Ali Salem, an Egyptian writer and playwright whose account of a solo drive through Israel became a best seller in his country but angered many Egyptians, died on Tuesday at his home in Cairo. He was 79.
Egypt’s state-run Middle East News Agency reported his death but did not provide the cause.
Mr. Salem’s writings include 15 books and 25 plays. His play “School of the Troublemakers,” from 1971, about a class of riotous teenagers reformed by a teacher, became one of the most popular comedies in the Arab world.
Mr. Salem drove across the border into Israel in 1994, after Israel and thePalestinians signed the 1993 Oslo peace agreements. He said he had been thinking about visiting the country since President Anwar el-Sadat made the trip in 1977, leading to Egypt’s becoming the first Arab state to sign a peace treaty with Israel, in 1979.
“It wasn’t a love trip, but a serious attempt to get rid of hate,” he told The Los Angeles Times.
Mr. Salem’s book “A Drive to Israel” sold more than 60,000 copies, a best seller by Egyptian standards. But he was shunned in Egypt for the visit, and his calls for peace and normalization with Israel eventually caused him to be expelled from the Writers Syndicate, a move that was overturned by an Egyptian court. Immediately after the ruling, he resigned from the syndicate, saying he had gone to court only to prove a point.
In 2008, Mr. Salem won the $50,000 Civil Courage Prize from the Train Foundation, which said he was a “voice for peace and reason in the Middle East.”
Information on survivors was not immediately available.
___________________________________________________
Ali Salem, also transliterated Ali Salim, (Arabic: على سالم, IPA: [ˈʕæli ˈsæːlem]; 24 February 1936 – 22 September 2015) was an Egyptian playwright, author, and political commentator[1] known for controversially endorsing cooperation with Israel.[2] The Los Angeles Times once described him as "a big, loud man known for his satiric wit".[2]
From the premiere of his first play in 1965, he wrote 25 plays and fifteen books.[3] One of the best known, The School of Troublemakers, debuted in 1971 and featured a rowdy class of children transformed by a kind teacher.[2] His plays The Phantom of Heliopolis, The Comedy of Oedipus, The Man Who Fooled the Angels, and The Buffethave also become "classics of the Egyptian theater".[3] Salem's plays often include allegorical critiques of Egyptian politics with a strong vein of humor and satire.[3]
In 1994, he wrote a book entitled My Drive to Israel about a trip he took to the country to satisfy his curiosity about it following the signing of the Oslo Accords.[4] He later claimed that the trip was not "a love trip, but a serious attempt to get rid of hate. Hatred prevents us from knowing reality as it is".[2] He spent 23 nights in Israel and concluded that "real co-operation" between the two nations should be possible.[4] Though the book sold more than 60,000 copies, a bestseller by Egyptian standards, it provoked controversy, and Salem was subsequently ostracized from the Egyptian intellectual community and expelled from its Writer's Syndicate as a result of his "propaganda."[2] He did not have a play or movie script produced in Egypt after the book's publication,[4][5] though he continued to contribute columns to foreign media such as the London-based Al Hayat.[2] Salem's memoir was later adapted by Ari Roth into the play Ali Salem Drives to Israel, which had its world premiere in the US in 2005.[6][7]
In 2008, he won the Train Foundation's $50,000 Civil Courage Prize in recognition of his opposition to radical Islam and his support of cooperation with Israel.[5] He also received an honorary doctorate from Israel's Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in 2005.[3] He died on 22 September 2015 after a long illness.[8]
_________________________________________________________________________________
Ali Salem, also transliterated Ali Salim, (Arabic: على سالم; b. February 24, 1936 – d. September 22, 2015) was an Egyptian playwright, author, and political commentator known for controversially endorsing cooperation with Israel. The Los Angeles Times once described him as "a big, loud man known for his satiric wit".
From the premiere of his first play in 1965, he wrote 25 plays and fifteen books. One of the best known, The School of Troublemakers, debuted in 1971 and featured a rowdy class of children transformed by a kind teacher. His plays The Phantom of Heliopolis, The Comedy of Oedipus, The Man Who Fooled the Angels, and The Buffet became classics of the Egyptian theater. Salem's plays often include allegorical critiques of Egyptian politics with a strong vein of humor and satire.
In 1994, he wrote a book entitled My Drive to Israel about a trip he took to the country to satisfy his curiosity about it following the signing of the Oslo Accords. He later claimed that the trip was not "a love trip, but a serious attempt to get rid of hate. Hatred prevents us from knowing reality as it is". He spent 23 nights in Israel and concluded that "real co-operation" between the two nations should be possible. Though the book sold more than 60,000 copies, a bestseller by Egyptian standards, it provoked controversy, and Salem was subsequently ostracized from the Egyptian intellectual community and expelled from its Writer's Syndicate as a result of his "propaganda." He did not have a play or movie script produced in Egypt after the book's publication, though he continued to contribute columns to foreign media such as the London-based Al Hayat. Salem's memoir was later adapted by Ari Roth into the play Ali Salem Drives to Israel, which had its world premiere in the United States in 2005.
In 2008, he won the Train Foundation's $50,000 Civil Courage Prize in recognition of his opposition to radical Islam and his support of cooperation with Israel. He also received an honorary doctorate from Israel's Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in 2005. He died on September 22, 2015 after a long illness.
No comments:
Post a Comment