Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Walid Ibrahim Abdullah Al-Houdali was born on July 7, 1960, in the Jalazone refugee camp, north of Ramallah, to a Palestinian family from the village of Al-Abbasiya in the Jaffa district. He is married and has three daughters and two sons. He studied at UNRWA schools and completed his secondary education in the science track at Al-Hashimiya School in Al-Bireh in 1978. He graduated from the UNRWA Teachers' Training Institute in Ramallah, specializing in mathematics, in 1980. He taught at Al-Nasr refugee camp school in Amman for four years and at Al-Umma schools in Al-Ram, north of Jerusalem, for one year. He worked for the Jerusalem Water Authority for the Ramallah and Al-Bireh areas, eventually becoming the director of public relations for the authority until his retirement in 2017.
Al-Hudali was first arrested in 1979 for forming a group to resist the occupation. He was sentenced to one year in prison. He was arrested again at the end of 1988, accused of forming a cell and planning to kidnap an Israeli soldier. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison and was deprived of seeing his family after his wife and children were prevented from entering Palestine on the pretext that they lacked Palestinian identity cards. He has been banned from traveling since his arrest. While in prison, Al-Hudali engaged in extensive reading and was active in giving lectures, lessons, and Friday sermons. He focused on creating a cultural environment among the prisoners based on openness to different viewpoints and promoting dialogue and collective thinking. His wife, Ataf Aliyan, and daughter, Aisha, were arrested by the occupation forces in 2006. His wife remained in prison for three years. He was placed under administrative detention in 2007 and spent 20 months in detention. He was arrested again in 2017 for four months.
Al-Hudali began his journey in creative writing from inside prison and published a collection of political and intellectual articles in Palestinian newspapers and magazines. Over time, he became a prominent Palestinian cultural figure with a distinguished position among the prisoners. He published his first literary work, "Curtains of Darkness," in 2003 through the Palestinian National Guidance Foundation and the House of Poetry. The novel was very well received, to the point that it was printed 11 times and was adapted into a film.
Al-Hudali, along with others, founded the Jerusalem Center for Literature in Ramallah in 2005 and opened a branch in Nablus, where he began organizing cultural, intellectual, and literary seminars. In his literary and intellectual publications, al-Hudali focused on key issues such as captivity, resistance, freedom, renaissance, and the cultural and intellectual identity of the nation. As a result of his activism, he became a member of the Union of Palestinian Writers and Authors.
Al-Hudali opposed the settlement, especially the Oslo Accords, which he considered a new catastrophe that moved the Palestinian issue from the international dimension to the local one and worked to fragment it. Al-Hudali believes that the Palestinian division began with Oslo, as a division occurred in the concepts and political programs among the Palestinians, which was greatly reflected in reality after the legislative elections in 2006. Al-Hudali believes that ending the division requires a genuine national partnership according to democratic principles that respect different programs, with elections being the standard that determines the form and nature of the partnership.
Among his publications:
1. Curtains of Darkness Part Two, a novel, Jerusalem Center for Literature, 2009.
2. The Ray Coming from the South, a novel, Islamic House Beirut, and Dar Al-Bashir/Ramallah, 2004.
3. The Burial Place of the Living, a collection of short stories, Palestinian Poetry House, 2004.
4. The Phosphorescent Night of Gaza, a novel, Palestine Foundation for Culture/Damascus, and Dar Al-Bashir/Ramallah, 2009.
5. Mothers in the Graveyards of the Living, a novel, Abu Jihad Center for the Prisoner Movement / Al-Quds University, 2010.
6. Lighthouses, a collection of short stories, Al-Buraq Center for Studies, Jerusalem Center for Literature, 2004.
7. Glory on the Gate of Freedom, a collection of short stories, Jerusalem Center for Literature, 2005.
8. Abu Hurayrah in Hadrim, a collection of short stories, Jerusalem Center for Literature, 2005.
9. Aisha and the Camel, a children’s story, printed and produced with animation, Jerusalem Center for Literature, 2010.
10. The Tunnel, a play, printed and artistically produced at the Abu Jihad Center for the Prisoner Movement / Al-Quds University, 2011.
11. The practical summary of the stages of the wayfarers, Jerusalem Center for Literature, 2011.
12. In the Birds' Net, a collection of short stories, Palestinian Ministry of Culture, 2014.
13. And so he became a spy, a novel, Jerusalem Center for Literature, 2018.
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