Why the men in the sun didn’t knock

The ending of Kanafani’s story Men in the Sun ends on a somber note and from the character’s perspective, rather passively. When suffocating in the tanker, the three men don’t knock on the walls of the tanker or give any sign that they are dying in there. Instead, they submit to death, silently and without resistance
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But depressing as it is, it’s important to ask why they won’t save themselves and ask for any help. An explanation could simply be (which makes a point about their helplessness) that even if they had knocked, to try to save themselves, it would have been to no good because once out, they would’ve been executed by the authorities. So death here is an escape from this perpetual helplessness.

A more positive reading of the ending would be that by the end of the text, the three men have a greater trust and faith in Abul to help them reach Kuwait safely; essentially, they trust him with their lives. Thus, the end is seen as a proof of their trust in Abul. If they had knocked, Abul would have gotten in trouble as well, for carrying people across the border.

In the grander scheme, the three men almost commit a sacrifice. They don’t burn the last bridge for those Palestinians who also want to make the move to Kuwait, however difficult it may be. Abul is a likely option, and an alternate to those corrupt agents, sitting behind desks, who don’t care about these desperate Palestinians and their aspirations at all. The three men don’t give up on Abul and thus keep alive the hopes of the Palestinians, despite all their helplessness, by committing their one last act of significance, which is, by dying passively.