Mahmoud Darwish is one of the most important poets of the Palestinian resistance to occupation and war. As a poet, activist and commentator, Darwish has become an international symbol of the Palestinian cause and represents the status of a people without a state, exiled from their homes and histories.
Darwish was born in 1941 in the village of Birweh in Palestine. Birweh was demolished by Israel along with hundreds of other Palestinian towns in 1948 during the Arab-Israeli War. Darwish and family briefly fled to Lebanon, returning to find no home or possessions. Like tens of thousands of others, Darwish became an unofficial person. He was not recognized by Israel as having claim to citizenship or rights.
As a teen, Darwish joined the Communist Party of Israel and was jailed several times for political activity. His 1964 poem, “Identity Card� became an emblem of the whole struggle of Palestinians and Arab Israelis. In 1970, Darwish was exiled from Israel and lived in Lebanon where he became a member of the executive council of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). He also ran the PLO research center and was the author of the Algiers Declaration in which the PLO officially declared support for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Darwish withdrew from the PLO leadership after 1993’s Oslo Agreement and for a time lived in the Soviet Union, France and Egypt. Darwish eventually returned to live in Ramallah in the West Bank in 1996.
Darwish has published two-dozen collections of poetry, which have been translated in numerous languages. His most recent book of poetry is titled State of Siege. He is also the editor of Al-Karmel, a journal featuring Arab and at times Israeli poets. Darwish has also received numerous international awards and accolades, including the Lotus Prize, the Lenin Peace Prize, France's highest award for artists, the Knight of Arts and Letters, and most recently the Lannan Foundation Prize for Cultural Freedom in 2000.
"Mahmoud Darwish is…widely recognized as the poetic voice of the Palestinian people…[courageously] speaking out against injustice and oppression, while eloquently arguing for a peaceful and equitable co-existence between Palestinian Arabs and Israeli Jews,� writes J. Patrick Lannan, Jr., Lannan Foundation President. The December 22, 2001 New York Times called Darwish “the most celebrated writer of verse in the Arab world.�
Darwish has been a consistent supporter of the Palestinian cause while always recognizing the humanity of the Israeli people. He has been a voice against all terrorism, both the state terrorism of Israel and the suicide bombers targeting Israeli civilians. In the days after the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US, Darwish authored a statement in the pages of Al-Ayyam, a Palestinian newspaper. The statement was co-signed by numerous Palestinian authors and commentators including Hannan Ashrawi.
“No cause, not even a just cause, can make legitimate the killing of innocent civilians, no matter how long the list of accusations and the register of grievances. Terror never paves the way to justice, but leads down the shortest path to hell…� the statement reads.
“Nothing, nothing can justify this terrorism that melds human flesh with iron cement and dust. Nor can anything justify polarizing the world into two camps that can never meet: one of absolute good, the other of absolute evil.�
Darwish’s existence defines the exile experience. In the course of the struggle for Palestinian statehood, Darwish has said, "I’ve built my homeland, and I’ve even founded my state ‘in my language.’�
Identity Card
Mahmoud Darwish, 1964
Write down!
I am an Arab
And my identity card number is fifty thousand
I have eight children
And the ninth will come after a summer
Will you be angry?
Write down!
I am an Arab
Employed with fellow workers at a quarry
I have eight children
I get them bread
Garments and books
from the rocks…
I do not supplicate charity at your doors
Nor do I belittle myself at the footsteps of your chamber
So will you be angry?
Write down!
I am an Arab
I have a name without a title
Patient in a country
Where people are enraged
My roots
Were entrenched before the birth of time
And before the opening of the eras
Before the pines, and the olive trees
And before the grass grew
My father…descends from the family of the plow
Not from a privileged class
And my grandfather…was a farmer
Neither well-bred, nor well-born!
Teaches me the pride of the sun
Before teaching me how to read
And my house is like a watchman's hut
Made of branches and cane
Are you satisfied with my status?
I have a name without a title!
Write down!
I am an Arab
You have stolen the orchards of my
ancestors
And the land which I cultivated
Along with my children
And you left nothing for us
Except for these rocks…
So will the State take them
As it has been said?!
Therefore!
Write down on the top of the first page:
I do not hate people
Nor do I encroach
But if I become hungry
The usurper's flesh will be my food
Beware…
Beware…
Of my hunger
And my anger!
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