Writer Elias Khoury dies at 76

Lebanese writer, literary critic and academic Elias Khoury passed away on Sunday at the age of 76, after a long career during which he produced prolific literary works that received wide international appreciation, and through which he became one of the most prominent thinkers supporting the Palestinian cause.

People close to the writer and journalist, who continued writing until the last days of his life, told Agence France-Presse that Khoury, who was born in Beirut in 1948, died on Sunday morning after suffering from intestinal health problems that required him to stay in the hospital for many months.

Elias Khoury was born into an Orthodox Christian family in the Achrafieh district of Beirut. He developed an interest in reading at a young age, influenced by the works of the Lebanese novelist Jurji Zaydan, and novels from classical Arabic and Russian literature.

Since his youth, Khoury has shown support for the Palestinian cause; he was a supporter of the Palestinian resistance when the PLO headquarters were in Beirut, before the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982.

The late author’s literary work includes works that deal with diverse topics including memory, war and exile, and has been translated into many languages, including French, English, German, Hebrew and Spanish. His works include “White Faces,” “The Smell of Soap,” “The City Gates,” “The Collection of Secrets,” and “The Journey of Little Gandhi.” However, his most famous novel is “Gate of the Sun,” published in 1998, which revolves around the Palestinian Nakba and their forced exodus from their lands during the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. This novel was adapted into a film directed by Egyptian Yousry Nasrallah.

In 2013, Palestinian activists set up a camp called Bab al-Shams Village, in protest against Israel’s expansion of settlement construction and forced evictions in the West Bank.

Elias Khoury also worked in the academic field, where he taught at many universities in the United States, Arab countries, and Europe. He was a visiting professor of modern Arabic literature and comparative literature at New York University in 2006.

In addition to his interest in the Palestinian cause, Khoury’s works dealt with the Lebanese war (1975-1990), especially in his novel “The Little Mountain,” which was published in the 1970s.

During his literary career, Khoury won many Arab and international awards, including the Sultan bin Ali Al Owais Award in 2007. He also has many critical studies and short story collections.

Khoury also had a long journalistic experience, having held editorial positions in several magazines, including “Palestinian Affairs” in collaboration with Mahmoud Darwish, and “Al-Karmel” magazine. He also served as managing editor of the cultural section of the Lebanese newspaper As-Safir from 1983 to 1990.

Khoury continued writing until the last weeks of his life, despite his hospitalization and illness.

In an essay he wrote from his hospital bed in July, titled “A Year of Pain,” Khoury described his struggle with “unprecedented pain,” and stressed that Gaza and Palestine remain steadfast, teaching him every day to “love life.”

As news of his death spread, messages of condolence poured in from Lebanon and the Arab world, praising his literary status and his continued defense of the Palestinian cause.

Lebanese thinker and critic Alawiya Sobh mourned her “lifelong companion for years,” and described him in statements to Agence France-Presse as “a great writer, a great friend, and an icon of the modern Arab novel,” noting that his literary world was “focused on the Palestinian cause.”

For his part, Lebanese writer Hassan Daoud mourned the “great” novelist, with whom he worked at the newspaper “As-Safir,” which stopped publishing years ago, praising his “continuous defense of the publishing rights of writers.”

“The Lebanese narrative went further with him than it did with those who came before him,” Daoud told AFP.