A Poet Protesting the Persecution of the Palestinian People

A Poet Protesting the Persecution of the Palestinian People

Poets from every part of the world from all times of history have written about the

issues of oppression and hardships of unfairness and discrimination. It is easy to find

writings and poetry by African Americans, Hispanics, Japanese, Chinese, and even

Native American poets. These nationalities are very well represented when it comes to

poets shouting of the unfair treatment of their ethnic group. However, to find poetry and

poets from an ethnic group such as the Palestinians or the Afghanis is not so common,

and it is usually these groups that need to be heard the most, because it is generally these

people who are being discriminated upon and treated unfairly by in their own people,

country, or region. Nevertheless, one poet from Palestine, Mahmud Darwish, has risen to

the challenge of strongly proclaiming about the unfair treatment that has fallen on the

Palestinian-Arab people. Many people may read his poems and believe that he is just

speaking of his life and everyday activities. However, rebuttals against the unfair

treatment of his people and of himself show up in his poems in both blunt and subtle

ways. In his poem “Identity Card” (see Appendix), Darwish portrays his life as a

Palestinian, but he is subtly and truthfully showing the history and background of the

Palestinian people, connecting the life and treatment of his people with his life, and

protesting the Israeli dominance of the Holy Land along with the help that the United

States gives them.

The book Peace, Justice and Reconciliation in the Arab-Israeli Conflict quotes a

commentary as saying, “If God is dead, as some people now claim, then he died trying to

fi...

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Pratt, Cranford, Gregory Baum, John Burbidge, William Dunphy, Thomas Langan,

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Arab-Israeli Conflict: A Chritian Perspective. New York: Friendship Press, Inc., 1979.

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