Part of collection development is to follow current events and acquire books written on these, including titles that will help our readers understand wider historical and political contexts. French collection development in the University Library relates to many countries of the world, and this post draws readers’ attention to a Francophone collection they may not be aware of: voices from Palestine.

The French collections at the University Library already included many academic books about Palestine, but there was scope to complete our holdings on the subject. Although it is small, there is a Palestinian diaspora in France – as proven by the recent election of Rima Hassan – with some of its members active in the literary field. Books on France’s political relations with Palestine also feature in our recent purchases. Works studying particular aspects of Palestinian society that were not already covered by our anglophone collections were also worth including.

Below are our recent French-language acquisitions on the subject of Palestine.

Palestinian voices

• Le bien des absents : récit / Elias Sanbar. Actes Sud, 2001, C221.c.332

Elias Sanbar is a major Francophone Palestinian writer and diplomat, co-founder of the (now-ceased) Revue d’études palestiniennes and Palestinian ambassador to UNESCO. We had many books by Sanbar already ; this one is a more personal essay where the author explores his memories, feelings and friendships, in and out of Palestine.

• Palestine, mon histoire : récit / Raymonda Hawa-Tawil. Seuil, 2001, C207.d.7546

A Christian Palestinian writer and journalist, mother-in-law to Yasser Arafat, Raymonda Hawa-Tawil was born in 1940 in Acre and raised in a French Catholic boarding school. In this book, she tells of a life spent advocating for the rights of the Palestinian people, but also for a reconciliation based on justice between Palestinians and Israelis.

• Loin de Jérusalem : roman / Ibrahim Souss. Liana Levi, 1987, 9009.c.3884

Ibrahim Souss is a Palestinian writer and politician.

• Point de suspension / Olivia Elias, Michaël Glück. L’Amourier, 2024, C207.d.7638

The latest work by Olivia Elias, poet from the Palestinian diaspora.

• La maison du Néguev / Suzanne El Kenz. Encre bleue éditeur, 2011, C221.c.1686

Born in Gaza, Suzanne El Kenz has lived in several countries, including Algeria, Tunisia and France. She received the Malian literary prize Yambo-Ouologuem for this autobiographical work.

• Chroniques d’un été meurtrier à Gaza : récit d’un génocide répété / Ziad Medoukh. Kaïros, 2014, C207.d.7314

Ziad Medoukh is a writer, poet and professor of French at the Al-Aqsa University in Gaza. This book is a diary written during the 2014 military operation launched by Israel on Gaza, which killed over 2000 Palestinians. Ziad Medoukh also regularly gives eye-witness accounts of the current attack on Gaza in the French press (his latest interview for Mediapart can be found in full on the website of the Union Juive Française pour la Paix).

Most of these works are mentioned in the book Ecritures palestiniennes francophones : quête d’identité en espace néocolonial by Carlos Alvarado-Larroucau (L’Harmattan, 2009), C204.c.5932, which proved a useful resource when it came to identifying authors missing from our collections.

Palestine as a political cause

• Du souvenir, du mensonge et de l’oubli : chroniques palestiniennes / Ilan Halevi. Sindbad Actes Sud, 2016, C207.d.7315

• Islamophobie et judéophobie : l’effet miroir / Ilan Halevi. Syllepse, 2015, C207.d.7316

A major pro-Palestinian francophone figure, Ilan Halevi (1943-2013) was a French Jewish journalist, writer and politician, born in a Résistance hide-out, who became a prominent member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) under Yasser Arafat. He was another co-founder of the Revue d’études palestiniennes, alongside Elias Sanbar.

• OLP : histoire et stratégies : vers l’État palestinien / Alain Gresh. S.P.A.G. (Papyrus), 1983, 9009.c.3877

Alain Gresh is a journalist, former editor of Le Monde Diplomatique and a prominent French voice for the Palestinian cause. We already had many of his works, but were missing this PhD thesis on the PLO, one of the earliest books not to demonise the organisation.

• Un État commun : entre le Jourdain et la mer / Eric Hazan, Eyal Sivan. La Fabrique, 2024 (reprint, originally published in 2012), C207.d.7313

Eyal Sivan is an Israeli filmmaker and academic based in Paris, and known for his anti-zionist positions. He has directed many internationally awarded documentary films about Israel and Palestine. This book comes with a QR code giving free access to one of his documentaries, a series of interviews in which both Israelis and Palestinians give their thoughts on the “One state solution”.

On Palestinian society and culture

• La toile carcérale : une histoire de l’enfermement en Palestine / Stéphanie Latte Abdallah. Bayard, 2021, C220.c.9229

• Des morts en guerre : rétention des corps et figures du martyr en Palestine / Stéphanie Latte Abdallah. Karthala, 2022, C220.c.9163

The academic Stéphanie Latte Abdallah specialises in ethnographic studies of Palestinian communities.

• Ce que la Palestine apporte au monde / avec les contributions de Hussein Adil [and ninety-six others]. Institut du monde arabe, 2023, C202.b.9299

A recent publication that was impossible to miss, this beautiful book explores contemporary Palestinian and Palestinian diaspora identity, culture, art and politics, and Palestine’s influence on the world as a political cause. It accompanies a series of events and exhibitions curated by Elias Sanbar (see above) held at the Institut du monde arabe from May to December 2023.

• Carnet de route en Palestine occupée : Gaza-Cisjordanie, novembre 1997 / Danièle Sallenave. Stock, 1998, 9009.c.3881

Diary written by Danièle Sallenave (Académie française) while travelling through Palestine at the invitation of Palestinian writers.

• La Palestine des ONG : entre résistance et collaboration / Julien Salingue. La Fabrique éditions, 2015, C207.d.7545

On the role of NGOs in Palestinian society.

• Ramallah dream : voyage au cœur du mirage palestinien / Benjamin Barthe. La Découverte, 2011, C221.c.333

Explores the complex reality behind Ramallah’s economic boom.

Political relations France / Palestine

• Un chant d’amour : Israël-Palestine, une histoire française / Alain Gresh, Hélène Aldeguer. Libertalia, 2023, C220.c.9231

Another work by journalist Alain Gresh, this comic book gives a good overview of France’s foreign policy regarding Palestine and Israel, from 1917 to the present day.

• L’affaire Georges Ibrahim Abdallah / Saïd Bouamama. Premiers matins de novembre éditions, 2021, C207.d.7207

A militant publication about a pro-Palestinian activist and France’s longest-held political prisoner.

• Le grand retournement : Bagdad-Beyrouth / Richard Labévière. Seuil, 2006, C220.c.9131

An account of how contemporary France became progressively more and more involved in interventionism in the Middle-East, with one chapter on Palestine.

• L’invention chrétienne du sionisme : de Calvin à Balfour / Jacques Pous. L’Harmattan, 2018, C220.c.8911

A less academic but well researched look into the role of Christian Europe’s religious and colonial ideologies in shaping political Zionism, from its beginnings until 1917.

Anne Lacour