Bandit Queen Press wants to Go to PalFest!

The Palestine Festival of Literature (PalFest) is a cultural roadshow that tours Palestine annually. Last year novelist and PULSE coeditor Robin Yassin-Kassab was a featured participant alongside other well-known writers like Suheir Hammad and Andrew O’Hagan. PalFest combats one of the most negative effects of Israel’s continued occupation of Palestine: the isolation of the Palestinian people. In the following interview, PalFest creative producer Omar Robert Hamilton discusses PalFest’s origins and what they have planned for the future.

(The creators of Palfest are currently working on their upcoming 2010 roadshow and are expected to release the names of this year’s participants in April. In the meantime be sure to check out their website and become a fan of them on Facebook for regular updates.)

Jasmin Ramsey (JR): How did PalFest begin?

Omar Robert Hamilton (ORH): Ahdaf Soueif and Brigid Keenan were talking — as they almost always do — about what they could do to help Palestine. They came up with the idea of encouraging authors and artists working in English to visit Palestine and take part in literary activities alongside their Palestinian colleagues.

JR: Why do you think it’s important to bring “writers and artists from around the world to Palestinian audiences”?

ORH: We do what we can to break the cultural isolation imposed on Palestine by Israel. In most of the world it’s taken for granted that culture is accessible. In Palestine great work is being done in the realms of theatre, music, literature and the plastic arts. But the life-blood of any culture is its free exchange with other cultures, and in Palestine it’s difficult to make that connection. PalFest brings writers and artists from around the world to Palestine to make the connection with Palestinian audiences, but also to make the connection with Palestinian artists. Let’s say we try to ensure that a process of mutual cultural exchange takes place; a process that would happen naturally in most societies but not in Palestine because of Israel’s military occupation.

JR: What kind of impediments has PalFest faced both in its home country of the UK (if any) and Palestine?

ORH: In the UK there haven’t really been any problems – apart from finding funding for the project. In Palestine our problems have come from the Israeli Army. For example, last year they shut down our opening and closing nights in Jerusalem, forcing PalFest to improvise a relocation to the French Cultural Centre on the first night, and to the British Council on the closing night.

Video Diary of Day 1

What happened on Closing Night

The Israeli Army posted a military order on the door of the theatre that said in terrible Arabic that the event was being shut down “for encouraging Palestinian artistic expression in Jerusalem.”

We’ll wait and see what happens this year.

JR: How have Palestinians reacted to PalFest?

ORH: We’ve had a tremendous reception in Palestine. The chance to talk about art and culture and not have it circle back to politics constantly is often described to us as a “breath of fresh air.” So far we’ve been English-based with simultaneous translation. We’re mixing it up a little bit more this year, and we always have a lot of music to try and make sure that there’s something for everyone. We’ve actually had the opposite of resistance: everyone wants to join in, and lots of people have contributed their ideas about how we can develop, grow and improve.

We recognize that there are parts of Palestine that we need to get to that we’ve not been able to reach yet. We’re doing everything we can to get to those places too.

JR: This year marks the 3rd year that PalFest will have been in operation. What were some of your goals in the beginning and have you reached them? What do you hope to achieve with PalFest in the future?

ORH: Well, our primary goal was to get some top English-language writers out to Palestine. We’ve certainly done that. Otherwise our objectives were: to support Palestinian culture, and we’ve done that (as described above), and to create active, nurturing, cultural links between Palestine and artists in the rest of the world, and that is definitely happening now. At the end of PalFest 2010 we will announce several new initiatives in the form of collaborative arts projects born from PalFest. We’re developing international internship schemes, creative writing workshops and an online tutorial space.

It certainly feels like we’ve achieved a lot of what we set out to do with PalFest. It’s more established now and the festival is constantly growing. Our current dream is to have a cross-platform arts festival that draws substantial audiences into Palestine.

PalFest is a non-profit organization that relies heavily on donor support. Please consider donating to this important and worthy cause by clicking here.