Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish to be laid to rest in Ramallah
By Zvi Bar'el, Haaretz Correspondent and News Agencies
Tags: Palestinian poet
Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish will be laid to rest in the West Bank capital of Ramallah on Tuesday, rather than near his home village in what is now Israel, the Palestinian Authority has announced.
Darwish, whose poetry his fellow Palestinians embraced as the voice of their suffering, died on Saturday after heart surgery in Texas. A hospital spokeswoman in Houston said the 67-year-old poet died after an operation but did not specify the exact cause.
Palestinians were earlier Sunday preparing to have Darwish's body laid to rest in Israel, Israel Radio quoted Palestinian sources as saying on Sunday.
According to the sources, Palestinians intended for Darwish to be buried either in his home village in the western Galilee, that had since been demolished with the Moshav Ahihud erected in its place in 1950, or in the neighboring village Jadaida, where Darwish's family still resides.
Darwish will be buried next to Ramallah's Palace of Culture, and a shrine will be erected in his honor, said Ramallah Mayor Jeanette Michael.
"Mahmoud doesn't just belong to a family or a town, but to all the
Palestinians, and he should be buried in a place where all Palestinians can come and visit him," said his brother, Ahmed Darwish.
Arab press reports on Sunday said that Darwish asked in his will to be buried in Palestine. Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has called for three days of mourning to honor the poet.
Gaza's Culture Ministry also planned to set up a mourning tent starting Monday, officials said.
"With the death of Darwish, Palestinian literature has lost one of its pillars," said Hamas political leader Khaled Meshal .
In an interview with Haaretz last year, Darwish spoke about death, saying, "Let it not come like a thief. Let it take me in a swoop." on Saturday, after having experienced clinical death once, the poet passed away.
Darwish did not spare the Palestinian Authority's leadership of his criticism. He fired his barbs at them just as he did at the Israeli occupation and Israel's leadership. But his greatness was rooted in his ability to capture and then forge the collective memory of the Palestinian refugee experience in his poems. In his famous poem "Why Did You Leave the Horse Alone?" he tied the Palestinians' experience of exile with the living remnants they left behind: The horse left alone, the abandoned well and the key to the empty house kept in the pocket of every Palestinian.
Darwish was **** in the village of al-Birwa, which was located east of Acre and destroyed in 1948. He was a member of Israel's Communist Party before he left the country for Beirut, where he joined the Palestine Liberation Organization. In 1988 he wrote a manifesto, intended as the Palestinian people's declaration of independence from Israel. That same year he aroused controversy with his poem "Passers Between the Passing Words," in which he called upon Israelis to leave Israel and take their dead with them. "So leave our land / Our shore, our sea / Our wheat, our salt, our wound," he wrote.
Darwish was very familiar with the Israeli experience and was interested in Israeli poetry, with which he often engaged in debates. "I like Yehuda Amichai's poetry very much," he said in an interview a few years ago. But Amichai's poetry, he added, made him realize that the Palestinians' war with Israel was not just military in nature, but also cultural and literary. While Hebrew national poetry strengthened the Jews' claim to a country, he explained, Palestinian poets felt exempt from proving their claims to the land, which he said was a weakness.
With all his criticism, he remained hopeful that peace between Israel and the Palestinians was attainable. "I do not despair," he told Haaretz. "I am patient and am waiting for a profound revolution in the consciousness of the Israelis. The Arabs are ready to accept a strong Israel with nuclear arms - all it has to do is open the gates of its fortress and make peace."