Doha: Palestinian authors have called for the imperative of documenting Palestinian memory in all its richness, spanning arts, heritage, and culture, as a vehicle to confront the falsity of the counter-narrative.
During a panel discussion titled ‘The Palestinian Narrative in Confronting the False Counter-Narrative’ held at the 34th Doha International Book Fair (DIBF), they underscored the importance of amplifying the authentic Palestinian narrative to discredit the adversarial storyline built on distortion and disinformation.
The panel featured Dr. Nuha Afouna Al Aidi, a writer and critic, Dr. Ahmad Rafiq Awad, a novelist and critic, and Fakhri Saleh, a writer and translator. It was moderated by poet Sami Mehanna.
Fakhri Saleh highlighted the Israeli allegations against the Palestinian right, stressing that what is being circulated is the notion of a land without people and people without land.
Palestine had been thriving in terms of culture and art until the Nakba flared up and was embracing a significant number of writers, intellectuals, and artists. Artists from a wide spectrum of the arts were visiting Palestine, namely Umm Kulthum, Youssef Wahbi, and Mohamed Abdel Wahab, he said.
Sami Mehanna emphasised that the counter-narrative promoted by the occupying power, in an attempt to undermine the historical narrative despite the facts on the ground, requires collective efforts to entrench the foundational truths.
This, he stressed, renders the Palestinian narrative pivotal in shaping national, Arab, and humanistic perspectives toward this just cause.
Dr. Nuha Al Aidi underscored the importance of the narrative as a literary form, along with its role in bolstering the Palestinian storyline through literary arts, folklore, and oral traditions, all of which fortify the Palestinian right in the face of distortion.
She reaffirmed that Palestine was once teeming with life, arts, and culture, as exemplified by the vibrancy of the city of Haifa in the 1930s.
In addition, Dr. Al Aidi implored all writers to fulfil their role in documenting history, recounting stories, and composing memoirs about the places and eras of that land, before authors, thinkers, and intellectuals are banished, stressing that such efforts would serve future generations in preserving and understanding the history of Palestine.
Rafiq Awad emphasised the importance of fostering various forms of interaction and cultural movement to confront disinformation, in pursuit of deepening the Palestinian right based on the enduring cultural facts throughout history, implying the consequentiality of documentation that further portrays a variety of artworks.
The State of Palestine is the guest of honour at the 34th DIBF, with 11 Palestinian publishing houses participating, alongside a substantial number of Palestinian writers and intellectuals.
