Outcast

Shimon Ballas

1991

Sensitive Content

This entry portrays the racism and xenophobia encountered by Palestinians and Jews in Israel. The text provides insight into history; however, The Posen Library does not condone or promote oppression of any kind.

I sit by the desk. Four hours of sleep is enough. The rain beats strongly on the neighboring garage’s tin rooftop. The roar of a bus rises from afar. Early rising workers head for the morning shift. At this very hour, I also used to get out to construction sites when I worked for the city. The guard would take me into his shack and serve me a glass…

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Creator Bio

Shimon Ballas

1930–2019

Shimon Ballas—author, translator, and editor—was born in Baghdad and immigrated to Israel in 1951 at the age of twenty-one, later earning a doctoral degree from the Sorbonne in Paris. Ballas wrote articles and criticism in Arabic and taught Arabic literature at Haifa University. He published several works of prose and nonfiction and served as editor of the journal Al Karmel. His first Hebrew novel, Ha-Ma‘abarah (The Transit Camp, 1964), is one of the first accounts of the harsh realities and struggles faced by immigrants settling in Israel in the 1950s. Ballas was awarded the President’s Prize in 2006.

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