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- Country of residence: Palestine
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Palestinian writer and journalist Elias Nasrallah said that his book (Testimonies to the First Palestinian Century) documents true stories from the past, but in reality it is directed to the younger generation who are worried about the future. In an interview with Reuters, Nasrallah said that he focused in the book on documenting memory by collecting real stories of what happened to the Palestinian people, “because the Nakba of 1948 continues and there is a danger to us and our families. I wrote this book because I see that the future is very dangerous.” Read also: How do Muslim athletes deal with fasting? Tarawih at Al-Aqsa is the qiblah for “whoever is able to find a way to it”
He added, “The issue of memory is very necessary in order to confront the attack on us... I tried to convey to the young reader what Palestine was like and what happened to it, so that he knows what the magnitude of the tragedy is, in addition to the fact that the new generation may be exposed to the same tragedy and experience again, because we have rulers in Israel who do not intend to.” “On the good.” Elias Boutros Nasrallah was born in the village of Shefa Amr in 1947. He worked as a journalist for the Al-Ittihad newspaper in Haifa and the Al-Shaab and Al-Fajr newspapers in Jerusalem. He also founded the Al-Taliah newspaper in Jerusalem. In 1979, he moved to live in Britain and worked from there with several Arab newspapers.
The difficult days of Palestine. Nasrallah said, “I disagree with many people regarding the definition of the Palestinian struggle.. The Palestinian struggle does not mean just carrying a gun. In my opinion, we are 1.6 million (Palestinians) who remained inside Palestine in Shefa Amr, Nazareth, Haifa, Acre, Jaffa, and all the Palestinian villages that remained.” Miraculously, we survived. This survival and steadfastness is the greatest struggle. “Our presence today is the biggest problem for Israel.” He added, "We must not underestimate the importance of steadfastness, which seems simple, but it is very important... to remain within our homeland and adhere to our lands, our roots, and our history." In his book, “Testimonies to the First Palestinian Century,” published in 2016, Nasrallah documents the difficult days of Palestine over the course of a hundred years, recalling reality in the form of narration, recalling stories that his family and himself later experienced, using memory as a means of reasoning, and conveying historical facts that reflect the suffering of a people who experienced war and migration. On the pages of his book, Nasrallah carries a history filled with stories stored in the family’s memory, based between the lines on oral testimonies that reflected reality as it was and revealed the daily life of the Palestinians before and after what is known as the Nakba of 1948. The world of journalism. Nasrallah builds his narratives from his city of Shafa Amr in Haifa, where It reviews stories that extend back more than a century and cover Palestinian wounds in all their dimensions, from the Sykes-Picot Agreement in 1916 to the Balfour Declaration in 1917, all the way to the Nakba in 1948, where he and his family were among the real victims of that stage, providing vivid testimonies of the family’s experiences. In the midst of this book, Elias Nasrallah reviews the stages of displacement to Lebanon and Jordan, then returning to the Palestinian homeland again, belonging to the Communist Party in 1968, and engaging in journalistic work through the newspapers (Al-Ittihad) and (Al-Shaab) before his involvement in other newspapers such as (Al-Fajr) and (Al-Fajr) and (Al-Shaab) newspapers. (Vanguard), and his presence on the same Palestinian line with many poets, writers, and cartoonists such as Naji Al-Ali, Emil Habibi, Mahmoud Darwish, and other artists and politicians. The world of journalism formed a large part of Nasrallah's memory, which expanded to memories from the time of distributing leaflets, writing articles, and meeting foreign journalists in Jerusalem, revealing the suffering of some of them and the exposure of others to killing. A crowdfunding campaign. The writer talks about the days he met with the Palestinian writer and journalist Emile Habibi from Jerusalem to London, and describes him as being a nice person. “He used to tell us about his meeting with the famous Syrian singer, Asmahan, in the mid-forties, and how she summoned him to the King David Hotel, one of the most famous hotels in Palestine, which was bustling with activity at night.” Day, Emil Habibi was so impressed by Asmahan’s beauty and tall stature when she opened the door to him that he had to look up whenever he addressed her.”
A crowdfunding campaign. The writer talks about the days he met with the Palestinian writer and journalist Emile Habibi from Jerusalem to London, and describes him as being a nice person. “He used to tell us about his meeting with the famous Syrian singer, Asmahan, in the mid-forties, and how she summoned him to the King David Hotel, one of the most famous hotels in Palestine, which was bustling with activity at night.” Day, Emil Habibi was so impressed by Asmahan’s beauty and tall stature when she opened the door to him that he had to look up whenever he addressed her.” The book is 700 pages long and is published by Al-Farabi Publishing House in Beirut. It was presented to him by Professor Qais Farro, former head of the Department of Middle Eastern History at the University of Haifa, who said in the introduction to the book, “He who cannot write a story cannot also write history.” Nasrallah told Reuters that a crowdfunding campaign will be launched within days to cover the costs needed to translate “Testimonies to the First Palestinian Century” into English. He said that the cost of the translation amounts to more than 20 thousand pounds sterling. “Therefore, some friends and those interested in the book sought to launch a crowdfunding campaign. The campaign will be launched within a few days, and I hope there will be a response.” Six years of research. Nasrallah, who currently resides in London, explained that working on his book took six years of research and scrutiny. Last November, Nasrallah won the Ihsan Abbas Award, awarded by the Palestinian Authority to the best autobiographical book published in Palestine. Nasrallah says in the conclusion of his book that he felt the injustice done to the Palestinians after he moved to live in Britain. He adds, “I saw how the British lived in relative freedom that I missed in my homeland. In Britain, I encountered time and time again examples of Zionist Jews who were busy with Israel day and night and loyal to it no matter what it did despite their living in They are happy in Britain and enjoy complete freedom. They engage in political work, run for the House of Commons, and hold seats in the House of Lords, but they still believe that God promised them Palestine as their homeland.”
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