Tel Aviv Collapsed

Last year, during Imam Khamenei’s visit to the Tehran International Book Fair, an Arabic novel called “Tel Aviv Collapsed” was offered to him by the professor of Arabic literature, Mr. Mohammad Ali Azarshab. This novel was written by a young Lebanese writer, Ms. Somayeh Ali Hashem, who won an award in the novel section of the Palestine Book Award. Tel Aviv Collapsed tells the story of the last battle of the Resistance against the Zionist regime. It was in the same year that the Leader of the Revolution compared the normalizers of relations with the Zionist regime to those who bet on a losing horse, and shortly afterward, the glorious Operation Al-Aqsa Flood plunged the Zionist regime into numerous internal and external swamps. This year, during Imam Khamenei’s visit to the book fair, the Persian version of this novel, translated by Ms. Saeedeh Sadat Hosseini, was unveiled, and the picture of Imam Khamenei holding the book in his hands created a memorable scene.

The book tells the story of a few Palestinian and Lebanese youths as well as elderly men of Resistance living in Beirut, who were involved in resisting the Zionist regime through years of military, economic and cultural Jihad. This group of Mujahideen correctly realized the technological nature of the military and security structure of the Zionist regime and for several years they were involved in preparing a mechanism to pave the way for the liberation of al-Quds on the promised day with a major blow.

The entire novel is full of memories of Palestine. People who have been expelled from their birthplace and home carry the memory of their home wherever they go and talk about it. Throughout the novel, the history of the occupation and the sufferings of the Palestinian people are reviewed, and the zest to return, combined with the bitterness of the losses, introduces the audience to the Palestinian experience.

In the introduction of the book written by Dr. Theeb Mohammad Hashem, a brief history of the literature produced by the Palestinian people during these seven decades of occupation can be seen. This introduction, after examining the three literary periods of the Nakba (1948), the year of retreat (1967), and the year of the massacre (1970), calls the resistance literature a new period of Palestinian literature, in which, referring to the sadness and sense of humiliation and despair of the Palestinian people after being defeated by the Zionist enemy and the Arab powers’ betrayal toward them, these people and this resistance movement decided to purify their souls from these disappointments and stand up to the usurping enemy with trust in God. This novel is also a piece of the puzzle of resistance literature, which despite depicting the bitterness of defeat, offers the sweet taste of victory after resistance to the audience.

In his speech on June 4, 2019, Imam Khamenei also pointed to the fact that resistance has a cost, but the cost of resistance is definitely lower than the cost of compromise, and traces of this logic can be seen in resistance literature as well.

The name of this book in Arabic carries an important message. In the Arabic language, when a hated enemy falls to the ground, the word “Saqatat” is used, and it is the hatred of the people and Muslims of the region for years of oppression and occupation by the Zionist regime that shows itself in the form of the title of the book on the cover: “Tel Aviv Collapsed.” It was this hatred and the Palestinian people’s being under oppression for years that showed itself in Operation Al-Aqsa Flood and inflicted such blows on the enemy. Surely, on the promised day, when the Resistance Front, with all the hatred that it has accumulated in its heart during these years, starts the last battle against Israel, just as we read in the book, the destruction of the Zionist regime will occur too quickly, just like how it is narrated in the book in less than 30 pages.

In his speech on December 23, 2023, Imam Khamenei himself went ahead to welcome the glorious day of Palestine’s liberation like this: “I tell you, don’t doubt that the victory is with the Truth Front. Don’t doubt that the usurping Zionist regime will one day be eradicated from the earth and this, God willing, is one of the certain futures; ‘With God’s help and strength, and with God’s permission and glory,’ this will be done, and we hope, God willing, that you young people will see that day with your own eyes.”