Ghassan Kanafani: “Anti-imperialism gives impetus to socialism if it does not stop fighting in the middle of the battle”
English translation of his interview with Palestinian Affairs (issue 36) in July 1974. (Originally published in Arabic at Romman: https://www.rommanmag.com/view/posts/postDetails?id=6495). This English translation was produced by Samidoun Spain, and formally given to Butlletí Antiimperialista de Mallorca. Palestinian Affairs obtained the full text of an unpublished private conversation conducted by a Swiss writer, who was a specialist in Ghassan Kanafani’s literature. Conducted just a few weeks before the assassination of the Palestinian resistance martyr, this interview eventually formed part of the writer’s scholarly study on Ghassan Kanafani’s literary work. Ghassan, can you tell me something about your personal experience? I think my story reflects a very traditional Palestinian background. I left Palestine when I was eleven years old and I came from a middle-class family. My father was a lawyer and I was studying in a French missionary school. Suddenly, this middle-class family collapsed and we became refugees, and my father immediately stopped working because of his…