This year's Palestinian Festival of Literature was the first to be held in the Gaza Strip, writes Ayah Bashir from Gaza Amid the focus on the economic hardships caused by Israel's ongoing blockade of the Gaza Strip, it has been easy for many to overlook the fact that the territory's 1.6 million people have been kept under a cultural siege as well. This is ironic because much international debate has emphasised the rights and wrongs of a cultural boycott of Israel in the context of the growing boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign. For years, the Palestine Festival of Literature, PalFest, has been trying to break this siege. PalFest began in 2008 in the West Bank, and tried its best to come to Gaza in 2009 with the clear objective of connecting international writers with Palestinian writers and audiences in Gaza. However, Israeli occupation forces denied the organisers entry permits through the Erez crossing in the north of the Gaza Strip. In 2010, PalFest organisers tried again to enter Gaza via the Rafah crossing along the Strip's border with Egypt, but were also denied entry by the regime of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, who was deposed in February 2011. Academics, intellectuals and students then eagerly followed news of whether or not the authors invited by PalFest would be allowed into Gaza this year. Undeterred by the previous denial, some authors were able to take part via video conference last year. On 5 May this year, some 14 months after the Egyptian revolution began, we were finally able to welcome PalFest and an impressive group of writers, artists, bloggers and social activists to Gaza. This would scarcely have been possible without the uprisings in the Arab world. The gathering demonstrates that despite the Palestinian cause having been hijacked by dictatorships for many years, it continues to bring Arabs together and helps foster a re-emergent sense of pan-Arabism. Egyptian novelist and PalFest founder Ahdaf Sweif wrote in the independent Egyptian daily Al-Shorouk about the motivations behind the Festival. "Civil society brings to life the conscience of the world, travelling by sea and air to express solidarity with our brothers in Gaza," she wrote. "The world asks: will the Egyptian revolution, the awakening of Egypt, change the circumstances under which Palestine lives?" Although PalFest did finally come to Gaza this year, this wasn't without a struggle. It is well known that the Egyptian government has contributed to the Israeli-engineered siege on Gaza. Yet, in spite of the bureaucracy, restrictions and delays from the Egyptian Foreign Ministry to issue entry permits for the 43 writers, PalFest participants were so determined that they undertook a media campaign until the permits were granted. At 2pm on 5 May, and after thorough preparations inside and outside Gaza for the upcoming events, six BDS activists stood on the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing, with the guests on the Egyptian side. The hours passed, and the skies began to darken. PalFest producer Omar Hamilton called. "Things are fine with most of us, but there are still issues with some of the participants' papers." It was Alaa Abdel-Fattah, his wife Manal and their infant son Khaled who were sent back, but not for long, as they joined the group the next day. Only at 7pm were ululations and chants to be heard in the place where the hosts were standing when they saw the bus approaching. HEALING WOUNDS: "Culture, art and academia can contribute directly to shaping the individual and collective consciousness," said Haidar Eid, PalFest's partner in Gaza and a professor at Al-Aqsa University, at a press conference and welcoming ceremony in Rafah as soon as the guests had crossed. Eid, active with the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel (PACBI), spoke about the growth of BDS campaigns around the globe that aim to pressure Israel to end its policies of apartheid, colonisation, the abuse of human rights and regular violations of international law. Solidarity with the Palestinian people through BDS is a key form of peaceful resistance, he said. "Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it," Eid said, quoting German playwright Bertolt Brecht. Eid also recalled the words of Mubarak's last foreign minister, Ahmed Abul-Gheit, who once promised to "break the legs" of Palestinians if they dared "breach Egypt's national security." This time, "our brothers and sisters from Egypt are coming to kiss the feet of Gazan children, in order to heal the wounds created by the dictator's regime," Eid said. Over the next four days, PalFest participants fanned out across Gaza, conducting writing and translation workshops in coordination