An Arab 'moderate' fires angry words

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In an Israel tense from its confrontation with the Palestinians, even a poem written by a Palestinian has caused an uproar. The verse, reprinted recently in an Israeli newspaper, instructs Israelis to “get out of our land, our continent, our sea . . . our everything . . . ” The nationalistic sentiments are not surprising.

The reason they have attracted so much attention is that the poem was written by Mahmoud Darwish, a man who has been widely seen as a moderate on the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization. In the past Darwish has called for coexistence between Jews and Arabs. Yet his words now imply that Israelis have no place anywhere in the Middle East.

He seems to again raise the old Arab goal of driving the Jews into the sea. It is a goal that has brought endless grief to Darwish's people. Yet it also causes concern for another people, one that cannot afford to take any threat of annihilation lightly. The poet claims he meant only that Israel should withdraw from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

“Maybe it's not so clear,” he said. “In a song it's hard to say precise things.” This song, however, is exactly the one that Israeli hard-liners want to hear. Here is the desired proof that the Arabs want not just the occupied territories but Israel itself. Thus compromise means self-destruction.

Yitzhak Shamir, the Israeli prime minister, lost no time in mentioning the poem in a Knesset speech. It raises familiar questions for Israel. Can it trust even those Arabs who claim to be “moderates”? Does the word “moderate” indicate only that an Arab wants to get rid of Israel in 20 years instead of three? These are not questions to be dismissed lightly.

How this transcription was made

Masthead not readable on the scan. The label on the slide read: [no masthead on clipping] — A two-column unsigned editorial, read at 8x. The whole piece is transcribed; it is short. No masthead, date line or page number on the clipping, so the paper and date rest on Maria's slide label. There is no byline and no "Opinion" or "Editorial" flag visible on the clipping itself, but the piece is written in the first person plural of an institutional voice and reaches a verdict, so it is an editorial, not reportage. Maria should know that nothing on the clipping says so.

Cite this clipping

"An Arab 'moderate' fires angry words," (newspaper unidentified), 10 April 1988. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1988-120. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1988-120