Palestine Profiles: Poet Fadwa Tuqan

Palestine Profiles is a new series of posts about important figures in Palestinian history and society. This inaugural profile features renowned Palestinian poet Fadwa Tuqan, timed to coincide with International Women's Day, March 8th, 2016.

by Zeina Azzam


Palestinian poet Fadwa Tuqan (1917-2003) was was born to a prominent family in the West Bank city of Nablus during the year of the Balfour Declaration, which presaged the eventual dispossession of the Palestinian people of their homeland. Her poetry reflected the pain, loss, and anger of the Nakba, the experience of fleeing war and living as a refugee, and the courageous aspirations of the Palestinians to nationhood and return to their homeland. She also wrote about resistance to Israel’s
injustices and life under Israeli military occupation, especially after Nablus fell to Israeli forces in 1967, heralding Israel’s long-term occupation of the West Bank, which remains to this day.

Tuqan’s early writings spoke about her personal struggle as a woman in Arab society, a subject she also discusses in her autobiography. Her poetry evolved from the more formal and structured style of the first half of the twentieth century to verse that was freer in its presentation and form. Tuqan has been described as one of three major female Arab poets—with Iraqi Nazik al-Mala’ika and Palestinian Salma Khadra al-Jayyusi—who “embraced the modern poem.” Al-Jayyusi writes that Tuqan “was one of the first major poets to work toward emotional veracity, laying the foundation for feminine explorations of love and social protest.” Palestine’s national poet, Mahmoud Darwish, named her “the mother of Palestinian poetry.”

Fadwa Tuqan was influenced greatly by her brother, Ibrahim Tuqan, one of Palestine’s most famous nationalist poets. She studied English literature at Oxford University and won several international literary prizes. She published over a dozen diwans, or collections of poetry, as well as a two-part autobiography, the first part translated as A Mountainous Journey: A Poet’s Autobiography. A list of her writings appears here. In 1999, Palestinian writer and filmmaker Liana Badr wrote and directed a film about her titled, “Fadwa: A Tale of a Palestinian Poetess.” For more about Tuqan’s life, read this profile and obituary.

There are many poems by Fadwa Tuqan, translated from Arabic into English, which can be found online. Here are a few selections:

1.   
“Enough for Me”

Enough for me to die on her earth

be buried in her

to melt and vanish into her soil…

(read more)

2.   
“The Deluge and the Tree”

       When the hurricane swirled and spread its deluge
       of dark evil
       onto the good green land…
       (read more)

3.   
“A Prayer to the New Year”

In our hands is a fresh yearning for you,

in our eyes songs of praise and unique melodies,

into your hand as choral offerings we will thrust them…

(read more)

4.   
“Longing Inspired by the Law of Gravity” (one of the last poems that Fadwa Tuqan
wrote before she died in 2003)

Time’s out and I’m home alone with the shadow I cast

Gone is the law of the universe, scattered by frivolous fate

Nothing to hold down my things…

(read more)

Zeina Azzam is Executive Director of  The Jerusalem Fund and Palestine Center. 

read more...

Palestine Profiles: Poet Fadwa Tuqan

Palestine Profiles is a new series of posts about important figures in Palestinian history and society. This inaugural profile features renowned Palestinian poet Fadwa Tuqan, timed to coincide with International Women's Day, March 8th, 2016.

Palestinian poet Fadwa Tuqan (1917-2003) was was born to a prominent family in the West Bank city of Nablus during the year of the Balfour Declaration, which presaged the eventual dispossession of the Palestinian people of their homeland. Her poetry reflected the pain, loss, and anger of the Nakba, the experience of fleeing war and living as a refugee, and the courageous aspirations of the Palestinians to nationhood and return to their homeland. She also wrote about resistance to Israel’s injustices and life under Israeli military occupation, especially after Nablus fell to Israeli forces in 1967, heralding Israel’s long-term occupation of the West Bank, which remains to this day.

