RAMALLAH: Tens of thousands of Palestinians, from the West Bank, Arab towns inside Israel and the Golan Heights, were unified yesterday during the official — and popular — funeral of their national poet Mahmud Darwish whose body was buried in this West Bank city.
Some 25,000 residents waving Palestinian, Syrian, and black flags escorted the late poet from the Palestinian presidential compound, Al-Muqataa, to his final resting place on a hillside that was chosen to overlook occupied Jerusalem which Darwish wanted to be the capital of the Palestinian state. As the coffin was lowered into the grave, a small regiment of Palestinian security officers restrained a crowd struggling to catch the last glimpse of the popular poet.
The “lost pillar” died on Saturday from complications after heart surgery at the American Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston, Texas. He was 67. Darwish was the world’s most recognized Palestinian poet, and became a Palestinian cultural icon who eloquently described his people’s struggle for independence and liberation.
Earlier, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, PLO leadership, Muslim and Christian leaders as well as the diplomatic corps accredited to the Palestinian Authority mourned Darwish in an official funeral in Al-Muqataa. Abbas, Darwish’s family and Arab-Palestinian poet Samih Al-Qasem eulogized the national poet in emotional outpourings.
Darwish’s body arrived yesterday in Amman on a special flight from the United States. After a short ceremony with the participation of Jordanian officials, writers, and the Lebanese artist Marcel Khalifah, the casket was loaded onto a Jordanian military helicopter, which flew to Ramallah.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Malki denied that the Palestinian Authority had asked Israel to allow Darwish to be buried in his home village of Al-Barweh, which was destroyed by Israel in 1948.
Ahmad Abdul Rahman, Abbas’ senior adviser, said: “In due time, after a Palestinian state is established, Darwish’s gravesite, like Yasser Arafat’s, will be relocated to Jerusalem — the eternal capital of the Palestinian nation.”
“I would like my son to be buried here (Al-Jdaidah in the western Galilee), but he isn’t just my son, he’s the entire Arab world’s son,” said Darwish’s mother, Houriyah.
“All these years we asked him to come home, but he kept saying that his home may be here, but his work was over there,” said his younger sister, Siham. “I think he would like to be buried here, although he loved Haifa as well.”
