WEST BANK / ISRAEL: Palestinian poet Samih al-Qassem says his political stance is one of anger over Palestinian infighting

Record ID: 396716

  • Title: WEST BANK / ISRAEL: Palestinian poet Samih al-Qassem says his political stance is one of anger over Palestinian infighting
  • Date: 28th August 2007
  • Summary: (MER1) NAZARETH, ISRAEL (RECENT) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) PALESTINIAN POET SAMIH AL-QASSEM SAYING: "Arab humanism and nationalism intermingle with a high degree aesthetics. It seems that this background was with me and remains with me."
  • Embargoed: 12th September 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA790C73QZ5MW91DV8CGGYS5SLB
  • Story Text: Samih al-Qassem, a Palestinian poet who holds Israeli citizenship, is well-known as a nationalist, progressive poet of Palestinian resistance.
    The subject matter he deals with focuses on his Palestinian homeland and many of his readers believe his poems help to restore and strengthen the spirit of the Arab people, by calling for renewed resistance and dedication to the cause of Arab nationalism.
    "I am a citizen of this world, it is by coincidence that I am an Arab, by coincidence that I am Palestinian, by coincidence I am a poet and by coincidence that I must struggle. However it is not a coincidence that I am a human being. I chose to be a human being," says al-Qassem, who is a Druze.
    Al-Qassem was born in 1939 in the town of Zarqa in Jordan, where is father was serving in the Jordanian army. The family moved back to the village of Rameh in the Galilee when Samih was a young child remained in the village when Israel was created in 1948. And like all Palestinians who remained in what become Israel, al-Qassem holds Israeli citizenship.
    "Its was not a coincidence that I said in many interviews in the past that, for me, Israel was not created in order to occupy Palestine or to build a Jewish state, or launch wars against the Arabs, or to support the occupation. Israel was created to annoy Samih al-Qassem," he says.
    Al-Qassem refused to serve in the Israeli army and has been held repeatedly put under house arrest and imprisoned because of his activism.
    The large majority of Israel's 70,000 Druze, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, are loyal to the Jewish state and, like Jews, are required to serve in the army. More than 600,000 other Israeli Arabs are barred from military duty on security grounds. As a result, many Druze accuse Israel of trying to separate the Druze from the Arab world.
    Aside from his poetry, al-Qassem works as the chief editor at the Arab Israeli "Kul Al-Arab" newspaper.
    Al-Qassem has been highly critical of the infighting that has been taking place between Palestinian factions and has written many outspoken articles on the political deadlock between Hamas and Fatah.
    "Throwing people in prison because of they have a beard or for wearing Abu Ammar's kufia, this is disgraceful, miserable situation, it doesn't begin to touch on my pain, my sadness," he says.
    "That is my political position and I am very angry. My political stance is anger," he adds.
    Al-Qassem says that when he writes, he tries to interweave his moral and political values with aesthetic literary principles.
    "Arab humanism and nationalism intermingle with a high degree aesthetics. It seems that this background was with me and remains with me," he says.
    Al-Qassem has published numerous collections of poetry, many of which have been translated into English and Hebrew. In 2006, al-Qassem was awarded the Naguib Mahfouz prize for achievement in literature by the Egyptian Writers Union in Cairo.
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