[1][5][6] Khalifa began his literary activity at the age of fifteen by publishing his poems in the Syrian Ba’athist Al-Thawra newspaper.

[5] This celebration attracted a large audience of students and other citizens before the authorities closed it down in 1988 under the pretext that leftist opposition politicians used its platform to publicize their ideas.

[4] As a screenwriter, Khalifa wrote several television dramas, including Rainbow (Kaws Kozah) and Memoirs of Al-Jalali (Arabic: سيرة الجلالي, romanized: Serat Al-Jalali), and various documentaries, short films, as well as the scenario for the feature film The Shrine Door (Arabic: باب المقام, romanized: Bab al-Maqam).

Khalifa spent thirteen years working on In Praise of Hatred (Madih al-karahiya), his third novel, which told how the lives of one family are affected by the conflict in Hama between the Syrian government and the Muslim Brotherhood.

[8] Commenting on his In Praise of Hatred, Khalifa said: Above all, I wrote this novel in defense of the Syrian people and in order to protest against the suffering they have endured as a result of the religious and political dogmas that have tried to negate their ten-thousand-year civilization.

[7]His fourth novel was La sakakin fi matabikh hathihi al-madina was published in Cairo in 2013 and as No Knives in the Kitchens of this City in English translation by Leri Price.