Fouzi El Asmar

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Fouzi El Asmar
Born1937
Haifa, Mandatory Palestine
Died19 September 2013(2013-09-19) (aged 75–76)
Bethesda, Maryland, USA
OccupationJournalist
LanguageArabic
Alma materUniversity of Exeter
Genre
  • Non-fiction
  • Poetry
Notable worksTo Be an Arab in Israel

Fouzi El Asmar (1937–2013) was a Palestinian writer, poet and journalist. He was the author of the book entitled To Be an Arab in Israel.

Early life and education[edit]

El Asmar was born in Haifa, Mandatory Palestine, in 1937.[1] His father was a station master in Lydda where he was raised.[2]

El Asmar obtained a degree in history and political science from an American university. He received his Ph.D. in Arabic and Islamic studies from the University of Exeter.[3] His supervisor was Uri Davis.[4]

Career and activities[edit]

El Asmar lived in Israel[5] and was a cofounder and member of the Al Ard movement.[2] He joined the editorial board of the literary magazine Al Fajr in 1958 and was named as the editor of the magazine Hadha Al Alam in 1966.[4]

El Asmar left Israel in 1972 after he was released from prison[6] and settled in the USA becoming a US citizen in 1981.[1] After he completed his graduate studies in England he worked as the managing editor of the daily newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat.[4] Then he served as the bureau chief of the Emirates News Agency in Washington, D.C. He also contributed to the Saudi Arabian daily newspaper Al Riyadh as a columnist.[1]

El Asmar published various books, including To Be an Arab in Israel (1975)[7] and Through the Hebrew Looking Glass: Arab Stereotypes in Children’s Literature (1986).[3] The former is his political autobiography and has been translated into various languages.[2][8] He edited two books, Towards a Socialist Republic of Palestine and Debate on Palestine, with Uri Davies and Naim Khader.[9]

His poetry collections include The Promised Land (1969), Poems from an Israeli Prison (1973), Dreams on a mattress of thorns (1976) and The Wind-Driven Reed and Other Poems (1979).[4][6][10] El Asmar also published articles and book reviews in journals.[11][12]

Imprisonment[edit]

El Asmar was arrested by the Israeli forces and put under administrative detention in Ramlah and Damon prisons in 1969.[6] While there, he was visited by US lawyer Alan Dershowitz, who presented himself as a civil rights activist researching an article on administrative detention.[13] After speaking to El Asmar, Dershowitz met both the Israeli Attorney General and the head of the Shin Bet (who showed him the "voluminous" file on El Asmar). In the article, published in Commentary magazine, Dershowitz justified the practice of administrative detention (which he called "preventive detention"), and described El Asmar as "extremely dangerous" and "the leader of a terrorist gang".[14] A subsequent issue of the magazine published letters from El Asmar himself, lawyer Felicia Langer, and civil rights activist Israel Shahak noting Dershowitz's many factual errors and rebutting his "outright distortions".[15]

Personal life and death[edit]

El Asmar was married to Maria T. El Asmar who died in August 2013.[4]

El Asmar died in Bethesda, Maryland, on 19 September 2013.[4] He was buried in Palestine on 1 October.[4]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c Philip Mattar (2005). "el-Asmar, Fouzi". In Philip Mattar (ed.). Encyclopedia of The Palestinians (Revised ed.). New York: Facts On File, Inc. p. 93. ISBN 978-0816057641.
  2. ^ a b c Uri Davis (Winter 1979). "Book review. Stranger in his own land: Fouzi El Asmar. To Be An Arab in Israel". Journal of Palestine Studies. 8 (2): 133–143. doi:10.2307/2536514. JSTOR 2536514.
  3. ^ a b Fouzi El Asmar (Autumn 1986). "The Portrayal of Arabs in Hebrew Children's Literature". Journal of Palestine Studies. 16 (1): 81–94. doi:10.2307/2537023. JSTOR 2537023.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Terri Ginsberg (December 2013). "Fouzi El Asmar (1937-2013): Poet of the Palestinian Liberation Struggle". Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. Vol. 32, no. 9. ProQuest 1461978905. Retrieved 7 February 2024.
  5. ^ El-Asmar, Fawzi; Katz, Nadav (1977). "Israeli Elections: MERIP Interviews Fawzi el-Asmar and Nadav Katz". MERIP Reports (58): 9. doi:10.2307/3010839. JSTOR 3010839.
  6. ^ a b c A George Baramki Azar (1991). Palestine: A Photographic Journey. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. p. 223. ISBN 978-0-520-32495-4.
  7. ^ Matthew Abraham (2008). "The Perils of Separation: Fouzi El-Asmar's To Be an Arab in Israel as an Allegory of Settler Colonial Anxiety". South Atlantic Quarterly. 107 (4): 715–734. doi:10.1215/00382876-2008-014.
  8. ^ "Etre un Arabe en Israël / Fouzi el-Asmar". BMVR (in French). 19 February 1981. Retrieved 7 February 2024.
  9. ^ James A. Reilly (Winter 1983). "Book review". Journal of Palestine Studies. 12 (2): 80–83. doi:10.2307/2536418. JSTOR 2536418.
  10. ^ Nazeer El Azma (1980). "Book review". Al 'Arabiyya. 13 (1–2): 89. JSTOR 43192529.
  11. ^ Fouzi El Asmar (Spring 1977). "Israel Revisited, 1976". Journal of Palestine Studies. 6 (3): 47–65. doi:10.2307/2535579. JSTOR 2535579.
  12. ^ Fouzi El Asmar (Autumn 1988). "Book review. The Palestinian Predicament: Soul in Exile: Lives of a Palestinian Revolutionary, by Fawaz Turki". Journal of Palestine Studies. 18 (1): 220–223. doi:10.2307/2537610. JSTOR 2537610.
  13. ^ Fouzi El-Asmar (1975). To be an Arab in Israel. London: Frances Pinter. pp. 197–198. ISBN 0903804085.
  14. ^ Alan Dershowitz (1 December 1970). "Terrorism & Preventive Detention: The Case of Israel". Commentary Magazine. Retrieved 9 February 2024.
  15. ^ Felicia Langer; Fouzi El Asmar; Israel Shahak (1 June 1971). "Preventive Detention in Israel". Commentary Magazine. Retrieved 9 February 2024.
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