Raymonda Hawa Tawil ( ar, ريموندا حوا الطويل, born Raymonda Hawa in 1940 in
Acre in
Mandatory Palestine
Mandatory Palestine ( ar, فلسطين الانتدابية '; he, פָּלֶשְׂתִּינָה (א״י) ', where "E.Y." indicates ''’Eretz Yiśrā’ēl'', the Land of Israel) was a geopolitical entity established between 1920 and 1948 ...
) is a Palestinian writer and journalist. She is the mother of
Suha Arafat.
Life
Raymonda Tawil is a poet, writer and Palestinian journalist, born in 1940 in Acre in a prominent family of Palestinian Christians. She spent part of childhood as a boarder with French Catholic sisters. Her public life began with an intellectual show that was held in
Nablus, northern
West Bank
The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...
. Independent-spirited columns earned her the nickname "The Lioness of Nablus". In 1978, Raymonda Hawa Tawil opened a Palestinian news agency in
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
, which published the Palestinian-oriented magazine ''Al Awda'' ("The Return"). Because of her political activities as a journalist, she was placed under house arrest for six months by Israeli military decision. She was also imprisoned for forty-five days for so-called subversive activities during clashes with newcoming Jewish settlers and vigilante Zionist extremists, during which she underwent a severe beating. These experiences pushed to write about Palestine in collaboration with the Israeli journalist
Peretz Kidron. She is a Christian who visited churches of multiple denominations, she has always advocated dialogue and reconciliation between the two peoples, a position that sometimes earned her hostility.
Politics
Having narrowly escaped a targeted attack whose perpetrators were never found, she fled to France while
Yasser Arafat
Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf al-Qudwa al-Husseini (4 / 24 August 1929 – 11 November 2004), popularly known as Yasser Arafat ( , ; ar, محمد ياسر عبد الرحمن عبد الرؤوف عرفات القدوة الحسيني, Mu ...
, head of the PLO in Tunis, married Suha, Raymonda Tawil's daughter. In 1994, she returned to
Gaza and attended the establishment of the
Palestinian Authority (PA), while remaining very close to her French and Israeli friends. In 2000, at the outbreak of the
Second Intifada, she lived in
Ramallah, not far from the
Muqata, the headquarters of the PA. She had an office next to that of Arafat, whom she saw often. The Israeli government decided to confine Arafat's freedom of movement. IDF tanks surrounding the Muqata and partially destroyed the area with bulldozers. A month later the situation worsened and towns run by the PA were reoccupied. Living alongside the President, Raymonda Tawil become Arafat's confidant and a close acquaintance. She accompanied him to the Jordanian helicopter which would transport him to
Amman to meet
Jacques Chirac. Raymonda Tawil also attended Arafat's funeral.
From 2004 to 2007 she lived with her daughter Suha Arafat in Tunisia. The family was evicted from Tunisian territory by then-president
Ben Ali in August 2007 and subsequently took refuge in
Malta
Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...
. She wrote about her life experiences in memoir-like accounts. One of her quotes was the line: "This is a strange one country where we live. Power outages are in his image. Palestine is in the night, deprived of light as freedom. From time to time the light returns. So hope returns too. And then everything stops again, everything is off. In the dark, looking for some hope and comfort. Candles are lit to try to convince yourself that all is not lost. Is this going to last? This will be the end?"
[''Palestine mon histoire'', p. 15]
Published books
Listed with original French edition first, and the English edition second.
* 1979: ''Mon pays, ma prison, une femme de Palestine''. Paris,
Éditions du Seuil
Éditions du Seuil (), also known as ''Le Seuil'', is a French publishing house established in 1935 by Catholic intellectual Jean Plaquevent (1901–1965), and currently owned by La Martinière Groupe. It owes its name to this goal "The ''seuil' ...
, "Traversée du siècle" series.
** 1980: ''My Home, My Prison''
* 2001: ''Palestine, mon histoire''. Paris, Ed. du Seuil, "L'Histoire immédiate" series.
See also
*
Marwan Barghouti
Marwan Hasib Ibrahim Barghouti (also transliterated al-Barghuthi; ar, مروان حسيب ابراهيم البرغوثي; born 6 June 1959) is a Palestinian political figure convicted and imprisoned for murder by an Israeli court. He is rega ...
References
*For books by Tawil, see "Published books" section in the article.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tawil, Raymonda
Palestinian pacifists
Palestinian women journalists
Palestinian Roman Catholics
21st-century Palestinian women writers
21st-century Palestinian writers
20th-century Palestinian women writers
20th-century Palestinian writers