(Sanaa Shalan condemns the robbery of her literary works and works of Arab writers by a zionist publishing house)

The Jordanian writer of Palestinian origin, Dr. Sanaa Shalan, condemned the theft of her literary works and the works of 45 Arab writers by a zionist publishing house. Zionist publishing house

All of them were published in a book in Hebrew entitled “Freedom” in a clear violation of the property rights of these texts, which belong to the intellectual rights of Shalan and Arab writers, which are:



Intissar Abd el Men’em (Egypt), Souad Mahmoud el Amin (Sudan), Rihab Mohammed Ali el Basyouni (Egypt), Nawal el Ganam (Morocco), farah el Tunisi (Tunisia), Najwa Ben Shatwan (Libya), Fatima al Zahraa Ahmed (Somalia), Rahma Shukri (Somalia), Latifa Baka (Morocco), Fatima Bouzyan (Morocco), Sondos Jamal el Houseini (Egypt), Jannat Bou Minjel (Algeria), Badria Ali (Sudan), Latifa Abdullah (the name of the country was not mentioned), Shahinaz Fawwaz (Egypt), Souad Soulaiman (Egypt), Nabhat el Zain (Algeria), Fatima Hammad (Egypt), Doaa Abd el Rahman (Egypt), Ahlam Mosteghanemi (Algeria), Mona Balsham (Algeria), Sajida Abdallah Ibrahim (Bahrain), Sharifa al Tawbi (Oman), Zolaykha Youssef (UAE), Rafah el Saif (KSA), Fatima el Hasni
(UAE), Zeinab Ahmad Hafni (KSA), Intisar el Sirri (Yemen), Hala Tou’ma (Jordan), Haimaa el Moufti (Syria), Ibtisam Shakoush (Syria), Lazza al Hammoud (Kuwait), Buthaina al Issa (Kuwait), Mayyada el Ani (Iraq), Hanan Beirouti (Jordan), Najla Sa’id (Palestine), Mountaha al Idani (Iraq), Sanaa Shalan (Jordan), Haifaa Bitar (Syria), Haifaa Youssef Ajib (Syria), Salwa Banna (Palestine), R A R (Palestine), Fawz Kolabi (Iraq), Asmaa Mohammad Moustafa (Iraq) and Madona Askar (Lebanon).

Shalan said: “I reject any normalization or deal with any zionist entity, and I consider that the publication of my work by any of those bodies is an organized robbery and intent on Arab thought and creativity that is against the occupation of Arab Palestine, and normalization with it, and to try to blur the features of Arab culture, or misuse and malice for the abuse of Arab civilization and the Arab person”.

“This robbery is only a vivid, practical and clear example of the philosophy of the zionist mindset based on the thought of theft, looting and forgery, and no wonder in that. It is based on the philosophy of occupation, which stole Palestine from its people and continues to follow a systematic plan for the theft of man, civilization and history of the Palestinian Arab people, who is the sole and true heir of the civilization and the land”.

“It is clear that this translation of our work, which was done by the zionist publishing house has led to the shame of a group of Arab writers by involving them on charges of normalization with the zionist enemy at a sensitive time of the Arab-humanitarian conflict with the zionists, as this conflict extends to the intellectual and civilized existence”.

Shalan said in a statement that “it affirms the commitment and commitment of Arab female writers to the Arab cultural position of rejecting the existence of the zionist entity on the land of Palestine or any Arab land, and its commitment not to normalize with the zionists, and boycott them completely”.

Shalan also ridiculed the name of the translated group and the house’s options for translating from her works. She said sarcastically: “it is absurd that the stolen translation group carries the name “freedom” while it represents an attack on freedom of thought, property and options in communication or estrangement! Why the House did not translate my works of fiction, which represent my great cause in my literature, the Palestinian-Arab conflict with the brutal Zionist occupation? Why did not translate stories from my stories that expose the crimes of the zionists against the Arab man and his civilization? Why did the House introduce me in the margin of my translated story that I have a doctorate in Arabic and did not mention the most important information in the definition of me, that I am a Palestinian from the diaspora who wandered in the land because this publishing house and other zionists raped my land and the land of my ancestors?”

Shalan stressed that she will pursue that House legally within the steps that will be taken by the General Union of Arab Writers, and it will not go unnoticed. She will make a special and urgent complaint to the Jordanian Writers Association and its cultural and legal bodies to form a public opinion front against burglary zionist on earth and man.

She also thanked the Palestinian writer Khuloud Khamis, who lives in Haifa, because she was the one who revealed this burglary by virtue of her proficiency in the Hebrew language, and she published a statement condemning this robbery on its Facebook page. She also thanked the Arab Union of Arab Writers and Writers, headed by its Secretary-General, the great Emirati poet and writer Habib Sayegh. She contacted the Arab writers whose works have been robbed in order to expose this theft after discovering it herself when the house invited her to present a reading about the book “Freedom” translated from their work. She noted that there is no reference to the approval of Arab writers on this translation. She then apologized for participating in the book presentation conference and decided to expose this shameful robbery. This is what she did, and she never accepted the role of Satan, but rather played her role as Arab and the moral position was taken as it should.

A number of Arab writers’ unions, cultural and human rights organizations, and institutions concerned with translation and property rights have condemned this robbery. Their voices were joined by Arab female writers who denounced this behavior and promised to step up the issue and expose its dimensions in Arab and international intellectual and legal forums.

“Resling” her story “Open Door/ Al Bab Al Maftouh”, published in 2006 among the stories of “The Land of the Tale/ Ared Al Hakaya” and the winner of the Nasser Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi Prize – in addition to the publication of the stories of 45 contemporary Arab writers, after translating it by the Zionist Dr. Alon Fragman, a teacher at the Center for Arabic Language Studies at Ben-Gurion University in the Negev, Palestine.