Mahmoud Darwish

Mahmoud Darwish (1942-2008), considered the national poet of Palestine and one of the most significant modern Arab poets, was born in al-Birwa, a village east of Acre. After the 1948 war, the Israelis occupied the village, and Darwish and his family became refugees. This experience of displacement deeply marked his life. He worked in journalism and, in 1961, became a member of the Israeli Communist Party, Rakah, and for a time published its newspaper, "Al-Ittihad." During those days, he experienced imprisonment and house arrest. In 1970, he studied in Moscow. He left Israel in 1971 and settled in Beirut, Lebanon, where he worked for the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) and published the monthly bulletin "Shu'un Filistiniya" ("Palestinian Affairs"). He served as the editor-in-chief of the Palestinian literary and cultural magazine "Al-Karmel." When the Israelis invaded Lebanon in 1982, the PLO abandoned its headquarters there, and Darwish moved to Cyprus. In 2001, Darwish was awarded the "Freedom of Expression" prize by the Annan Foundation. His first collection appeared in 1960 when he was only 19 years old. With his second collection, "Awraq Zaytoun" (1964), he became known as one of the leading poets of resistance. He was honored with many awards for his work, including the Lotus Prize from the Afro-Asian Writers' Association in 1969 and the Lenin Peace Prize in 1983. Many of his heroic poems were turned into songs. He passed away on August 9, 2008, at the age of 67, three days after undergoing heart surgery at Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston, Texas.