Mahmoud Darwish, Poet and Former Israeli Citizen, Dies

"Mahmoud Darwish, Leading Palestinian Poet, Is Dead at 67"

Ethan Bronner
Published: August 10, 2008

Mahmoud Darwish authored “searing lyrics on Palestinian exile.” The usage of exile to describe the Palestinian condition has some truth to it but mostly appears to ape the Jewish experience. Some of those who fled or were forced to leave their homes in the War of Independence traveled as little as twenty miles. Can such a distance be called an exile?

Darwish’s family actually lived in Israel in the 1950s and 1960s, so they were, in fact, not even “in exile.” In 1971, Darwish was stripped of his citizenship because of his close relationship to the Soviet Union and the PLO – a fact the article fails to mention.

Bronner reports that Darwish, who had great affection for Yassir Arafat, authored Mr. Arafat’s famous words at the United Nations General Assembly in 1974: “I come bearing an olive branch and a freedom fighter’s gun. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand.” This is a startling statement that oddly mixes pacifism, violence, and threat.

Another verse quoted in the article reads, “I do not hate people/Nor do I encroach/But if I become hungry/The usurper’s flesh will be my food/Beware .../Beware ... /Of my hunger/And my anger.” Again, one sees a mixed message of muted humanitarianism, threat, and violence.

For a brief moment, Bronner hints at the politicization of Darwish’s poetry by the Palestinian movement, a fact that late in his career he seemed to lament.

Surprisingly, this poet was a supporter of the famed “two state solution,” which makes him a full-blooded moderate in the eyes of most. His position on the so called “right of return,” which is the “two state solution’s” infamous caveat, is conveniently not mentioned.

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