From Lebanon, the family moved to Syria. Ghassan�s father, a lawyer, was initially unable to practice his profession, forcing Ghassan and older siblings to work during the day and continue their studies in night school.
Ghassan would later become a teacher with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), where he recognized the importance of making children politi�cally aware. In 1960, he joined Al-�hurriyah newspaper and became one of its editors.
In 1969 Kanafani became spokesperson for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the editor-in-chief of its weekly Al-Hadaf magazien.
Kanafani was assassinated on July 8, 1972, by a car bomb planted by Israeli agents. He was posthumously awarded the Lotus Prize for Literature by the Conference of Afro-Asian Writers.
Kanafani's first novel "MEN IN THE SUN" appeared in 1963. The book was later adapted by the Egyptian director Tawfiq Salin into a film, called al-Makhduun. The film was banned in some Arab countries for its criticism of Arab regimes. Men in the Sun is the story of three Palestinians representing three different generations who attempt to escape to Kuwait in the tank of a water truck. In the gloomy ending, the refugees perish in their journey across the desert, referring to the end of the Palestinian people. While they are dying under the heat of the sun, they knock continuously on the wall of the tank, crying, "We are here, we are dying, let us out, let us free". This novel have become a living witnes on the palestinians suffering.
