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The Sun · Baltimore, Maryland · 15 October 1980

CP-1980-005

Palestinians Claim Cultural Oppression

Larry Thorson, Associated Press Writer, Ramallah

Palestinians Claim Cultural Oppression — The Sun, 15 October 1980
The Sun · Baltimore, Maryland · 15 October 1980

Transcribed from the clipping

“RAMALLAH, Occupied West Bank (AP) — Palestinian writers and artists are accusing Israel of cultural oppression. They cite the recent closing of the only art gallery on the West Bank, the confiscation of a number of books on a list of banned publications… ‘Carry On’ to express the Palestinians’ determination to endure Israeli occupation, said Suleiman Mansour, a 35-year-old painter whose works were on display Sept. 22 when Israeli troops closed ‘Gallery 79’ in Ramallah. Mansour, who was trained at the Israeli Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem, is one of the best-known Palestinian artists. His painting of an old Arab carrying Jerusalem on his back was issued as a poster with the title ‘Carry On’… Mansour said, however, that he consciously avoided political statements in the works he showed at Gallery 79 so that it could remain in business… The book remains on sale openly in some West Bank stores, perhaps because Israeli troops haven’t gotten to them yet. At one bookshop in Ramallah the proprietor showed a reporter a whole shelf of ‘banned’ works, including ‘Sunflowers’ and a book by Felicia Langer, an Israeli Communist lawyer, on the 1979 legal fight against the deportation of Mayor Bassam Shakaa of the West Bank town of Nablus… A few years ago, Miss Kalifeh was cited in an Israeli Foreign Ministry pamphlet as an example of the cultural freedom permitted under Israel’s occupation of the West Bank since 1967. Even though her earlier novel ‘Cactus’ said harsh things about Israel, it was published and sold freely, a Foreign Ministry pamphlet said. The writer admitted that she once felt oddly demoralized because the Israelis permitted more freedom than the Palestinians would have had in any Arab country. ‘They made us feel they were so strong that they didn’t care what we did,’ Miss Kalifeh said. ‘But now they are starting to worry, because even though we are weak, we are drawing the attention of the world. The world wants to know more about the Palestinians, and this is why they (the Israelis) need the iron fist — they are insecure.’”

Context added by this archive

Suleiman Mansour at 35, three years after the Pasadena show and eight before he stands outside Ketziot prison. The writer Sahar Khalifeh, printed here as Miss Kalifeh, describes being cited in an Israeli government pamphlet as proof of the freedom she was being permitted, and says the permission ended when the world started paying attention.

Cite this item

"Palestinians Claim Cultural Oppression," The Sun, 15 October 1980. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1980-005. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1980-005

Elsewhere in the archive

This record is part of Covering Palestine, an archive of American and Anglophone newspaper clippings about Palestinians, 1812 to 2022. Researched and assembled by Maria Robles.

The clipping belongs to the newspaper that printed it, or to the wire service that supplied the copy. It is reproduced here for research, criticism and commentary. The city is derived from the masthead, not read off the clipping.

Something wrong here, or something you know about this clipping? The archive is still being built and corrections are wanted: maria@rozumstudio.com, quoting CP-1980-005.

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