Latest news with #MahmoudDarwish
Saba Yemen
31-05-2025
- Politics
- Saba Yemen
Massive Rally in Greek Capital Demands End to Israeli Massacres in Gaza
Athens – Saba: The Greek capital, Athens, witnessed a massive demonstration in protest of the ongoing Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip and in solidarity with the Palestinian people. Thousands of pro-Palestine supporters took part in the protest, which began in central Athens and marched toward the Israeli embassy. Protesters chanted slogans condemning the Israeli aggression and voiced support for Palestine and its right to freedom and independence. The peaceful demonstration was organized by the Greek Workers' Union 'PAME.' The event was highlighted by the participation of Arjwan Al-Farra, a young wounded child from Gaza, who recited excerpts from the poem 'On This Earth What Deserves Life' by the late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. Whatsapp Telegram Email Print more of (International)
Leaders
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Leaders
American Actor Reads Palestinian Poem by Mahmoud Darwish
A video went viral on social media showing the American actor Richard Gere reading a poem by Mahmoud Darwish, a celebrated Palestinian poet and author. 'This is a poem by Mahmoud Darwish, who I met many years ago,' Gere said. As you prepare your breakfast, think of others (do not forget the pigeon's food). As you conduct your wars, think of others (do not forget those who seek peace). As you pay your water bill, think of others (those who are nursed by clouds). As you return home, to your home, think of others (do not forget the people of the camps). As you sleep and count the stars, think of others (those who have nowhere to sleep). As you liberate yourself in metaphor, think of others (those who have lost the right to speak). As you think of others far away, think of yourself (say: 'If only I were a candle in the dark'). @ajplus The Amercian actor Richard Gere read a poem by Mahmoud Darwish, a celebrated Palestinian poet and author whose work articulated the struggles, exile and identity of the Palestinian people. #MahmoudDarwish #Palestine #Gaza #Palestinian #Poem #Poetry #Falasteen #Israel #Solidarity #RichardGere ♬ 10 minutes, nature, ambient, meditation, yoga(952470) – Gloveity Mahmoud Darwish Mahmoud Darwish As a Palestinian poet, Darwish explored themes of struggle, displacement, and identity. He received several awards and honors such as the Ibn Sina Prize, the Lenin Peace Prize, the 1969 Lotus Prize from the Union of Afro-Asian Writers and France's Knight of Arts and Belles Lettres medal in 1997. Furthermore, he was awarded the 2001 Prize for Cultural Freedom from the Lannan Foundation, the Moroccan Wissam of Intellectual Merit handed to him by King Mohammad VI of Morocco, and the USSR's Stalin Peace Prize. Related Topics: American TikToker Exposes Israel's Torture of Palestinian Detainees American Jewish Activist Accuses Israel of Genocide Gaza War, Deportations Spark Anti-Trump Protests in US Short link : Post Views: 1
Al Bawaba
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Al Bawaba
Richard Gere recites Mahmoud Darwish poem in solidarity with Palestinians
ALBAWABA - Richard Gere shares emotional poem in support of Palestinian people. Also Read Bella Hadid raises the Palestinian flag in the streets of Paris In a social media video this week, Richard Gere read a poem by the late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish as a heartfelt humanitarian gesture in support of the Palestinian people. "As you prepare your breakfast... think of others." The poem "Think of Others," which emphasizes the pain of the Palestinian people due to decades of persecution, injustice, and displacement, was selected by the international celebrity. "As you prepare your breakfast, think of others (don't forget the pigeons' food)" is one of the poem's heartwarming lines. Remember those who are fighting for peace as you fight your own wars. When you pay your water bill, consider the people who are helping the clouds. Remember the folks in the camps and keep others in mind as you head back home. Consider others (those without a place to sleep) while you sleep and count the stars. In the video, Richard Gere also disclosed that he had met Mahmoud Darwish many years prior, highlighting the poet's significant influence on him. Richard Gere recited the poem at a time when Israel was still attacking the Gaza Strip after the ceasefire that was declared in January of last year collapsed. His act has drawn a lot of attention on social media due to the continued atrocities and forced relocation. The Artists4Ceasefire campaign, which advocates for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, the delivery of humanitarian aid to the besieged region, and the release of prisoners and detainees, posted the video. The group added that the poem was sung in memory of Pope Francis, who startled millions of Catholics worldwide when he passed away on Monday from a heart attack and stroke. The Israeli administration was incensed at the Pope's frequent expressions of criticism of the war in Gaza. According to the campaign, the deceased Pope "embodied the message of Darwish's poem through his profound compassion and compassionate actions toward all who suffer." NORTH HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA - APRIL 08: Richard Gere (Photo by Jon Kopaloff / Getty Images via AFP) Known for his parts in popular movies like Chicago and Pretty Woman, Richard Gere has visited with the relatives of Israeli prisoners in Gaza before. He hasn't held back, though, when criticizing Israeli policy. In his 2017 tour to the West Bank, he called Israeli settlements "a ludicrous and completely illegal provocation," saying they "do not express the sincere intentions of any genuine peace process."