with four universities and five public schools. At a creative writing workshop held at Gaza University, for example, Egyptian novelist and Cairo University lecturer Sahar El-Mougi shared her literary experiences with students. Similarly, Ahdaf Sweif, Khaled El-Khamisi and Tariq Hamdan engaged in discussions with Al-Aqsa University students. A concert at Gaza City's Rashad Al-Shawa Cultural Centre brought together Palestinian and Egyptian musicians. The event was opened by Palestinian singer Mohamed Akeila performing "Mawtini" (My Homeland), and the Egyptian revolutionary group Eskenderalla performed "Ya Filastinia" (Oh Palestinians). Poet Amin Haddad recited the works of his father, Fouad Haddad, legendary dean of 20th-century Egyptian vernacular poetry: Sow the land with resistance; Spread the seeds everywhere. Where there is darkness, it brings light; When imprisoned, it breaks the wall. Be the first... Be the first: only blood is honest. From emigrant home To victorious home, Sow the land with resistance. Performed with sensibility and determination, the concert ended with a joint Palestinian-Egyptian song, "Build your palaces on our fields and orchards by the efforts of our hard- working hands," a masterpiece written by Egyptian poet Ahmed Fouad Nigm and performed by Sheikh Imam Eissa in the 1970s. The PalFest organisers also made their support for the BDS movement crystal clear. "PalFest has endorsed the 2004 Palestinian call for the academic and cultural boycott of Israel. PalFest 2012 stands against the siege of Gaza; it is committed to re-invigorating cultural ties between Arab countries, ties that have been eroded for too long," the Festival said in a 29 April statement. This support was cemented during PalFest with meetings between organisers, writers and BDS activists in Gaza. The discussions emphasised that BDS was a rights-based movement seeking to uphold the fundamental and universally-recognised rights of the Palestinian people: an end to military occupation and colonisation; full rights for Palestinian citizens of Israel; and respect for the rights of refugees, including the right to return. The authors participating in PalFest stressed the history of anti- normalisation movements in the Arab world, promising to work on establishing an Egyptian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. Others proposed increasing efforts to end the Qualifying Industrial Zones (QIZ), set up under an economic and trade agreement that Egypt signed with Israel in 2004, which have mainly functioned to remove the Arab taboos against conducting business openly with Israel. DARKNESS AND LIGHT: The final night of PalFest, held at Dar Al-Basha, a historic house in Gaza City, was closed down by the police, an incident for which the police chief later verbally apologised, though no written statement has yet been issued. But the repression did not dampen people's spirits, and participants and audience left together for the Al-Quds Hotel; chanting "let's continue," they made sure the festival went on. As a result, there followed an unforgettable night of poetry from Amin Haddad and Tariq Hamdan, with music from oud player Hazem Shahin. In Gaza, the only breath of fresh air most people have is when they look out to sea. On my own way home on the last evening of the Festival, and as the taxi was moving along the coastline in the night, it was shocking to see the ominous, prison-like floodlights shining out across the sea for the first time, as PalFest producer Omar Hamilton described them, "a perfect, unmovable line of lights that cuts short the horizon, erasing the possibility of the unknown." On land, by contrast, all of Gaza was drowning in a sea of darkness, with queues of cars and motorbikes waiting for the fuel supply to start running again. The contrast was overwhelming. Sitting beside a taxi driver, an agitated and tense passenger angrily talked about the lack of electricity, abruptly lamenting the loss of his father and house in Israel's attack on Gaza in the winter of 2008-09. He seemed traumatised. It was unusual to hear at that time of night a story from the days of Operation Cast Lead some years before, yet he was recalling it as if it had happened just hours beforehand. This was a reminder that returning to the usual rhythm of Gaza life after the unusual and exciting experience of PalFest will be strange and difficult. Nevertheless, the times are a-changing, and the global BDS movement is helping to empower the Palestinians and their supporters with effective moral choices to end the injustices they are living through. This is why PalFest in Gaza was so important. In the face of so many obstacles, it was a celebration of the power of culture in the face of the culture of power.
