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Palestinian Poet an Uncompromising Voice for Israel's Transience

[Jerusalem Post] Jonathan Spyer -In 1988, Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, who died this week, wrote a poem that became the anthem of the first intifada. The poem shocked Israelis who hoped for historic compromise with the Palestinians, as Darwish rejected Israel's moral claim to existence. Palestinian nationalism is united in the fundamental article of faith that Jewish claims to connection with the land are fictitious, fraudulent and lacking in moral or factual basis. Darwish authored the Palestinian "Declaration of Independence" of 1988 and scripted Arafat's speech before the UN General Assembly in 1974. His funeral took place in the mukata compound in Ramallah at a site close to Arafat's grave. The writer is a senior research fellow at the Global Research in International Affairs Center, IDC, Herzliya.
2008-08-14 01:00:00
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