Tuqan’s early writings spoke about her personal struggle as a woman in Arab society, a subject she also discusses in her autobiography. Her poetry evolved from the more formal and structured style of the first half of the twentieth century to verse that was freer in its presentation and form. Tuqan has been described as one of three major female Arab poets—with Nazik al-Mala’ika and Salma Khadra al-Jayyusi—who “embraced the modern poem.” Al-Jayyusi writes that Tuqan “was one of the first major poets to work toward emotional veracity, laying the foundation for feminine explorations of love and social protest.” Palestine’s national poet, Mahmoud Darwish, named her “the mother of Palestinian poetry.”

Fadwa Tuqan was influenced greatly by her brother, Ibrahim Tuqan, one of Palestine’s most famous nationalist poets.  She studied English literature at Oxford University and won several international literary prizes. She published over a dozen diwans, or collections of poetry, as well as a two-part autobiography, the first part translated as A Mountainous Journey: A Poet’s Autobiography. A list of her writings appears here. In 1999, Palestinian writer and filmmaker Liana Badr wrote and directed a film about her titled, “Fadwa: A Tale of a Palestinian Poetess.” For more about Tuqan’s life, read this profile and obituary.

There are many poems by Fadwa Tuqan, translated from Arabic into English, which can be found online. Here are a few selections:

1.       “Enough for Me”

Enough for me to die on her earth

be buried in her

to melt and vanish into her soil…

(read more)

2.       “The Deluge and the Tree”

       When the hurricane swirled and spread its deluge
       of dark evil
       onto the good green land…
       (read more)

3.       “A Prayer to the New Year”

In our hands is a fresh yearning for you,

in our eyes songs of praise and unique melodies,

into your hand as choral offerings we will thrust them…

(read more)

4.       “Longing Inspired by the Law of Gravity” (one of the last poems that Fadwa Tuqan wrote)

Time’s out and I’m home alone with the shadow I case

Gone is the law of the universe, scattered by frivolous fate

Nothing to hold down my things…

(read more)

read more...

Facing a Harsh Winter in Palestine

Those of us living in Washington, DC, New York, and other cities on the East Coast of the United States have just experienced a momentous storm, with some areas receiving well over two feet of snow. We worried about the possibility of losing electricity, on which heat and kitchen appliances depend. We complained about the lack of immediate municipal services charged with cleaning our roads. We stocked up on food and essentials to wait out the storm in our well-insulated homes.

Such anxieties pale next to the harsh reality of winter in Palestine.  A recent article about Palestinian schoolteachers up for a global teaching award showed a photograph of one of their classrooms: the teacher and all the children in this West Bank school were wearing their coats and jackets inside. This is perhaps because many of these schools are not heated well, if at all, making the harsh winter cold a constant reality, both indoors and outdoors.

In the Gaza Strip, the situation is quite dire. This winter, Israel has drastically reduced gas supplies to Gaza. More than 20 percent of households there have no access to gas, and many hospitals and schools are in the same situation. Electricity has been cut from 8-10 hours to 4-8 hours/day. The result is a population denied adequate heat, the ability to cook and run greenhouses for growing their food, and many of the basic needs of daily life.

The situation in Gaza is acute largely because of Israel’s war on the strip in the summer of 2014, which left it devastated. There has been little or no rebuilding in many areas. A large number of people are homeless, living in makeshift homes that are insufficient to shield them from the elements. “There is no electricity, water, food or gas. We don’t even have firewood. Our life here is poverty, worries, blockade and homelessness,” says a Palestinian mother. The rains also often bring flooding.

Regarding health in the Gaza Strip, UNRWA states that “Food insecurity and rising poverty mean that most residents cannot meet their daily caloric requirements, while over 90 per cent of the water in Gaza has been deemed unfit for human consumption.” To be sure, Israel’s closure of Gaza since 2007 has wreaked havoc with the population’s fundamental requirements, like food, water, and shelter. Gaza’s infant mortality rate has increased from 2008 to 2013, and medical professionals attribute the cause to the long-term blockade of Gaza. This is the first such rise in fifty years.

