TEHRAN -- It was unlikely that Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip and head of its political bureau who was assassinated in Rafah on Friday, spent much time thinking about the novel he wrote 20 years ago.
A Persian translation of Sinwar’s novel “The Thorn and the Carnation” will be published in Iran. Translated by Hanieh Kamari, the book will soon be published by Soore Mehr Publication in Tehran.
Published in 2004, “The Thorn and the Carnation” was smuggled out in sections from Israeli prisons where he was serving four life sentences. The novel reflects a time of personal despair and defiance, a stark contrast to his role at the helm of Palestinian decision-making during a war that has reshaped the geopolitics of the region.
Yet reading the novel today is nevertheless akin to listening to Sinwar’s voice narrate the background to the ongoing war in Gaza. These are the only words he has written about himself, making this document required reading at a time when Palestinian narratives are obscured, as they relate to this war and beyond. In the same vein, Sinwar’s novel has been glossed over in the extensive Western analysis of Hamas’ top man.
Since Hamas’ military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, launched Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on Oct. 7, 2023, there has been a flurry of Israeli reports about Sinwar. Both Israeli and U.S. intelligence reports agree he bears direct responsibility for the operation. Curiously, these reports have largely overlooked Muhammad Deif, the commander of the Al-Qassam Brigades, despite his status as the only public face celebrated by supporters of the Palestinian resistance in both the West Bank and Gaza over the past three years.
The obsession with Sinwar intensified on Aug. 6, when Hamas announced his appointment as head of its political bureau, just five days after the assassination of his predecessor, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran. Western media scrutiny of his biography has increased, drawing heavily on Israeli intelligence sources, including accounts from Yuval Bitton, a dentist who later became a senior intelligence officer in the Israeli prison service. Prominent Western newspapers carry conflicting portrayals of Sinwar, who was to turn 62 in late October, that oscillate between demonization and awe, describing him as cunning, shrewd, intelligent and resilient.
The words of Sinwar in his speeches have been parsed by many Western and Israeli analysts for obscure religious meanings, reflecting a cultural misunderstanding whereby Palestinian and Arab leaders are often seen as inscrutable and alien.
In most of these analyses, Sinwar’s life story, as portrayed in “The Thorn and the Carnation,” is rarely mentioned, although it is the most extensive document available that offers glimpses of his biography within the broader context of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Any attempt to understand Sinwar’s personality is incomplete without an in-depth look at this book, written by his own hand, which provides crucial insights into the environment that shaped him and his generation of Hamas leaders in Gaza across four decades of Israeli occupation.