Wasim’s interest in Palestinian literature began at an early age and found its first expression in university student bulletins. It expanded into a broad political-cultural space in 1968, when the Committee of Solidarity with the Palestinian People began to publish the magazine titled The Palestinian Revolution, and Wasim was asked to translate the works of some Palestinian poets. In 1972, publication of the magazine ceased, and its committee was dissolved shortly after the killing, at Israeli hands, of its animator, Wael Zuayter. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Wasim contributed translated Palestinian poetry to collections that were the first popularized works of Arabic literature in Italian, and in 1970, he published his first anthology of Palestinian poetry. He continued to popularize Palestinian literature in magazines and newspapers, combining cultural and political activity throughout the 1970s and 1980s, and in the 1980s encouraged and helped university colleagues to undertake the study and popularization of Palestinian literature.
Wasim ceased all participation in direct political activity in 1993, following the Oslo nakba, but he continued to take part in cultural activities in support of Palestinian rights. Thus, he edited the journal of the Italo-Palestinian Medical Association, a publication that was published in paper format until 1995 and in digital format until 2009.iii In addition to contributing to newspapers and magazines until 1993, he continued to publish newsletters and bulletins that reported on the situation in Palestine.
His academic life took place between the Department of Oriental Studies of the University of Rome “La Sapienza,” where he taught Arabic dialectology from 1982 to 2006, and the Department of Stylistics and Linguistics of the University of Cagliari, where he taught Arabic language, dialectology, and literature between 2006 and 2015. In more recent years, he has taught Arabic linguistics for the Master of Oriental Language and Cultures program at International University for Languages and Media in Rome (from 2015 to 2020). Between 1980 and 2015, he lectured at almost all Italian universities and conducted courses in literature, linguistics, and literary history. His main research interests are literary translation, Arabic dialectology with particular reference to the dialects of the Syrian-Palestinian region, literary history, and contemporary history of the Near and Middle East.
