Through the analysis of the novels of Atallah Mansour (1934-), Anton Shammas (1950-) and Sayed Kashua (1975-), the Franco-Algerian academic, researcher and teacher specializing in Jewish-Arab relations, Sadia Agsous, examines the creation of novels produced in Hebrew by Palestinians since 1966 and the possibilities of neighborhood between Israelis and Palestinians.
The book is divided into five chapters, with a long introduction and - finally - an original conclusion and an appendix that presents a selection of texts translated into French by the main authors analysed.
"The current context, the continuation of colonisation, the right-wingisation of Israeli society mean that there is no longer any room for a Palestinian novel in Hebrew. I don't know if it will disappear completely. But one thing is certain: Palestinian youth are not moving towards writing in Hebrew. In the 1980s, production in Hebrew was flourishing. I'm talking about the generation of Anton Shammas, those Palestinians who acquired bilingualism through their schooling and who invested the cultural field - theatre (Mohammed Bakri), poetry (Naïm Araïdi, Sihem Daoud and Nidaa Khoury) and translation (Mohammed Hamza Ghanayim) - in order to engage in an Arabic-Hebrew dialogue. None of this exists today. Palestinians' relationship with Hebrew has been refocused on the essentials, the problems of everyday life, while artistic production is in Arabic. While the Arabic language has lost its status as an official language (since the Basic Law of 2018), the "Palestinians of 48" seek above all to defend their culture, a minority, within an increasingly overwhelming hegemony." - Sadia Agsous, interview in the newspaper L'Orient-le-Jour.