2024 sees first children’s book honoured with a Palestine Book Award

The winners of 2024’s Palestine Book Awards (PBA) were announced this evening in London, with Amanda Najib’s ‘Lana Makes Purple Pizza: A Palestinian Food Tale’ becoming the first children’s book to receive a Palestine Book Award.

Judges commended it for being “the perfect light-hearted book to start a conversation about Palestine with your young ones.” Receiving her award, Najib said that “our stories deserve to be held to the light, not just as a testament to our endurance, but as a celebration of our existence.” She dedicated the award to “the children of Gaza and all Palestinian children who dream of a free homeland,” saying such stories can “inspire our children to carry our legacy forward, even under siege, even in the face of all attempts to erase us.”

The awards’ ceremony, the thirteenth in the history of PBA, came a night after an informal event at London’s P21 Gallery, in which the authors of the shortlisted works spoke to an audience of the general public about their books and addressed questions. Attendees were also given the opportunity to purchase the books and have them signed by the authors.

This year, more than 50 books were submitted for consideration by the judges, with seven shortlisted and six being named winners in five separate categories.

Opening the evening, MEMO Director Dr Daud Abdullah highlighted the struggles of the past year of Israel’s invasion of and war crimes in Gaza, saying that “we've witnessed examples of the worst of humanity and the best of humanity”, the former was “demonstrated in the horrific massacre of women and children over the past year.”

Those crimes have even affected MEMO and its staff themselves, he said, as “one of our writers was killed along with her husband and children” by Israeli occupation forces, with another UK-based staff member having also “lost 28 of her family members in one strike”.

Dr Abdullah firmly called out the fact that “several Western governments have become complicit in this huge crime, and of course the British government. Our foreign minister and prime minister are both human rights lawyers, but they have refused to call out the genocide in Gaza for what it is.”

The PBA and its ongoing efforts “represent the resolve of the Palestinian people to free themselves from this colonial enterprise,” he added.

Dr Ghada Karmi, Palestinian-born academic, physician, and author, then took to the stage for her keynote address. “We're meeting at a very dark time in the history of Palestine,” she said, thanking all of “those who keep the spark of Palestine burning bright.” Although Dr Karmi lamented that “what we're going through now is worse…and it is not over,” she praised the PBA as an event that “stands out as another effort against the annihilation of Palestinians and the annihilation of Palestine.”

Karmi was later honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award for her devotion and ongoing efforts to highlight the plight of Palestinians. Judges highlighted how her work transverses a number of fields, from media articles, to novels and talks, all in an effort to continue to raise the voice of Palestinians living under occupation.

Palestinian Ambassador to the UK, Husam Zomlot, highlighted the necessity of preserving Palestinian literature and culture, going so far as to declare that “culture is what brings Palestinians together, and I firmly believe that the third intifada will be cultural.”

Zomlot insisted that as Palestinians are facing genocide by Israel, it is Western governments that “'continue to offer Israel military, legal, and diplomatic cover.” Palestine in diplomatic circles has “broadened our circle of support around the world,” he noted, and on a global level, he said he has not seen any worldwide movement as influential since that against apartheid in South Africa.

Stressing that “the tide is turning”, he said the effort of Palestine solidarity is not only an effort for Palestinian justice but also global justice, with Palestinian symbols representing that from the keffiyeh to the watermelon.

“We are not alone, we are the multitude, we are the voices of the many,” Zomlot said. “We will emerge from it [this genocide] a free people in a free Palestine.”

The first award of the evening, the Academic Award, was presented to Dr Lisa Bhungalia for her book ‘Elastic Empire: Refashioning War Through Aid in Palestine’.

Judge Dr Ibrahim Darwish said it was “a unique book in the way it shows how superpowers, particularly in the West, establish their dominance on the oppressed globally. Both war and aid showcase America's influence in this regard. The ‘War on Terror’ is a prime example of this. Bhungalia explains how the US used both its powers of war and aid in Palestine to effectively give Israel another tool of repression, in addition to Israel's ongoing military occupation.”

The Translation Award was won by Hazem Jamjoum for his translation of the work of famed Palestinian author Ghassan Kanafani, ‘The Revolution of 1936–1939 in Palestine’, a work which the judges said “provides a unique analysis for one of the most important revolutions of Palestinians against the British colonial and Zionist settlers in Palestine, namely the revolution of 1936, which was manifested by civil disobedience, general strike and armed struggle.”

Sandra Barrilaro and Teresa Aranguren won the Creative Award for their book ‘Against Erasure: A Photographic Memory of Palestine Before the Nakba’ as did Alan Morrison and Atef Alshaer, for ‘Out of Gaza: New Palestinian Poetry’.

The former, the judges said, “gives a historical context to present-day Palestinian defiance and resistance to Zionist occupation and the indomitable spirit of the Palestinian people's struggle against erasure.” While the latter “is a moving collection that speaks urgently of the Palestinian experience of loss and enduring hope of liberation.”

Khadijeh Habashneh received the Oral History Award for her book ‘Knights of Cinema: The Story of the Palestine Film Unit’, unfortunately Habashneh could not attend the ceremony.

MEMO’s much-anticipated flagship event is the result of months of dedication by the team and years of literary work by the authors.

With nominations starting in January and submissions being made by national and international publishers, one can submit a book for consideration for next year’s awards by visiting the Palestine Book Awards’ website where the opening date for next year’s entries will be announced in the new year.