Elias Sanbar

Elias Wadih Sanbar (Arabic: إلياس صنبر) (born 1947) is a Palestinian historian, poet, essayist, translator and diplomat.^[1] Since 2012, he has been the Palestinian ambassador to UNESCO.^[2][3]

Elias Sanbar
Born	Elias Wadih Sanbar 1947 (age 77–78) Haifa, Mandatory Palestine
Nationality	Palestine
Occupation(s)	Historian, poet, essayist, translator, diplomat

During the late 1960s, Sanbar was a member of the French branch of the General Union of Palestinian Students, which was established by Mahmoud Hamshari in Paris, France.^[4][5] Through the union, Hamshari organized the visit of the Swiss film director Jean-Luc Godard to Jordan and Lebanon, where he met with the Palestinian fighters in 1969.^[4] Sanbar accompanied Godard during the visit.^[4]

Sanbar co-founded Revue d'études palestiniennes [The Journal of Palestine Studies] in 1981, and was the journal's editor-in-chief for 25 years.^[6]

He has translated the poetry of Mahmoud Darwish into French.^[1]

Sanbar's book The Palestinians was the 2015 winner of the Palestine Book Awards.^[7]

Select works

• Palestine 1948, l’expulsion (1984)
• Les Palestiniens dans le siècle (1994)
• Palestine, le pays à venir (1996)
• Le Lit de l’étrangère (2000) (translated from Mahmoud Darwish)
• Le bien des absents (2001)
• Palestiniens: la photographie d’une terre et de son peuple de 1839 à nos jours (2004)
• La Dernière Guerre? Palestine, 7 octobre 2023 – 2 avril 2024 (2024)^[8]