Emile Habibi

Emile Habibi
Date of birth	28 January 1922
Place of birth	Haifa, Mandatory Palestine
Date of death
Place of death	Nazareth, Israel
Knessets	2, 3, 5, 6, 7
Faction represented in Knesset
1951–1959	Maki
1961–1965	Maki
1965–1972	Rakah

Imil (Emile) Shukri Habiby (Arabic: إميل حبيبي‎‎, Hebrew: אמיל חביבי‎, 28 January 1922 – 2 May 1996) was a Palestinian and Israeli Arab writer of Arabic literature and a communist politician, son of a Christian family.

Biography

Habibi was born in Haifa on 29 August 1922, into an Anglican Palestinian Arab family. His family had originally belonged to the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem but converted to Anglicanism due to disputes within the Orthodox church. In his early life, he worked on an oil refinery and later was a radio announcer.

Under the Mandate he became one of the leaders of the Palestine Communist Party. When the 1948 Arab-Israeli War began, he stayed in Haifa while many others chose or were forced to leave the country by the Israeli Army. Having stayed in Haifa, however, Habibi was eventually granted Israeli citizenship. After the war, he helped to create the Israeli Communist Party and established the communist paper Al-Ittihad.

In 1956 he moved from Haifa to Nazareth and stayed there for the rest of his life. He died in 1996 in  Nazareth and was buried according to his request in Haifa . His gravestone reads (at Habibi's own request): "Emile Habibi – Remained in Haifa."

Political career

Habibi was one of the leaders of the Palestine Communist Party during the Mandate era. He supported the 1947 UN Partition Plan. When Israel became a state he helped form the Israeli Communist Party (Maki). He served in the Knesset between 1951 and 1959, and again from 1961 until 1972, first as a member of Maki, before breaking away from the party with Tawfik Toubi and Meir Vilner to found Rakah. In 1991, after a conflict about how the party should deal with the new policies of Mikhail Gorbachev, he left the party.

Writing

Habibi began writing short stories in the 1950s, and his first story, "The Mandelbaum Gate" was published in 1954.

In 1972 he resigned from the Knesset in order to write his first novel: The Secret Life of Saeed the Pessoptimist, which became a classic in modern Arabic literature. The book depicts the life of an Palestinian, employing black humour and satire. It was based on the traditional anti-hero Said in Arab literature. In a playful way it deals with how it is for Arabs to live in the state of Israel, and how one who has nothing to do with politics is drawn in to it. He followed this by other books, short stories and a play. His last novel, published in 1992, was Saraya, the Ogre's Daughter. In it he has a character state:

"There is no difference between Christian and Muslim: we are all Palestinian in our predicament"

Literary prizes

In 1990, Habibi received the Al-Quds Prize from the PLO. In 1992, he received the Israel Prize for Arabic literature. His willingness to accept both reflected his belief in coexistence, though his acceptance of the Israel Prize set off a debate among the Arabic intellectual community. Habibi was accused of legitimizing what they considered Israel's "anti-Arab" policy. Habibi replied to the accusations: "A dialogue of prizes is better than a dialogue of stones and bullets," he said. "It is indirect recognition of the Arabs in Israel as a nation. This is recognition of a national culture. It will help the Arab population in its struggle to strike roots in the land and win equal rights".

Published works

1969: Sudāsiyyat al-ayyām al-sittah

1974: Al-Waqāʾiʿ al-gharībah fī 'khtifāʾ Saʿīd Abī 'l-Naḥsh al-Mutashāʾil (translated as The Secret Life of Saeed the Pessoptimist)

1976: Kafr Qāsim (Kafr Kassem)

1980: Lakʿ bin Lakʿ (play)

1991: Khurāfiyyat Sarāyā Bint al-Ghūl (translated as Saraya, the Ogre's Daughter)

External links

• Emile Habibi on the Knesset website
• Emile Habibi: I Stayed in Haifa at IMDb
• Books by Imil Habibi
• Saraya, the Ogre's Daughter