From Israeli Prison Cell to Best Seller: Palestinian Novel ‘Trinity of Fundamentals

The Trinity of Fundamentals, a novel written by former Palestinian political prisoner Wisam Rafeedie while he was imprisoned, has been published in English for the first time. The novel is an evocative and fictionalized account of Rafeedie’s nine years hiding from and resisting the Zionist occupation of Palestine, which ended in his capture by the Israeli occupation army in 1991. Dalia Awwad, a member of the Palestinian Youth Movement who translated the book into English, shares the story of the novel’s long journey from Rafeedie’s prison cell to its publication at 1804 Books thirty years later, and draws from the book’s lessons to contextualize our current political moment.