Life in Palestine: On the Thriving Artistic Life of Ramallah

May 28, 2021 4:37 PM

“To many writers, Ramallah is an ideal, a dream, a promise.”

Among such travelers was Palestine’s most famous literary son, the poet Mahmoud Darwish. Returning from his exile, he settled in the Al-Teerah district and worked in the Khalil Sakakkini Cultural Centre in the Masyoun district. On Ramallah’s streets, you might also catch a glimpse of other writers who have returned, like the poet and novelist Zakaria Mohammed who, after 25 years of exile in Tunisia, returned. You might see him walking on Maktaba Street, for example, or heading down to Ramallah Al-Tahta where you can find street vendors selling falafel, hummus and grilled meat. There you might also bump into the short story writer Ziad Khadash sitting with a group of writers in the Insheraah Coffee Shop or the Ramallah Coffee Shop. If you’re lucky you’ll see the serene figure of lawyer and author Raja Shehadeh, passing through the streets with such gentle politeness you would hardly even know he was there. Or perhaps you will catch sight of architect and author Suad Amiry on her way to the Riwaaq Centre for Architectural Conservation, or Salim Tamari on his way to the Institute for Palestine Studies. There are authors on every street, this being a city teeming with culture where not just writers and artists have made their home, but also arts organizations. Here you will find the Abdel Mohsen Qattan Foundation, the Al-Qasabah, the Al-Sareyah, the Cooperation Institute, the Palestine Writing Workshop, the Tamer Institute for Community Education and nearby in Birzeit is the Palestinian Museum and Birzeit University.

An excerpt from Maya Abu Al-Hayat's new book, The Book of Ramallah: A City in Short Fiction.

posted by Ahmad Khani (3 comments total)

Thank you very much for posting this. I lived in Ramallah for a couple of years (one of the NGO staffers the article mentions briefly). I went for grilled chicken in al-Tahta, ate the sticky, gummy ice cream at Rukkab's, and walked past the Manara to catch the bus to attend Arabic classes at the university in Bir Zeit. I'm delighted to learn the bits of this history that I didn't know - that Darwish lived in al-Teereh, for instance. It was always unclear to me where Ramallah ended and al-Bireh began, so it feels gratifying to read the boundary described as "indistiguishable". I remember being excited to discover, first, the Ramallah Library, and then, just how many Agatha Christies they had. I remember squat, luscious cream stone houses sitting next to elderly grape vines that withered to skeletons and then impossibly revived into thick webs of leaves and fruit. The constant low-grade cloud of awareness of the occupation, its grimness and injustice, punctured by nights of fear when the IDF came into the city on raids. Music festivals and poetry readings, film showings and art openings. Walking the deserted streets at iftar listening the click-clack of cutlery on crockery echoing from the windows of flats.

I'll be buying the book, and sending the link to many friends. Thank you again.
posted by trotzdem_kunst at 9:36 PM on May 28, 2021 [12 favorites]

Thanks for the post!
posted by Tom-B at 6:08 PM on May 29, 2021

This was a great visualization of the city for an American like me who hears about Palestine only in the sad and distressing world news. I hope there’s a future that includes freedom and autonomy for these people. Ramallah sounds like a really vibrant place!
posted by freecellwizard at 6:01 AM on May 30, 2021 [2 favorites]