Against a grim background of political complexity and restriction of movement, the idea behind The Palestine Festival of Literature (or ‘PalFest’) is gloriously simple. If the people of Palestine aren’t free to travel to literary festivals at will, the rationale goes, then we’re jolly well just going to hold a mobile literary festival that will go around and visit everybody. Thus, every year, a ‘travelling cultural roadshow’ tours Palestine, bringing books, authors, discussion and debate to as many as humanly possible.

The enterprise has some impressive literary credentials. While the details of the 2011 programme were unconfirmed at the time of going to press, past festivals have hosted the likes of Michael Palin, Raja Shehadeh, Esther Freud, Rami Kanazi and William Dalrymple. Past and present patrons of the festival are equally illustrious – Chinua Achebe, John Berger, Seamus Heaney, Philip Pullman, Emma Thompson, Mahmoud Darwish and Harold Pinter. This makes the festival an important event in its own right, as well as demonstrating the support of these internationally-respected figures.

And this year, the free festival is touring as enthusiastically as ever. Public events will be held in Jerusalem, Ramallah, Nablus, Nazareth, Jenin, Al Khalil/Hebron and Bethlehem, with educational workshops run with the universities of BirZeit, Bethlehem, an-Najah, Al Quds and Al Khalil, as well as the Yaffa Cultural Center and the Jenin Freedom Theatre. Writers and artists from around the world will be introduced to Palestinian audiences, and the audiences to them. Students will have the chance to participate in workshops in co-operation with Palestinian academic institutions and academics. Another year of sharing of growth will be achieved, against significant odds.

Do we need to draw a lesson from this other than the appeal of literature and the importance of its dissemination as widely as possible? Any initiative whose terms of existence are defined by an aggressive geopolitical conundrum, and which seeks to overcome the system’s restrictions, must inevitably take a political stance of sorts. But PalFest is delightfully free of these overtones – it’s the materials that matter, and the sharing of them.

Apr 15-Apr 20. For more information visit The Palestine Festival of Literature.