The 1936-39 Revolt in Palestine

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from Barbara Harlow's After Lives: Legacies of Revolutionary Writing:

In “The 1936-39 Revolution in Palestine: Background, Details and Analysis” (Thawra 1936-39 fi Filastin: Khalfiat wa tafasil wa tahlil), Kanafani proceeds according to an apparently straightforward, at once disciplined and disciplinary, narrative development to present the “background, details and analysis” of the events and determinations of those three decisive years. The essay begins with a historical setting for the uprising; this opening is followed by a discussion of what Kanafani contends, more controversially, were its principal agents: workers, peasants and, within certain limitations, the intellectuals; and the reading concludes with a report on the “revolution” (thawra) itself. According to Kanafani, the Palestinian struggle had, at the time, as it would continue to do, to contend with three mutually conflicting but interconnected issues and/or obstacles: 1. the reactionary local leadership;2. the Arab regimes surrounding Palestine; and 3. the Zionist-imperialist alliance (p.45). …

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