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.
Table of Content
Prologue
1. Communism and Anticolonialism
2. Steadfastness
3. Badges of Modernity
4. In the Crossfire
5. Municipal Struggles
6. National Leadership
7. Children in the Battlefield
8. A Secular Holy Warrior
9. A Spoke in the Wheel of History
10. Oslo: The Sky Is the Limit
About the author
Tamir Sorek is Liberal Arts Professor of Middle East History at Pennsylvania State University. He is the author of
Palestinian Commemoration in Israel: Calendar, Monuments, and Martyrs (Stanford, 2015) and
Arab Soccer in a Jewish State: The Integrative Enclave (2007).
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