Emile Shukri Habibi was a Palestinian-Israeli writer of Arabic literature and a politician who served as a member of the Knesset for the communist parties Maki and Rakah.
10 Facts About Emile Habibi
2.
Emile Habibi's family had originally belonged to the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem but converted to Anglicanism due to disputes within the Orthodox church.
3.
Emile Habibi died in 1996 in Nazareth, but in his will, he expressed his wish to be buried in his beloved home, Haifa.
4.
Emile Habibi was one of the leaders of the Palestine Communist Party during the Mandate era.
5.
Emile Habibi served in the Knesset between 1951 and 1959, and again from 1961 until 1972, first as a member of Maki, before breaking away from the party with Tawfik Toubi and Meir Vilner to found Rakah.
6.
Emile Habibi began writing short stories in the 1950s, and his first story, The Mandelbaum Gate was published in 1954, though he did not resume literary writing until the late 1960s.
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Emile Habibi followed this by other books, short stories and a play.
8.
In 1990, Emile Habibi received the Al-Quds Prize from the PLO.
9.
Emile Habibi was accused of legitimizing what they considered Israel's "anti-Arab" policy.
10.
Emile Habibi replied to the accusations: "A dialogue of prizes is better than a dialogue of stones and bullets," he said.