| The Optimist: A Social Biography of Tawfiq Zayyad Contributor(s): Sorek, Tamir (Author) |
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ISBN: 1503612732 ISBN-13: 9781503612730 Publisher: Stanford University Press OUR PRICE: $28.50 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: July 2020 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Biography & Autobiography | Political - History | Middle East - Israel & Palestine - Literary Criticism | Middle Eastern |
| Dewey: B |
| LCCN: 2020008448 |
| Series: Stanford Studies in Middle Eastern and Islamic Societies and |
| Physical Information: 0.7" H x 6" W x 8.9" (0.80 lbs) 264 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Middle East |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Tawfiq Zayyad (1929-94) was a renowned Palestinian poet and a committed communist activist. For four decades, he was a dominant figure in political life in Israel, as a local council member, mayor of Nazareth, and member of the Israeli parliament. Zayyad personified the collective struggle of the Palestinian citizens of Israel, challenging the military government following the creation of the state of Israel, leading the 1976 nationwide strike against land confiscation, and tirelessly protesting Israeli military occupation after 1967. With this book, Tamir Sorek offers the first biography of this charismatic figure. Zayyad's life was one of balance and contradiction-between his revolutionary writings as Palestinian patriotic poet and his pragmatic political work in the Israeli public sphere. He was uncompromising in his protest of injustices against the Palestinian people, but always committed to a universalist vision of Arab-Jewish brotherhood. It was this combination of traits that made Zayyad an exceptional leader-and makes his biography larger than the man himself to offer a compelling story about Palestinians and the state of Israel. |