“History has forgotten our people,” writes Yazid Sayigh (1998) about the Palestinians, while Emile Habibi, in his book The Six Day Sextet (1968a), presents the opposite position: “We are the people who have overlooked history.” Today, with the establishment of Palestinian nationality and its historical narrative in writings, art, and literature, both positions seem inaccurate. Yet, the notion that the post-1948 Palestinian historical narrative has thus far not been told in its entirety or, at least, that it has yet to find its full artistic expression, is still prevalent among writers and scholars. According to Anton Shammas, we can certainly find parts of this story in individual literary works such as The Pessoptimist (Habibi, 1974), Arabesque (Shammas, 1986), Returning to Haifa (Kanafani, 2000), and “Why Have You Abandoned the Horse?” What is missing, however, is the overall story: “the experience of being uprooted, the banishment and the crime, the absence” (Khouri, 1998).

Researchers tend to cite various causes that have led to this predicament. Some remark that “chunks of the Palestinian memory have been subjected to colonization by other types of discourse” (Nassar, 2002: 27-8) and have been silenced by the Israeli narrative (Manaa, 1999b; Said, 2000). Consequently, Palestinian history has been told from the viewpoint of the winning side. As Manaa would argue: