- Suad Amiry (1951-, Palestine) – Sharon and My Mother-in-Law: Ramallah Diaries (2004). This novel offers a humorous yet tragic descriptions of the author’s daily life under occupation in Ramallah from the early eighties to the present. They include scenes on the difficulty of obtaining gasmasks during the first Gulf War, driving her dog to a vet in Jerusalem for shots, leading the dog to getting the Israeli passport, and the author taking care of her 92-year-old mother-in-law during the second intifada while living next to Arafat’s headquarter (reference) (also in I: Israel and Palestine: West Bank and Gaza).
- Selma Dabbagh (1970-, Palestine / UK) – Out of It (2011). Written in English, this novel represents the scatterdness of the Palestinian people through one family: the Mujaheds. The novel is set in Gaza, where the family shares an apartment during the second intifada. In the gloomy living conditions and with the constant war sounds on the background, each member looks for their own way to escape. For not only the Israeli siege is oppressive, but also the internal religious and political competition between Palestinian parties (reference). The novel treats the Palestinian identity and asks the question to what extent this identity is politicised both inside and outside of Palestine (note) (also in C: Cities: Palestine: Gaza).
- Saḥar Khalīfah (1941-, Palestine) – Rabiʾ Ḥarr (2004, English trans. The End of Spring, 2008). Rabiʾ Ḥarr is the story of Aḥmad, a sensitive young man living in a fictional village in the West Bank during the second intifada (reference). It narrates Aḥmad’s psychological transformation as he suffers from humiliations by his father, his first love (the daughter of an Israeli settler), and the Israeli occupation force, which finally leads him to commit a suicide attack by driving an ambulance into a crowd of Israeli soldiers (reference) (also in F: Family Life: Children and Adolescents: Bildungsroman, and I: Israel and Palestine: West Bank and Gaza).
- ʿAbād Yaḥyā (1980-, Palestine) – Jarīmah fī Rāmallāh (‘Crime in Ramallah’, 2016). This novel portrays three young people in Palestine after the second intifada, whose life changes after a young woman was murdered in the streets of Ramallah in front of a bar (reference). An employer of the bar is arrested and although he is cleared of charges, when the police realize he is a homosexual, they torture and humiliate him. The novel, which was banned in Palestine, also portrays the turmoil, and search a Palestinian identity of the youth after the second intifada in an age of globalisation (reference) (also in L: Love, Lust, and Relationships: LGBTQ+: Male Homosexuality).
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- Tarek El-Ariss. 2017. “Teaching humor in Arabic Literature and Film.” in Arabic Literature for the Classroom, eds. Muhsin J. al-Musawi, Routledge: New York, pp. 130-245 p. 140
- Robin Yassin-Kassab. 2012. “Out of It by Selma Dabbagh- review.” www.theguardian.com, 6 January 2012, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/jan/06/out-of-it-selma-dabbagh-review (last accessed 7 May 2018)
- Anna Bernard. 2010. “Another Black September? Palestinian writing after 9/11.” Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 46(3): 349-358, p. 351, 552
- Fayyiz ʿAlām. 2017. “Riwāyah ‘Jarīmah fī Rāmallah’: Hazāʾim al-Jīl al-Filasṭīnī al-Jadīd.” www.raseef22.net, 17 February 2017, https://raseef22.net/article/90849-%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%AC%D8%B1%D9%8A%D9%85%D8%A9-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%84%D9%87-%D9%87%D8%B2%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AC%D9%8A%D9%84-%D8%A7%D9%84 (last accessed 10 November 2023)
- Ḥassan ʿAbādī. 2017. “Qirāʾah fī ‘Jarīmah fī Rāmallah’.” www.diwanalarab.com, 19 February 2017, https://www.diwanalarab.com/%D9%82%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%A1%D8%A9-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%AC%D8%B1%D9%8A%D9%85%D8%A9-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%84%D9%87 (last accessed 10 November 2023)