Three doves with one shot

Israel recently destroyed the Khalil Al Sakakini Centre in which the office of the prominent Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish, is located. Al Sakakini is a cultural centre that maintains valuable art work and ancient manuscripts. The building, which was constructed in 1927, is a valuable representation of traditional Palestinian architecture.

A few weeks ago, the centre hosted a delegation of international writers including two Nobel laureates for literature who denounced the Israeli assaults and called for peace. The centre has been working underground since the recent escalation of the Israeli aggression, and has been helping in unveiling such assaults by recording and posting letters and children's drawings of daily life under siege as well as appeals to the media.

This is not the only assault against a cultural institute as the Israeli forces destroyed the Ministry of Education, the Qassaba Theatre and Cinema in Ramallah and the Bethlehem Peace Centre.

Following the destruction of the centre, Mahmoud Darwish took part in a cultural event at the Cite Sportive stadium in Beirut, gathering Arabs in solidarity with the besieged Palestinian people.

He recited some of his older poems as well as a new one entitled Halat Hesar (A Condition of Siege) expressing the sufferings of Palestinians living within the besieged territories.

The famous Lebanese singer, Majeda Al Roumi, sang one of Darwish's poems entitled Circle your Siege. The singer, Ahmad Qaboor, who is also a music composer, also took part. The poems and songs mirrored Ramallah and Bethlehem's agony and united the audience in their compassion for the victims and revolt against the Israeli cruelty.

Before reciting his poems, Darwish gave a speech expressing his feelings and thoughts regarding the situation in the Occupied Territories. He said that 20 years ago Beirut witnessed the same fate that Palestine is experiencing today. Now Beirut has regained its freedom from the Israeli occupation and realised national unity. Today, "we see Palestine is in the last bloody chapter of its battle for liberty and independence", said Darwish.

"Now the culture of resistance becomes an act of heroism. Now every Arab holds a Palestinian heart," added Darwish.

He also denounced the U.S. for backing Israel by viewing the Israeli attacks as acts of self-defence and defining the Palestinian resistance as terrorism. He asked the Israeli nation whether this is the peace that they want - the peace that is based on destroying the homeland of the Palestinians and the annihilation of the Palestinian people. "It should be obvious that there is no peace with occupation," noted Darwish.

He concluded his speech with his slogan for the Palestinians, "Life won't fail any nation that loves it to that extent, and such a nation will definitely achieve victory".

Darwish read verses from his latest poem A State of Siege, which he wrote following the Israeli re-occupation of Palestinian territories. In one section, he said:

A woman said to the cloud:

Cover my beloved
For my clothes are wet with his blood
If you are not rain my beloved
Then be a tree
Saturated with fertility, be a tree
And if not a tree my beloved
Then be a stone
Drenched with humidity, be a stone
And if you are not a stone, my beloved
Then be a moon in the lovers sleep, be a moon
This is what a woman had said To her son at his funeral

Darwish continues in another part of the poem:

To a killer:
If you closely examine the face of the victim
And thought,
You would have remembered your mother in the gas chamber You would have freed yourself from the wisdom of the rifle And would have changed your mind:
Not this way an identity is regained

To another killer:
If you had left the foetus alive another thirty days
Then possibilities would have changed:
Occupation may end
And that infant would not remember the age of siege
And the baby would grow healthily
And would study in the same school of your daughter's
The ancient history of Asia
They may even fall in love
And conceive a baby
(Who would be Jewish by birth)

What have you done then?
Your daughter has now become a widow
And the granddaughter became an orphan?
What have you done then with your nomadic family
And how have you hit three doves
With the single shot?

Darwish was born in a landowning family in the village of Berweh near Akko in Palestine. After the Israeli occupation in 1948, he left his homeland with his family. The family then settled in another village where he grew up. In 1970, he studied in a university in Moscow. In 1972, he moved to Beirut and worked for the Palestine Liberation Organi-sation (PLO) as an editor of Shu'oun Felestiniya (Palestinian Affairs).

When Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 and the PLO was expelled from Beirut, he moved to Cyprus. In 1987, he was elected to the PLO executive. However, as he opposed the Oslo Agreement, he resigned in 1993. In 1996, he moved to Ramallah and settled there.

He started writing poems while he was in school and his first collection appeared in 1960. Among his poems are Bird without wings, Lover from Palestine, Olive leaves, and Why did you leave the horse alone?

He uses modern blank verse in his poetry. His poetic style is simple yet rich with metaphorical images and symbolic expressions. He has been defending the Palestinian rights and their struggle for independence through his poetry. This has made him a well-known international figure and his poems are a voice of the Palestinian resistance as well as existence.