Nablus -

"In the early years of the creeping time near the threshold of the twenties of the last century, Ismail was born to a loving couple, Abdel-Fattah and Khadija, and after the First World War ended, he carried its burdens, and began to shove his first months with the stick of life until the howling of the guns subsided, and the smoke of gunpowder cleared. And the victors re-divided the world, drawing from the new maps what they drew, and ripping up the old ones as much as they were able to do so.

That is Ismail, the orphan child, the hero of the novel "The Press" by the Palestinian writer Nihad Khanfar, and this is a story from her story that is formed and grown by its hero with beautiful details in which the simplicity of the language converges with the colors of the Palestinian heritage to attract the reader.

Al-Masara, the first edition of which was recently published by Dar Al-Shamil for Publishing and Distribution in Palestine, puts us in 500 pages of medium pieces in that time period (the twenties and thirties of the last century), which was “wronged” to a large extent and did not do justice as a stage and important events in the history of the Palestinians, such as the Great Palestinian Revolution and the famous strike of 1936 .

The main plot of the novel is nourished by subplots based on some of the local revolution leaders and their conditions, from joy and sadness, to which the paths are scarce with previous Palestinian or Arab novels or dramas, such as the poet and revolutionary leader Abd al-Rahim Mahmoud and his likes “Abu Jilda” and “Al-Armit” and the poet Ibrahim Toukan. .

The novel The Press is the second after A Girl from Babylon by Nohad Khanfar and deals with a time period that is rarely dealt with literary (communication sites)

orphan hero

All this is woven by Khanfar through the main character of the novel (Ismail), the child who was orphaned early in his village "Burqa" near the city of Nablus in the West Bank, where its first events revolve and monitor the details of his life and struggle as a popular hero with a social and national role.

The orphan situation that Ismail lived through when he was two years old is the focus of the novel, which is intended to challenge reality and triumph over it, so that grief, love and revolution, with its social and political projections, occupy many of its chapters.

Here, the novel - Khanfar tells Al Jazeera Net - presents, "a smooth narration that depicts real events and characters belonging to that time in an interesting narrative form."

On the side of the orphan, Ismail lives socially unfair, with which the love escalates, as traditions force Ismail's mother to marry his uncle, who suffers bad torment, and this young child increases his anger and decides to escape at night.

But his condition after escaping was not better. Another woe awaits him inside the olive press in the neighboring village to which he came as a laborer, which is the exploitation and blasphemy of its owner for him, but that was a breakthrough for him when the revolutionaries saw him and admired his wisdom and composure and joined their ranks to fight the English.

Ismail's social movement refined his personality for leadership and revolutionary action, then his friendship with "great leaders" in the thirties, such as "Abdul Rahim Mahmoud", "Abdul Rahim al-Hajj Muhammad" and "Abdul Qadir al-Husseini".

In the midst of this, Khanfar says, Ismail’s personality develops with its social and national gains, and his desire to triumph over all circumstances and obstacles expands, “Whenever life failed and sank, he was the mirror of himself, he never waited for fate to reach him, as he kept the water of life flowing from his folds.”

Women..unity..struggle

The novel does not neglect the aspects that governed the national internal policy, and deals with the Arab fighters "Syrians, Egyptians, Kuwaitis and others" who fought the British and their colonial projects and tearing up the homeland.

“Surgeons of geopolitics made scalpels on thickened bodies, opening a wound here, and sewing a wound there, whatever it was, without caring about the rotting or ulceration of the wounds or the continuation of bleeding or mutilation of the bodies.

In the "press", national unity, the role of women and their various struggles, and the use of the emotional line through the love story that brought Ismail and Zahra (daughter of the owner of the mill), were interspersed with details that added a soft touch to the wrinkles and complexities of life at the time.

The texts were not without humor and political contradictions, and the novel also touched on the Palestinian social fabric with its national and religious components, especially in Nablus and the Palestinian north.

By focusing on the figure of the educated revolutionary fighter, the writer wanted to "flick the dust" off national and local leaders who were overtaken by novel and dramatic works, as if to restore them some of their historical right.

As well as major and articulated events that occurred in that period, presented by the writer in an interesting literary way, in which the writer negotiated with history, mixing the imaginary with the real without compromising the credibility of the historical facts.

Rather, the novel - according to Khanfar - is based on preserving the Palestinian historical narrative, and was linked to the center of the event in which its main character, Ismail, was formed, which is the olive press, "the mill of life."

Perfect.. but!

And “The Press” is an “ideal” novel, according to the Palestinian critic and novelist Al-Mutawakkil Taha, as it tried to say everything before the 1948 Nakba, and it showed the events and characters in full without lacking “the imagination of the novel remained limited.”

It is credited with the novel's presentation of an epic illuminated by the geography of Palestine in detail, and its frankness in not going to purify history from its disadvantages, such as its reference to the "negative margin" of cooperation by some with the British "occupation".

Novelist and critic Dr. Al-Mutawakel Taha during his speech during the presentation of the novel at the Nablus Municipality Library (Al-Jazeera)

Although the novel relied on facts and the "perfect hero who does not die", this was at the expense of "depth and intensity", says Taha.

He adds that it - that is, the novel - passed horizontally on facts and characters rather than being dug vertically to show the causes, repercussions and depths of what happened intellectually, socially, heritage and politically, and did not probe the depths of its senior figures and the depth of their role so that the reader does not suffer from "flatness, traffic and rapid reduction."

"We - the Palestinians - are obliged to preserve and protect our historical narrative, because there are frantic attempts targeting our collective narrative and wanting to write us off, and perhaps the mill tried to preserve our history with determination," Taha says.

And if Taha sees the necessity of separating the role of the historian and the role of the novelist by saying, “The rooting of history is not the task of the novelist, nor is the documentation, so that it is not overburdened with events,” but the new “press” is the ingenuity of its owner in merging the historical (documentary) narrative and the dramatic novel, says the playwright And dramatist Osama Malhas.

He adds to Al Jazeera Net that he is the most contemporary novelist affected by television and cinematic drama, in a descriptive style that goes to visual drama, "Through words, we see cinematic scenes with integrated elements, sensory, visual, audio, and even texture and smell."

Playwright and film writer Osama Malhas during the presentation of the novel Al-Masara at the Nablus Municipality Library (Al-Jazeera)

Malhas agreed with Khanfar's proposal to turn the novel into a dramatic or cinematic work, and said that the elements of dramatic power are available in it, "when you read it, you will see the events unfold in front of you accurately."

Khanfar also shows feelings, feelings and emotions at every situation with sweet words and a narrative style colored with the decorations of Budaiya, eloquence and eloquence to bring out the latent vital energies of the characters of the novel.

And “The Press” is the second work after the novel “A Girl from Babylon” by the writer Nihad Khanfar, who is working on completing his project with a series of novels for the pre-Nakba era. 1934.