Plea for peace

An Arabic literature professor adopts a humanistic approach to analysing the Palestinian-Israeli conflict through art. Fatima Rabbani reports

Perhaps writers and filmmakers - rather than politicians - might prove better at resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

So says Dr Kamal Abdul Malek, a professor of Arabic literature at the American University of Sharjah, and author of the new book The Rhetoric of Violence: Arab-Jewish Encounters in Contemporary Palestinian Literature and Film.

Speaking to Notes, Dr Abdul Malek said that while many earlier works address the Arab-Israeli conflict from political, military and historical perspectives, The Rhetoric of Violence takes an artistic viewpoint.
He calls his approach humanistic, as it shows there are many ways to tell a story.

Art above politics
"I was so startled to find extremely sophisticated films that treat this issue," he said. "If only filmmakers from both sides are allowed to be the peacemakers then I think our world would be a better place."

Among writers, a source of inspiration for Abdul Malek was Palestinian fiction writer Gassan Kanafani. Kanafani?s writings, he said, show that the conflict is not all about bloodshed; rather it allows for the exploration of complex human inter-relations.

A Western audience
The professor said that since his book is in English, his target audience is the Western reader, specifically Americans not familiar with the Palestinian side of the story.

He stressed that he has no political agenda. Rather, his book is a venture into areas usually left unexplored.

Arabs are usually mute in Western works, he said, and he is hoping to show that Arabs can articulate a vision of their own position in this conflict.

n Abdul Malek will be teaching a course on Arab-Jewish encounters in literature and film next semester at the American University of Sharjah

- The writer is a student at the American University of Sharjah