemporary Palestinian literature is often characterized by its heightened sense of [[irony]] and the exploration of existential themes and issues of identity.<ref name=Suleiman2006/> References to the subjects of resistance to occupation, [[exile]], loss, and love and longing for [[homeland]] are also common.<ref>{{cite web|title=Palestinian Literature and poetry |publisher=Palestinian National Information Center |access-date=28 July 2007 |url=http://www.pnic.gov.ps/english/Media_culture/Literature_Poetry.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070925033412/https://www.pnic.gov.ps/english/Media_culture/Literature_Poetry.html |archive-date=25 September 2007 }}</ref> Palestinian literature can be intensely political, as underlined by writers such as [[Salma Khadra Jayyusi]] and novelist [[Liana Badr]], who have mentioned the need to give expression to the Palestinian "collective identity" and the "just case" of their struggle.<ref name=Soueif>{{cite news|title=Art of Resistance|author=Adnan Soueif|date=21 October 2006|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|access-date=6 September 2007|url=http://www.arabworldbooks.com/News/artofresistance.htm|archive-date=10 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010092834/http://www.arabworldbooks.com/News/artofresistance.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> There is also resistance to this school of thought, whereby Palestinian artists have "rebelled" against the demand that their art be "committed".<ref name=Soueif/> Poet [[Mourid Barghouti]] for example, has often said that "poetry is not a civil servant, it's not a soldier, it's in nobody's employ."<ref name=Soueif/> [[Rula Jebreal]]'s novel ''[[Miral]]'' tells the story of [[Hind al-Husseini]]'s effort to establish an [[orphanage]] in [[Jerusalem]] after the [[1948 Arab–Israeli War]], the [[Deir Yassin massacre]],<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3949069,00.html |title=Jewish filmmaker tells Palestinian story |work=[[Ynetnews]] |date=6 September 2010 |access-date=6 December 2013 |archive-date=7 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180707130207/https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3949069,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Associated |first=The |url=http://www.haaretz.com/culture/jewish-film-maker-directs-palestinian-story-in-miral-1.317857 |title=Jewish film maker directs Palestinian story in 'Miral' – Haaretz Daily Newspaper &#124; Israel News |publisher=Haaretz.com |access-date=25 March 2011 |newspaper=Haaretz |date=8 October 2010 |archive-date=4 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304233640/http://www.haaretz.com/culture/jewish-film-maker-directs-palestinian-story-in-miral-1.317857 |url-status=live }}</ref> and the establishment of the state of [[Israel]].

Since 1967, most critics have theorized the existence of three "branches" of Palestinian literature, loosely divided by geographic location: 1) from inside Israel, 2) from the [[Israeli-occupied territories|occupied territories]], 3) from among the [[Palestinian diaspora]] throughout the [[Middle East]].<ref name=Salaita>{{cite journal|title=Scattered like seeds: Palestinian prose goes global|author=Steven Salaita|date=1 June 2003|journal=Studies in the Humanities|access-date=6 September 2007|url=http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/summary_0199-17848_ITM|archive-date=13 June 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080613212319/http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/summary_0199-17848_ITM|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Hannah Amit-Kochavi recognizes only two branches: that written by Palestinians from inside the State of Israel as distinct from that written outside (ibid., p.&nbsp;11).<ref name=Kochavi/> She also posits a temporal distinction between literature produced before 1948 and that produced thereafter.<ref name=Kochavi/> In a 2003 article published in ''Studies in the Humanities'', Steven Salaita posits a fourth branch made up of [[English language]] works, particularly those written by Palestinians in the [[United States]], which he defines as "writing rooted in diasporic countries but focused in theme and content on [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]]."<ref name=Salaita/>

[[File:Naomishihabnye.jpg|thumb|left|[[Palestinian-American]] writer [[Naomi Shihab Nye]]]]
Poetry, using classical pre-Islamic forms, remains an extremely popular art form, often attracting Palestinian audiences in the thousands. Until 20 years ago, local folk bards reciting traditional verses were a feature of every Palestinian town.<ref name=Shahin41>Shahin, 2005, p. 41.</ref> After the 1948 Palestinian exodus and discrimination by neighboring Arab countries, poetry was transformed into a vehicle for political activism.<ref name=Caplan/> From among those Palestinians who became [[Arab citizens of Israel]] after the passage of the Citizenship Law in 1952, a school of resistance poetry was born that included poets including [[Mahmoud Darwish]], [[Samih al-Qasim]], and [[Tawfiq Zayyad]].<ref name=Shahin41/> The work of these poets was largely unknown to the wider Arab world for years because of the lack of diplomatic relations between Israel and Arab governments. The situation changed after [[Ghassan Kanafani]], another Palestinian writer in exile in Lebanon, published an anthology of their work in 1966.<ref name=Shahin41/> Palestinian poets often write about the common theme of a strong affection and sense of loss and longing for a lost homeland.<ref name=Shahin41/> Among the new generation of Palestinian writers, the work of [[Nathalie Handal]] an award-winning poet, playwright, and editor has been widely published in literary journals and magazines and has been translated into twelve languages.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://imeu.net/news/article002665.shtml|title=Nathalie Handal: Poet and Playwright|author=IMEU|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130714071941/http://imeu.net/news/article002665.shtml|archive-date=14 July 2013}}</ref>

[[File:Samah Sabawi 2.jpg|thumb|[[Samah Sabawi]] is a Palestinian dramatist, writer and journalist.]]
Palestinian folklore is the body of expressive culture, including tales, [[music]], [[dance]], [[legend]]s, [[oral history]], [[proverb]]s, jokes, popular beliefs, [[tradition|customs]], and comprising the traditions (including oral traditions) of Palestinian culture. There was a folklorist revival among Palestinian intellectuals such as Nimr Sirhan, Musa Allush, Salim Mubayyid, and the Palestinian [[Folklore]] Society during the 1970s. This group attempted to establish pre-Islamic (and pre-Hebraic) cultural roots for a re-constructed Palestinian national identity. The two putative roots in this patrimony are Canaanite and Jebusite.<ref name=Tamari /> Such efforts seem to have borne fruit as evidenced in the organization of celebrations including the [[Qabatiya]] Canaanite festival and the annual Music Festival of [[Jerusalem|Yabus]] by the Palestinian Ministry of Culture.<ref name=Tamari/>

Traditional storytelling among Palestinians is prefaced with an invitation to the listeners to give blessings to God and the Prophet Mohammed or the Virgin Mary as the case may be, and includes the traditional opening: "There was, or there was not, in the oldness of time..."<ref name=Shahin41/><ref name=Muhawi>Muhawi, 1989.</ref> Formulaic elements of the stories share much in common with the wider Arab world, though the rhyming scheme is distinct. There are a cast of supernatural characters: [[jinns|djinns]] who can cross the Seven Seas in an instant, giants, and ghouls with eyes of ember and teeth of brass. Stories invariably have a happy ending, and the storyteller will usually finish off with a rhyme like: "The bird has taken flight, God bless you tonight", or "Tutu, tutu, finished is my ''haduttu'' (story)."<ref name=Shahin41/>