¹ In fact On Zionist Literature is not an edition but an annotated translation. The edition of Fī al-adab al-ṣahyūnī which I have used is in Ghassān Kanafānī, Al-a‛māl al-kāmila. Al-mujallad al-rābi‛: al-dirāsāt al-adabiyya. Beirut 1977, pp. 461-670. It is referred to in notes as AṢ; the translation is referred to as ZL.

² In the translation rendered as “… a special time of reprieve [my italics]” (ZL p. 19), whereas AṢ has “waḍ‛ munfarij khāṣṣ” (a particular period when restrictions were relaxed) (p. 500). It is one example of a choice of words with misleading connotations which will be discussed below.

³ Had Kanafani discussed in more detail the two stories by Tammuz, however, he might have realized that one of them criticizes the way in which Israel is developing and the other foresees that the Palestinians will have the last word.

⁴ For instance Frances M. Trollope’s A romance of Vienna (1838), mentioned in AṢ as Gharām fī Fiyīnā (p. 529). The translator has usually succeeded in identifying Kanafani’s references, which are sometimes derived from secondary sources, but this was one he admits not having managed to track down (ZL, p. 127, n.18). Another instance where the translator was misled by the difficulty of recognizing foreign names transliterated in Arabic is ZL p. 136 n. 8 (= AṢ p. 595 n. 7). Here the Hungarian-British writer and humorist George Mikes and his Land of Milk and Honey. Israel Explored (1950) are meant.

⁵ This is one of four instances where the prize was divided. The others were in 1904, honoring a French poet and Spanish novelist, in 1917, honoring two Danish novelists, and in 1974 honoring two Swedish novelists.

⁶ Anders Österling, presentation speech at the award ceremony in Stockholm (https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1966/ceremony-speech).