Rebel Writers: Palestine & Syria

Meet two Arab writers from different parts of the Middle East who shared a common cause – Muin Bseiso and Constantin Zurayk.

Bseiso, a Palestinian poet who wrote about life in Gaza at a time when it was controlled by Egypt, was twice jailed for his left-wing political views.

Zurayk, a Christian, Syrian revolutionary Arab nationalist who became a history professor at the American University of Beirut, also secretly supported armed resistance groups across the region. Several sources say he was among the first to use the term “Nakba” to refer to the displacement of more than 750,000 Palestinians when Israel was founded in 1948.

The film Rebel Writers: Palestine & Syria tells the stories of two men who championed Arab nationalism and the Palestinian cause in different ways.