Jehan Helou, was a member of the Palestine National Council from 1981 to 1983, has served on the executive committee of the General Union of Palestinian Women, directed the Tamer Institute for Community Education in Palestine, and is on the executive committee of International Board on Books for Young People. This piece was translated by Haifa Helou Ruhayyem.
Elias Khoury is a Lebanese writer, critic, and public intellectual, whose novels include The Little Mountain, The Journey of Little Gandhi, and Gate of the Sun. He teaches literature at New York University. This piece first appeared in Arabic in JPS’s sister publication Majallat al-Dirasat al-Filastiniyya, which he coedits, and was translated for JPS by Maia Tabet.
