page_title: Culture of Palestine
section_title: Literature
hierarchical_section_title: Culture of Palestine / Literature
caption_attribution_description: Mahmoud Darwish at university of betlehem. العربية: الشاعر الفلسطيني محمود درويش في جامعة بيت لحم.
context_page_description: The
  Culture of Palestine is the culture of the Palestinian people, located across Historic Palestine as well as in the Palestinian diaspora. Palestinian culture is influenced by the many diverse cultures and religions which have existed in historic Palestine, from the early Canaanite period onward. Cultural contributions to the fields of art, literature, music, costume and cuisine express the Palestinian identity despite the geographical separation between the Palestinian territories, Palestinian citizens and the diaspora.
  Palestinian culture consists of food, dance, legends, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, customs, and comprising the traditions of Palestinian culture. The folklorist revival among Palestinian intellectuals such as Nimr Sirhan, Musa Allush, Salim Mubayyid, and the emphasized pre-Islamic cultural roots, re-constructing Palestinian identity with a focus on Canaanite and Jebusite cultures. Such efforts seem to have borne fruit as evidenced in the organization of celebrations like the Qabatiya Canaanite festival and the annual Music Festival of Yabus by the Palestinian Ministry of Culture.
context_section_description: The long history of the Arabic language and its rich written and oral tradition form part of the Palestinian literary tradition as it has developed over the course of the 20th and 21st centuries.
  Since 1967, most critics have theorized the existence of three "branches" of Palestinian literature, loosely divided by geographic location: 1) from inside Israel, 2) from the occupied territories, 3) from among the Palestinian diaspora throughout the Middle East.
caption: Mahmoud Darwish, a Palestinian poet
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