The News Virginian · Waynesboro, Virginia · 7 March 2000

CP-2000-014

An uproar over introduction of poet into curriculum

Israeli schools to offer works as optional reading

Samar Assad, Associated Press Writer, Ramallah

Transcribed from the clipping

“RAMALLAH, West Bank — It has little to do with poetry, and a lot with politics. A decision by the Israeli education minister to introduce five works by the Palestinian national poet, Mahmoud Darwish, as optional reading in Israeli schools has incensed hawkish and religious lawmakers, who threatened Monday to try to bring down Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s government over the verses. Barak, apparently fearing another defeat in parliament after his coalition crumbled last week in a key vote on peace with Syria, said time ‘is not ripe’ to teach Darwish, who as a PLO member was banned from entering Israel for 26 years. The emotional dispute over a few lines of poetry illustrates how hard it still is for Israelis and Palestinians to put aside resentments accumulated in a century of conflict.… Introducing Darwish into the curriculum is part of reforms begun by dovish Israeli Education Minister Yossi Sarid. ‘It is very important to know one another. Ignorance is not the best recipe for good neighborliness,’ Sarid said. The opposition Likud party accused Sarid of ‘legitimizing the negation of Zionism’ and submitted a motion of no confidence in the government. The religious Shas faction, a member of Barak’s coalition, hinted it might join Likud in next week’s vote on the motion, which would embarrass, but not topple the prime minister. Darwish said Monday the uproar shows how fearful many Israelis are of challenging long-held negative stereotypes about Palestinians. ‘The first step of real peace is to know the other side, its culture and creativity,’ Darwish said in an interview. Those who object to teaching his poetry in Israeli schools ‘cannot digest that the other side has culture, creativity and intellect,’ Darwish said. ‘They consider this to be a dangerous recognition of the other side.’”

Photograph caption

“Mahmoud Darwish, the Palestinian national poet, speaks to The Associated Press in his office in the West Bank town of Ramallah on Monday.” · AP Photo

Context added by this archive

The fourth printing of this row held here, from a third news service, and the one that carries the sentence the rest of this section is circling. Objecting to his poems in a classroom, Darwish says, means being unable to digest that the other side has culture, creativity and intellect — and treating that recognition as dangerous. The number of poems at issue, given only in this version, is five, offered as optional reading.

Cite this item

"An uproar over introduction of poet into curriculum," The News Virginian, 7 March 2000. Covering Palestine archive, CP-2000-014. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-2000-014

Elsewhere in the archive

• The poetry of Arab pain: Are Israeli students ready?The Bulletin · 7 March 2000 · the same year
• Israelis argue over teaching Palestinian’s verseThe Oregonian · 7 March 2000 · the same year
• Poet’s work inflames cultural divideTampa Bay Times · 11 March 2000 · the same year