Returning to Haifa
Ghassan Kanafani
A Palestinian couple return to their Haifa home after 1967 and find their son — raised as an Israeli soldier — behind its door.
After the June 1967 war opens the occupied territories, Said and Safiyya travel from Ramallah to Haifa to see the home they fled in 1948 — and the infant son, Khaldun, they lost in the chaos of the flight. They find him as Dov, raised by the Jewish couple who took the house, now wearing an Israeli uniform. The confrontation that follows refuses easy consolations: Kanafani turns the reunion into an unsparing argument about what makes a person — blood, or choice and cause.
Written at the moment the fedayeen movement was rising, the novella marks Kanafani’s shift from the despair of Men in the Sun toward a harder, more political hope. It is usually published in English alongside other stories as Palestine’s Children: Returning to Haifa and Other Stories.
About the author
Ghassan Kanafani (1936–1972), born in Acre, was a novelist, journalist, and leading figure of Palestinian resistance literature. His fiction transformed the experience of exile into a precise anatomy of loss, dignity, and political awakening. He was assassinated in Beirut in 1972.
Details
- Published in Arabic as ‘A’id ila Haifa, 1969
- English translation by Barbara Harlow and Karen E. Riley, Lynne Rienner Publishers
Connected in the archive
12 connected records12 records elsewhere in the archive are linked to this one, each by a piece of evidence you can read below.
named in this record — 6 records
One record names the other. A pointer for reading, not a claim that they belong to each other.
- Acreعكا
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Ghassan Kanafani (1936–1972), born in Acre, was a novelist, journalist, and leading figure of Palestinian resistance literature.
- Ghassan Kanafaniغسان كنفاني
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Ghassan Kanafani (1936–1972), born in Acre, was a novelist, journalist, and leading figure of Palestinian resistance literature.
- Ghassan Kanafaniغسان كنفاني
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Ghassan Kanafani (1936–1972), born in Acre, was a novelist, journalist, and leading figure of Palestinian resistance literature.
- Haifaحيفا
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: After the June 1967 war opens the occupied territories, Said and Safiyya travel from Ramallah to Haifa to see the home they fled in 1948 — and the infant son, Khaldun, they lost in the chaos of the flight.
- Men in the Sun
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Written at the moment the fedayeen movement was rising, the novella marks Kanafani's shift from the despair of Men in the Sun toward a harder, more political hope.
- Ramallahرام الله
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: After the June 1967 war opens the occupied territories, Said and Safiyya travel from Ramallah to Haifa to see the home they fled in 1948 — and the infant son, Khaldun, they lost in the chaos of the flight.
on a related subject — 6 records
Filed near each other — the same Mandate district, or the same uncommon subject tags.
- Enter Ghost
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Shared tag: "return".
- I Saw Ramallah
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Shared tag: "return".
- Ibrahim Abu-Lughodإبراهيم أبو لغد
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Shared tag: "return".
- Jerash Camp (Gaza Camp)مخيّم جرش
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Shared tag: "1967".
- Mourid Barghoutiمريد البرغوثي
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Shared tag: "return".
- Wild Thorns
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Shared tag: "1967".
Cite this page
Every claim above carries its sources — citation is the point.
- Chicago
“Returning to Haifa.” Library, FALASTEEN.AI. Accessed 22 August 2026. https://falasteen.ai/library/returning-to-haifa/.- MLA
“Returning to Haifa.” Library, FALASTEEN.AI, 2026, https://falasteen.ai/library/returning-to-haifa/. Accessed 22 August 2026.- BibTeX
@misc{falasteen-returning-to-haifa, title = {Returning to Haifa}, howpublished = {\url{https://falasteen.ai/library/returning-to-haifa/}}, organization = {FALASTEEN.AI — A Living Archive for Palestine}, year = {2026}, note = {Accessed 2026-08-22} }