Imprisoned Palestinian writer wins top fiction prize
Palestinian author Basim Khandaqji, who has been imprisoned by Israel since 2004, has been named as the winner of the 2024 International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) for his novel A Mask, the Colour of the Sky.
Khandaqji’s publisher Rana Idriss, of the Lebanon-based Dar al-Adab publishing house, accepted the award on his behalf at a ceremony in Abu Dhabi.
The book tells the story of Nur, an archaeologist living in a Palestinian refugee camp in Ramallah, who adopts a “mask” when he finds a blue identity card belonging to an Israeli in the pocket of an old coat.
Born in Nablus, Khandaqji has been imprisoned by Israel since he was 21 years old. He studied political science at Al-Quds University from prison with a thesis on Israeli studies and has published several poetry collections and novels.
In an interview in January, Khandaqji’s brother said his family had not been able to speak with him for four months, a problem many Palestinians held in Israeli prisons have faced since October 2023.
Khandaqji wrote the award-winning book in prison in 2021, when he would manage to write about two pages each day between 5am and 7am, although “very often, the papers are taken from him and destroyed by the guard”, his brother said.
We are delighted to announce that the #ArabicFiction2024 winning novel is A Mask, the Colour of the Sky by Basim Khandaqji. Read more here: https://t.co/Tfe2cPH87b #winner #fiction #literature pic.twitter.com/TwETbEVgfN
— International Prize for Arabic Fiction (@Arabic_Fiction) April 28, 2024
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Being anti-Zionist is not same as being anti-Semitic, says Jill Stein
The Green Party’s presidential candidate in the US, who was briefly detained at a student-led protest at Washington University in Missouri, said legitimate criticism of Israel is often incorrectly deemed as anti-Semitism.
“Zionism is not Judaism,” Stein, who is Jewish, told Al Jazeera. “And Zionism has been controversial within the Jewish community. In fact since its origins in the 1800s, and that controversy continues today. And the consequences of Zionism is that Jews came in as refugees and said, ‘This land is ours, and we are ethnically cleansing this land.’ And that’s not OK.”
Stein said the current crisis did not start with the Hamas attacks in southern Israel.
“October 7 was just the latest phase of violence that has been mostly perpetrated by Israel against the Palestinians, starting from the Nakba, some 75 years ago. And unfortunately, Jews – and I know myself because I was raised as part of this – have been taught a certain version of history which is not quite accurate. As more and more historical documents come to light, it’s very clear there has been an outrageous tradition of violence against Palestinians from the get-go.”
She added, “So Zionism is something that needs to be debated and being anti-Zionist is not the same as being anti-Semitic.”
US presidential hopeful Jill Stein was arrested at a student-led protest at Washington University in Missouri on Sunday