Middle East Eye
10-03-2025
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
These four books show how Israeli-American savagery is on the losing side of history
The publication in recent months of four books on the Israel-Palestine conflict has given the world a solid moral platform to begin holding genocidal Zionism accountable for the mass killing and annihilation that has unfolded in Gaza. These books could prove even more important than the judgements of international courts. While they are preceded by countless publications on the subject by Palestinian thinkers in multiple languages and on multiple platforms, these four books have two particular features in common: none were written by a Palestinian, Arab or Muslim, and all were published in the shadow of the Gaza genocide. To be sure, Palestinians themselves remain the principal spokespeople for their cause, providing the most eloquent case against the historic savageries they have endured for generations. The Palestinian people have given the world such brilliant thinkers as Mahmoud Darwish, Ghassan Kanafani, Fadwa Tuqan, Adania Shibli, Michel Khleifi, Refaat Alareer, May Masri, Mona Hatoum, Elia Suleiman, Emily Jacir, Kamal Aljafari, Mosab Abu Toha, Nizar Hassan, and countless others who do not need anyone to speak for them. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters The preeminent scholar Edward Said alone was an institution who radically altered the whole language of how the world thinks about the savageries of global colonialism, particularly in his Palestinian homeland. Generation after generation, Palestinian artists, filmmakers, scholars, poets, novelists and revolutionary thinkers have turned the Palestinian cause into a global uprising. So if our attention now turns to four non-Palestinian authors, it does not mean Palestinians needed them. But the world needed them, for the globalisation of the Palestinian cause is now a moral imperative without borders. Interrogating Zionism The constellation of these four non-Palestinian thinkers - Rabbi Shaul Magid, American authors Peter Beinart and Ta-Nehisi Coates, and Indian writer Pankaj Mishra - points to the unfolding of a different trajectory that sustains hope amid the terrorising darkness, in which US President Donald Trump sits next to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, claiming that Gaza belongs to them. The sheer obscenity of this scene should not distract from the larger picture, in which a different vision of the world is fast dawning. Follow Middle East Eye's live coverage of the Israel-Palestine war Two of these four books are by prominent Jewish critical thinkers, one of them a rabbi. The third is a by a renowned African American author, and the fourth by a globally celebrated Indian intellectual. No hasbara propaganda machinery, Zionist outfit nor corrupt gang of US politicians can dismiss, deny or demonise their work as 'antisemitism'. Antisemitism is a real western sickness, as is Islamophobia. Jews and Muslims are united in their struggles against both maladies. The first text, Magid's The Necessity of Exile (2023), examines the question of 'exile' in a Judaic context, and uses this to interrogate the entire project of Zionism. He puts the idea of exile in both historic and contemporary terms, for the issues that Jewish communities around the world face are not merely political, but go to the heart of their ancestral faith. Decolonisation is a force of history that will unfold and dismantle the apparatuses of colonial powers - past, present and future How could any decent human being, particularly a moral Jewish person, stand by and witness generations of Palestinians being slaughtered in their name, and remain silent? Magid's book is historic evidence that such principled Jewish thinkers have never been silent. The second book, Beinart's Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza (2025), is a reckoning by an eloquent Jewish American thinker of the dangers facing his faith after it has been used and abused to commit mass murder, war crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing and now genocide. Central to this book is the fact that it was written by a former committed Zionist, one who was born and raised advocating for the Israeli apartheid state, and who only later in life realised the state and ideology he was rooting for was a murderous killing machine. We might ask how this deeply learned and cultivated man previously missed the groundswell of Palestinian voices crying out for justice, chief among them Said's globally admired scholarship right here at Columbia University in New York. But still, better late than never. Beinart is a widely admired Jewish intellectual, and rightly so. His eloquent words reach far and deep into Jewish and non-Jewish corners of this country. He is a much-needed voice in a global chorus that demands solidarity with Palestinians. Historic uprising As for Coates, I have already written on the significance of his book The Message (2024), though in terms only significant to his own liberation from deceitful Zionist propaganda. Placed in the context of these four books, Coates brings the entire force of multi-generational African American liberation struggles to bear witness to the terror of genocidal Zionism in Palestine. But the real fire comes from outside the US. Entirely removed from the American domain, and thus far more global and liberated in his critical thinking, Mishra puts a radically different spin on the world's defiance of complicity with the Israeli genocide. In The World After Gaza (2025), Mishra shares with readers how he, too, began his political consciousness convinced by his Hindu nationalist household of the righteousness of the Israeli cause, even sporting a picture of Israeli warlord Moshe Dayan on his bedroom wall. He thus begins his book by entering the confessional cabinet and sharing details of his deeply Zionist upbringing. How