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Ghassan Kanafani, Palestine is the greatest modern writer from the country. Having led an eventful life that took to various places all across the Near East, Kanafani finally got killed because of a Japanese Bomb attack. He is a noted short-story writer and novelist. He is the proud recipient of many awards, including the posthumous Afro-Asian Writers' Conference Lotus Prize in 1975.
Ghassan was born in 1936 of middle class Palestinian parents. The tumultuous political condition of Palestine took him and his family to various places in search of sustenance and survival. Kanafani's first interest was in the Zionist literature, and he wrote his thesis on the treatment of race in Zionist literature. As a academician he travelled extensively from Kuwait to Damascus. He also worked as an editor and journalist at a number of publications, also raising the voice against political and social oppression against the people of his country.
A Marxist by leaning, Ghassan Kanafani of Palestine often found himself in the midst of political tension and had to go underground on more than one occasion. However, even under great threats of ostracization and oppression, Kanafani formed the Popular Front for a the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). He was much committed to the work of a Nasirite Pan- Arabian unification. The work for PFLP took him to many a dangerous post. One such was at the Lod Airport, where a heinous Japanese Red Army attack in 1972 left many dead, including Kanafani. He was only thirty six at the time.
The major works of Ghassan Kanafani include 'Men and the Sun', translated in a number of languages following his death. Kanafani celebrated his motherland through all his works, be they the editorials of his publications or the many short stories that he left behind. Years after his death, Ghassan Kanafani, Palestine continues to be a global hero, not only as a writer but as a writer with a cause, and as one who is willing to lay down his life for the cause.
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