Fouzi Asmar

Fouzi El Asmar (1937–2013) was a Palestinian writer, poet and journalist. He was the author of the book entitled To Be an Arab in Israel.

Early life and education El Asmar was born in Haifa, Mandatory Palestine, in 1937. His supervisor was Uri Davis. and was a cofounder and member of the Al Ard movement.

El Asmar published various books, including To Be an Arab in Israel (1975) and Through the Hebrew Looking Glass: Arab Stereotypes in Children’s Literature (1986). He edited two books, Towards a Socialist Republic of Palestine and Debate on Palestine, with Uri Davies and Naim Khader.

His poetry collections include The Promised Land (1969), Poems from an Israeli Prison (1973), Dreams on a mattress of thorns (1976) and The Wind-Driven Reed and Other Poems (1979). El Asmar also published articles and book reviews in journals.

Imprisonment El Asmar was arrested by the Israeli forces and put under administrative detention in Ramlah and Damon prisons in 1969. After speaking to El Asmar, Dershowitz met both the Israeli Attorney General and the head of the Shin Bet (who showed him the "voluminous" file on El Asmar). In the article, published in Commentary magazine, Dershowitz justified the practice of administrative detention (which he called "preventive detention"), and described El Asmar as "extremely dangerous" and "the leader of a terrorist gang". A subsequent issue of the magazine published letters from El Asmar himself, lawyer Felicia Langer, and civil rights activist Israel Shahak noting Dershowitz's many factual errors and rebutting his "outright distortions".

Personal life and death El Asmar was married to Maria T. El Asmar who died in August 2013. He was buried in Palestine on 1 October.