The Palestinian Nakba... A Cultural Perspective

Atef Abu Saif

Atef Abu Saif was Palestinian Minister of Culture from April 2019 until April 2024. He is the author of ten novels, the most recent of which is Fragile Paths. His novel, A Suspended Life, was shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (Arabic Booker) in 2015, and his novel, Hajji Christina, was longlisted for the same award in 2016. His novel, A Boat from Jaffa, won the Katara Prize in 2018. In addition to that, he has published three short story collections, and Written 5 plays staged in Gaza. He was born in 1973 in Jabalia Refugee Camp to a family displaced from Jaffa during the Nakba. He taught Political Science at Palestinian universities in Gaza. He has a number of books, including Civil Society and the State: A Theoretical Perspective with Particular Reference to Palestine, Israel’s International Relations, Soft Partnership: The European Union and Israel, and Europe and the Search for a Role. He was the Chief Editor of Siyasat magazine, published by the Public Policy Institute in Ramallah, which he helped establish, from 2007-2019.

He spent the first three months of the current war in Gaza, where he wrote his diaries  and published them in major  newspapers, including the PalestinianAl-Ayyam newspaper to Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed, The New York Times, The Guardian, The Washington Post, Le Monde, Der Spiegel, Corriere della Sera, The Nation among others. The diaries were recently published as book under the title Don’t Look Left: A Genocide Diary. The book was introduced by journalist Chris Hedges and translated into 11 languages. He donated the book revenue to relief organizations in the Gaza Strip. He also published his diaries during the 2014 war, entitled The Drone Eats with Me, introduced by Noam Chomsky.

Rabab El Mahdi ’96, ’98

Associate Professor, Political Science Department

The American University in Cairo

Rabab El Mahdi is an associate professor of political science at The American University in Cairo (AUC). She earned her PhD from McGill University in Montreal, where she wrote her dissertation on the impact of neo-liberal economic reconstruction on changing patterns of state-civil society relations in Egypt and Bolivia. Her field of specialization is comparative political economy and development, with a focus on Latin America and the Middle East. El Mahdi’s research interests cover the areas of state-civil society relations, social movements and resistance, as well as the political economy of social policy. Before joining AUC, she worked for several developmental organizations, including Non-governmental organizations and United Nation agencies. Previously she taught at Yale University and was a recipient of a number of fellowships at Columbia University, the University of Chicago, and the Rockefeller Bellagio Center Residency. She is also the recipient of a number of research grants from Carnegie Corporation of New York and The Rockefeller Brothers Foundation. Currently, she leads AUC's research project, Alternative Policy Solutions (APS). She serves on the boards of a number of civil society and professional organizations, including the Arab Political Science Network (APSN).