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Honolulu Star-Bulletin · Honolulu, Hawaii · 12 August 2008

CP-2008-009

Palestinian poet told of his people’s plight

Mahmoud Darwish / 1941-2008

Diaa Hadid, Associated Press, Gaza City

Palestinian poet told of his people’s plight — Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 12 August 2008
Honolulu Star-Bulletin · Honolulu, Hawaii · 12 August 2008

Transcribed from the clipping

“GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip >> Mahmoud Darwish, a Palestinian cultural icon whose poetry eloquently told of his people’s experiences of exile, occupation and infighting, died Saturday in Houston. He was 67… Born to a large Muslim family in Palestine — now modern-day Israel — he described his people’s struggle for independence while also criticizing both the Israeli occupation and the Palestinian leadership. He gave voice to Palestinian dreams of statehood, crafted their declaration of independence and helped forge a Palestinian national identity. ‘He felt the pulse of Palestinians in beautiful poetry. He was a mirror of the Palestinian society,’ said Ali Qleibo… Darwish first gained prominence in the 1960s with the publication of his first poetry collection, ‘Bird Without Wings.’ It included the poem ‘Identity Card,’ which defiantly spoke in the first person of an Arab man giving his identity number — a common practice among Palestinians when dealing with Israeli authorities and Arab governments — and vowing to return to his land… Qleibo described Darwish’s poetry as ‘the easy impossible,’ for his ability to condense the Palestinian narrative into simple, evocative language… Darwish wrote the Palestinian Declaration of Independence in 1988, read by the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat when he unilaterally declared statehood. The declaration was symbolic.… ‘When we think of Darwish … he is our heart and our tongue,’ said Issam Makhoul, an Arab lawmaker and veteran member of the Israeli Communist Party… In 2000, Israel’s education minister, Yossi Sarid, suggested including some of Darwish’s poems in the Israeli high school curriculum. But Prime Minister Ehud Barak overruled him, saying Israel was not ready yet for his ideas in the school system… Siham Daoud, a fellow poet and longtime friend of Darwish, said he traveled to a hospital in Houston 10 days ago for the surgery and asked not to be resuscitated if it did not succeed. She said Darwish had a history of heart problems and had been operated on twice. Akram Haniyeh, editor-in-chief of the Al Ayyam newspaper and a friend of Darwish, was by Darwish’s bedside in Houston. He said Darwish underwent an operation Wednesday and that there were complications.”

Context added by this archive

The fourth American printing of this obituary in the archive and the fourth headline: voice of Palestine in Newark, controversial legacy in Bangor, a full-width display page of his dates in Houston, and here, in Honolulu, told of his people’s plight. This version keeps the last hours — the friend at the bedside, the operation on Wednesday, the complications — and the instruction he left that he was not to be resuscitated.

Cite this item

"Palestinian poet told of his people’s plight," Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 12 August 2008. Covering Palestine archive, CP-2008-009. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-2008-009

Elsewhere in the archive

This record is part of Covering Palestine, an archive of American and Anglophone newspaper clippings about Palestinians, 1812 to 2022. Researched and assembled by Maria Robles.

The clipping belongs to the newspaper that printed it, or to the wire service that supplied the copy. It is reproduced here for research, criticism and commentary. The city is derived from the masthead, not read off the clipping.

Something wrong here, or something you know about this clipping? The archive is still being built and corrections are wanted: maria@rozumstudio.com, quoting CP-2008-009.

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