I wrote the original manuscript in the summer of 1982 in West Beirut, while the city was under Israeli siege and subjected to almost daily bombardment by Israeli forces (by air, land and sea). It was written in dry ink in small script in a little notebook.
Jamil Hilal
Jamil Hilal is a Palestinian sociologist and has published extensively in Arabic and English on Palestinian society, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and on regional issues. In early 1972, he left academic life in England and went to Beirut to join a Palestinian research center. Around the same time, he joined a leftist Palestinian organization that formed part of the PLO, gaining a leadership position in this organization in Lebanon as well as in the leadership of the Palestinian Writers Union. He was elected as a member of the Palestine National Council as an independent member in 1983. In early 1992, he returned to academic life engaged mostly in research and writing. He has since been a senior research fellow in a number of research institutions, including Birzeit University near Ramallah. He has edited and served on the editorial board of a number of Palestinian journals.