25 April - 1 May 2002
Issue No.583
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 25 April - 1 May 2002 Issue No.583 |
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Of books and T-shirts
What does the support of the literati for the Palestinians entail? Youssef Rakha speaks to publisher Mohamed Hashem
To the newcomer the Merit Publications office, on Qasr Al-Nil Street, is almost invisible: so low-key is the atmosphere, so faded the signs, so derelict and nondescript the staircase that it is next to impossible to locate without walking right up to the doors on the designated floor, one by one, and peering for some sign. And then you see it, Palestine-solidarity stickers positioned prominently on door. Adjacent, the title of the publisher can just be made out on a pinkish, vaguely glossy sign.
Protests in support of the Palestinian plight have overtaken much of the Egyptian cultural scene, including Al-Azhar Mosque, site of regular demonstrations
photo: Medhat Abdel-Meguid
In contrast to the silence outside, the hustle and bustle that overtakes you once you ring the bell seem curiously out of place. People come and go, engaging in occasional conversations, delivering packages and poring over sheets of paper; old friends indulge in familiar pleasures; and piles of books line the walls. Suddenly the atmosphere recalls one of those "intellectuals' houses" on a Friday evening: literature, dissidence and the childlike bickering of old friends make for a uniquely political-literary aura.
Before the arrival of such pillars of the left-leaning literary movement as Ibrahim Mansour (according to Naguib Mahfouz, "Egypt's leading oral critic") and the veteran activist Taher El-Badri, Mohamed Hashem, the founder and director of Merit, was enjoying the company of writer Sayed Khamis and poet Ibrahim Dawoud, who somewhat reluctantly participated in the conversation. At one point a young man named Khaled brought in a huge plastic bag full of white T-shirts showing the pictures of two young, female Palestinians martyrs, Wafaa Idris and Ayat Al-Akhras, to be sold at a cost of LE10 during the large-scale intellectuals' protest on Tuesday.
"We are staging a hunger strike," Hashem supplies as soon as Palestine is mentioned; and although one tries to induce him to talk about contemporary literature, the publishing business and his most recent projects, Palestine is really all he is interested in. "We have issued a large number of books about the current massacres of the Palestinian people and the historical roots of the conflict." Inadvertently he switches from colloquial to standard Arabic, and you have the sense of being transported to a rally of sorts.
Five minutes into the conversation Hashem gets up and returns with two volumes, concrete examples of what he is talking about: Hudoud Al-Taswiya wa Istratejiyat Israel fil-Qarn Al- Wahid wal-Eshrin (The Limits of Resolution and Israel's Strategy in the Twentieth Century), edited by Abdel-Aal El-Baqouri; and Min Dakhil Israel Al-Aan (From Inside Israel Now), edited by Emad Gad. He also mentions the aforementioned El-Badri's Al- Quds Bidayat Al-Nihaya lil- Israeelieen (Jerusalem: the Beginning of the End for Israelis). "We are issuing books," Hashem reiterates, "and staging a hunger strike in which many intellectuals will participate. [Vernacular poets] Abdel-Rahman El-Abnoudi, Ahmed Fouad Negm and Sayed Hegab will participate symbolically." Other participants are many: Mahfouz Abdel-Rahman, Osama Anwar Okasha, Hassanein Keshk, Ali Badrakhan, Dawoud Abdel-Sayed, Magdi Ahmed Ali being only some of the names mentioned.
"So we are staging a hunger strike and a general protest which begins tomorrow, and our main demand is the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador, which is everybody's wish, the true will of the public. As publishers, in general, we are giving voice to radical points of view with which the present-day authorities, be they local or international, are no longer content."
Hashem's tone takes on a rhetorical fervour, hardly echoes in the aspect of Dawoud, who nods as if to confirm a long forgone conclusion. "The forbidden books: we publish them. We are interested in the Arab-Israeli, rather than the Palestinian-Israeli, conflict. Its roots. We think that Palestinian security is integral to Egypt's national security and we behave according to our convictions. We talk about the disadvantaged Palestinian fighter defending his dignity with no means at all against Israel's military machine, the helpless civilian being crushed by it, the complete willingness with which governments the world over have condoned such massacres. The Jenin massacre, for example: completely unprecedented, completely appalling. We contribute...
"We're staging a hunger strike, we're publishing books. There is going to be a regular newsletter to be managed by Ibrahim Dawoud," at which point the latter -- still nodding -- protests weakly, indicating that no, it was actually fellow poet Ibrahim Eissa who would assume that responsibility. (There is still nothing radical about Dawoud's aspect.) "And we are boycotting. Since America is the true face of the enemy, we boycott American products -- paper and ink, there are plenty of other places that provide them. If they produced quality products here, we would of course use them instead; they don't. Away from the empty slogans employed by reluctant and unworthy governments, it would be a form of true support for national production. They don't. We boycott American products, which seems to me to be a form of support for national production in itself. We boycott writers who have any dealings with Israel, proponents of normalisation and such. Even if they produce pearls of wisdom, we boycott them. We have an obligation to national culture, a commitment that we try to live up to. And those publishers who have conciliatory relations with Israelis, during the strike they too should be exposed... We boycott."
Any creative writing?
"We have continued to publish that, too, of course. But the stress is on the current struggle. And when something relating directly to historical developments is written just after they take place, frankly, this worries me. We have published work by Palestinians and sympathisers with the Palestinian cause, of course, like Fathi Imbabi. The effects of the Palestinian plight on our activities are very subtle, on the other hand. At this point, for example, Islamic-oriented books can only cause confusion about the true meaning of the struggle and what it entails. So we have stopped publishing them, even though we normally encourage critical visions of this kind.
"A privately funded book entitled Al-Nidaa Al- Akhir: Istishhadiyoun wa Qatala (The Last Cry: Martyrs and Killers) brings together commentaries and reports by major writers from all over the world, many of whom are Nobel laureates. A well-rounded, many sided collection that exposes the horrors of what Israel is doing to the Palestinians. It will be distributed for a nominal price and proceeds from sales will go straight to the Palestinian Red Cross...
"Because, you understand," Hashem explains confidentially before he is carried away by the aforementioned political-literary aura, "there is a trap being set up now for all forms of resistance. Rumours about the corruption of the Palestinian Authority and about the inefficacy of the struggle. Even the news has grown silent on Palestine. That's why this is the right time to protest. Timing," Hashem repeats. "Now you know how we contribute."
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