Ta-Nehisi Coates broke free of liberal Zionism Read More » Anytime I read such confessionals, I wonder: what planet did these dear and learned friends live on before they finally saw the light? But at this moment in history, it no longer matters. What matters is Mishra's astounding ability to be not polemic, but persuasive. He speaks for a common decency based on a shared history, in which both Palestinians and Israelis can find not just a political, but a moral homeland. The sheer magnitude of Israeli savagery in Gaza and the occupied West Bank; the barefaced vulgarities of Israeli warlords and American presidents, capped off with the criminal thuggeries of the Trump administration - these have finally awakened the world, across religious and political divides. What these timely books reveal is a turning tide. From here, the world cannot plunge into another sea of ignorance or apathy. This historic uprising against the vicious recycling of western colonial powers in Palestine will never stop. Decolonisation is a force of history that will unfold and dismantle the apparatuses of colonial powers - past, present and future. The world looks at the ridiculous sight of Trump and his clan of kleptocratic billionaires with contempt and defiance. This is not a battle between Jews and non-Jews, nor even between Israelis and Palestinians. This is a battle between right and wrong, truth and falsehood, fact and fiction. All decent human beings, Jews and Palestinians in particular, are on one side, facing an army of deceit and violence on the other. The battlefronts are crystal clear, and as Martin Luther King Jr once said: 'The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.' Period. The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
The National
14-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The National
Love can be a form of resistance in a world not short of despair
Shelina Janmohamed is an author and a culture columnist for The National February 14, 2025 Love can feel like the softest of sentiments. Especially when we're surrounded by cookie cutter templates of what it looks like, on a day like Valentine's day. Even if you don't celebrate Valentine's day, you can make your love a form of resistance to commodification, resistance to the superficiality of pinks and reds and cuddly toys. If you do celebrate it, enjoy the hearts, flowers, cards and meals. Make your love a form of resistance in a world of growing hate, division and despair. Make it intentional, a statement of humanity, respect and value for another. Stories that make the news often depict such templates of love, that don't fit the soft focus Hollywood or Hallmark depictions. A mother in Afghanistan educating her daughters at home in the face of erasing women and their rights is love as resistance. Images of a wedding in Gaza amid the destruction is the real life version of love as resistance. The photographs of medics treating orphaned children in the destruction of Palestinian hospitals, rescuing babies under rubble – this tenderness is love as resistance. In London, the Imam who in 2017 stood over a terrorist who attacked the Finsbury park mosque to protect him from being attacked by crowds may be described as a hero – he was awarded for his heroism. But his act of saving the man should also be seen as an act of his love in the face of discord and violence. In the same year, in the US, two men were stabbed to death on a train in Portland, Oregon defending Muslims from slurs. That incident can also be seen as love as resistance. There are countless brave acts of love. The women's marches holding hands, the peace marches with people from all backgrounds. Too often, we see stories of hate and division on the news, on social media. But even in these spaces, we so often also see stories that stand out, that become the blood in the veins of our social discourse. There are so many other examples that give voice to love and humanity. And poets and musicians and artists understand this all too well. Mahmoud Darwish through his poetry resisted with love. So did Umm Kulthoum, Fayrouz and many others through their songs. Love is powerful in all its forms – romantic, familial, and communal. It is the ultimate tool in times of hardship. Through storytelling, love is not just experienced – it is documented and shared. Those who seek to oppress and dehumanise will seek to erase the stories of love. And often the most striking of these are found in the most difficult circumstances. In Gaza last year, when three-year-old Reem was killed, we saw the deep emotion of her Palestinian grandfather Khaled Nabhan, who called her the "soul of my soul". His existential love for her can also be considered resistance against oppression . And people stood with him a year later when he too was killed. There are so many such stories just in Gaza. Love is not passive. It is an act of defiance. In today's world, it is our distinction from Al. It is about speaking up when silence is demanded. It is about loving the truth, facts and justice in a world that can seek to distort and destroy them. As we increasingly walk in the shadow of polarisation and confusion, we can become tired and disoriented, unable to resist feeling defeated. And too tired for resistance can mean too tired for love. Because hate is easier. I think of my own story. Years ago, I wrote a book titled Love in a Headscarf, a tale of my search for love. At the time, I thought it was just my story. But now I see it as an act of resistance, in the face of constantly being told love wasn't for Muslim women, for South-Asian women. That as a woman with such an identity, I wasn't seen as worthy of love or with a right to it. To challenge that, my story for me became one of love as resistance. Your love is also resistance. Your love is an act of defiance that asserts your existence beyond mere survival. It is a declaration that you are not just alive – you are human.
