Elias Sanbar was born in 1947, in Haifa. Activist, writer, historian and diplomat, he studied in France, where he founded the journal Revue d’étude palestiniennes in 1981 and served as its chief-editor until 2006. He taught international law at Paris VII University and, later, he taught in Lebanon and at Princeton University. He is the Ambassador of Palestine for UNESCO since 2006 and is a member of the Palestinian National Council. In the 90s, he was instrumental as a peace negotiator. He is the main translator for famous poet Mahmoud Darwish and has published several books, such as Les Palestiniens dans le siècle (1994), Le bien des absents (2001) and photography books like Les Palestiniens: La photographie d'une terre et de son peuple de 1839 à nos jours (2004). An eminent figure in the defence of Palestine, all of Sanbar’s work tries to reveal to the world its identity and cultural wealth. In 2005, he received the Grand Prix de la Francophonie de l'Académie française and, in 2011, he was awarded the rank of Commander of the French Order of Arts and Letters.
Elias Sanbar
Historian, poet, diplomat
