As a competent field commander, Sinwar was a great cultural and literary figure. He was the writer and translator of several books. Ali Salimi wrote on Hamshahrionline daily,
"On the other side of the military and political face of Yahya Ibrahin al-Sinwar, known as Yahya Sinwar, his artistic image is seen who is a man of thinking, culture and literature. He has written and translated several books which he has authored and published them during his rather long imprisonment in the jails of the Zionist regime."
Sinwar had entered the popular struggles for liberation of Palestine since his adolescence. He was arrested in 1988 in an operation by the Zionist regime and sentenced to life in prison for four times! He spent in the Israeli horrific dungeons till 2011 (nearly 22 years of his life), but he was not workless during the period and learnt Hebrew language and started writing a literary work.
The Thorn the Carnation is the novel which he wrote in prison. This novel was once a bestseller till it was omitted from the sites with the pressure of the Zionist regime.
The UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) had told Amazon that it was an "illegal job". On April 18, 2024 UKLFI informed Amazon that it had violated the "anti-terrorist" rules of Britain. Thus, it complained against Amazon and the next day Amazon omitted the book from its sale list.
However, in addition to writing The Thorn and the Carnation, Sinwar translated 5 other books from Hebrew and English and was considered as one of the most hardworking political prisoners who was active in the literary field. Many of his fans know him as a literary figure who has appeared as an epic warrior and combatant.
The Thorn and the Carnation
"The Thorn and the Carnation" novel was written in 2004 in one of the Israeli prisons in Be'er Sheva". The name "Thorn and Carnation" symbolizes life in Gaza which includes pains and hardships and the writer has mixed them with carnation which is the symbol of happiness.
The two-part name is very common in the modern Arabic biographical literature as it properly shows the opposite experiences of life. This novel has portrayed love and violence, hope and despair, tenderness and power.
The Thorn and the Carnation is the story of an educational trip of perfection which is narrated by a man named Ahmad. It intertwines the story of two families in Gaza and al-Khalil as two resistance movements. It is related on Sinwar's life.
The writer says in the foreword, "The element of imagination in this work is just used to turn it into a novel… any other thing is just as real as I have lived or heard it and the narrators have lived and heard it in our dear land of Palestine." The events of this novel begin exactly before the 1967 defeat when the Gaza Strip was under the Egyptian control.
Ahmad, the narrator of novel, bears a friendly view toward the Egyptian soldiers and believes that the Arab armies will defeat Israel and Palestine will be liberated so that the refugees will go back to their homes. Yet, when they are defeated, he is shocked. The narrator relates the beginning of resistance against the Israeli occupation and throwing of grenades on the Israeli military patrols who had faced so many calamities to enter the narrow streets and alleys of al-Shati refugee camp (the place where the novel occurs).
Ahmad's father and uncle are killed in fighting the Israeli army and then he finds himself in a family living with the mother, brothers, sister, grandfather and cousins whose mother has left them after marriage; hence he bears the responsibility of all of them!
Ahmad joins the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) through the elder brother, Mahmoud, but he is detained after returning from Egypt. His cousin, Ibrahim, meets several times with a figure called, Sheikh Ahmad Yasin, one of the founders of Hamas, who was assassinated by Israel in 2004.
This novel, besides creation of epic scenes of the resistance, mentions some of the social issues of Palestine, too. For example, it refers to the hard choice of jobs in Israel by Palestinian refugees. Some considered it as a chance for betterment of their life conditions, while others saw it as treachery.
Moreover, the dilaogues of Ahmad and other characters of the story reveal some of the ideological and discourse issues among some of the Palestinians and their views about other resistance groups are explained. Many analysts maintain that Sinwar has in fact written part of his life in this book.
Sinwar
was in charge of detecting the Israeli elements in real life and his
nom de guerre was Abu Ibrahim. Sinwar has mentioned the poverty and
simple life of Palestinians in detail in the book.
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