Izzat Ghazzawi

Izzat Ghazzawi

"A Palestinian born in 1951, Izzat Ghazzawi chairs the Union of Palestinian Writers. A professor at Birzeit University, Mr Ghazzawi holds a master’s degree in English literature. He is a member of the Executive Bureau of the Palestinian Council for Justice and Peace and was awarded the International Prize for Freedom of Expression in Stavanger in 1995. He has written novels and short stories, he is a literary critic and he organised and chaired the first International Writers’ Conference in Palestine (1997). Mr Ghazzawi has been imprisoned and punished on a number of occasions by the Israeli authorities as a result of his political activities.

"His life was marked by the murder, by the Israeli Army, of his son Ramy, 16. Ramy was killed in the courtyard of his school as he went to help a wounded friend.

"Despite this tragedy, Izzat Ghazzawi has continued to seek cultural and political dialogue with the Israeli people.

"Together with the Israeli writer Abraham B. Yehoshua and the photographer Oliviero Toscani, he has published a hugely successful book on relations between the Palestinians and the Israelis."