On the West Bank, Israeli home demolitions continue. On February 2^nd, Israel demolished 23 homes in two poor southern West Bank villages, leaving 100 Palestinians homeless and in the cold. Some of the displaced will now live in caves, as they have nowhere to go.

Cold and wet weather in Palestine will not be over anytime soon, and the situation could get even worse. Just last week a storm brought snow and freezing weather, closing Palestinian schools for days. In 2014 and 2015, storms delivered feet of snow and brought cities to a standstill. Many fear there will be a repeat this year.

Indeed, there are problems caused by nature, such as heavy rain or snow storms and severe cold, and those purposefully caused by humans, such as Israel's military occupation, wars against Gaza, and house demolitions. The combination of the two makes for an arduous, often deadly, situation for the Palestinians. The international community needs to remember, and act on, the fact that the impoverished or homeless population in the West Bank and Gaza requires critical aid to stay warm during these severe winter months. Gaza, in particular, needs urgent support, especially as a result of Israel's destructive policies.

Zeina Azzam is executive director of The Jerusalem Fund and its educational program, the Palestine Center. The views expressed are her own.

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Bethlehem: Living Between Tear Gas and Christmas Ornaments

“During the Christmas season, while the Palestinian community, comprising Christians and Muslims, was celebrating the lighting of the Christmas tree on manger square, young Palestinians, who were demonstrating their longing for freedom, were shot at, wounded, and some even killed by re-invading soldiers of the Israeli occupation. Two contradictory phenomena are so poignantly met in Bethlehem, as we continue to live between tear gas and Christmas ornaments, between shattered hopes and resilient faith.”

Rev. Mitri Raheb, pastor of Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem, penned these words as his Christmas message this year. He also cited this line from the carol, “O Little Town of Bethlehem”: “The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.”

For the West Bank city of Bethlehem, believed to be the birthplace of Jesus, the juxtaposition of hopes and fears is the stuff of everyday life. That Palestinians of all faiths in Bethlehem and throughout the West Bank, Jerusalem, Gaza, Israel, and the diaspora hold onto hope and have faith in a better future is a challenging feat indeed. Starting with the violent dislocation of three-quarters of a million Palestinians in 1948, Israel’s military occupation in 1967 of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem, and a number of major wars, military assaults, and oppressive policies, Palestinians have endured lifetimes of injustice.

In their latest expression of frustration at Israel's military occupation, Palestinians are facing deepening and brutal policies of suppression. Between October 2 and December 18, 2015, in the occupied territories, 121 Palestinians (men, women, and minors) were killed by Israeli forces, police officers, and settlers, and thousands have been injured.  Several of the dead hailed from Bethlehem and its three refugee camps, Dheisheh, Aida, and Beit Jibrin—all of which were established soon after the Nakba in 1948.

In the Western imagination, the “little town of Bethlehem” is a romanticized, mythological town that appears on Christmas cards and is usually depicted by a bucolic nativity scene with wise men, animals, Mary, Joseph, Jesus in a manger, and a bright star above all.  In reality, Bethlehem is a besieged city surrounded by a 26-foot-high wall erected on much of its perimeter. This imposing edifice prevents many farmers from getting to their land and restricts residents from performing everyday actions, like going to school or work. By the time it is completed, 56 kilometers of this barrier—which many call the apartheid wall—will leave 12 communities physically separated from the rest of Bethlehem.

Fully 85 percent of the Governorate of Bethlehem is classified as part of Area C—under complete Israeli control in all security and civil matters. In addition, there are 19 settlements—illegal according to international law and officially opposed by the U.S. government—surrounding the governorate which house over 100,000 Israeli settlers. In the last three months, there were 39 incidents of settler violence in Bethlehem—these are cases that involve assault, raids, destruction of property, abductions, injuries, and other aggressive acts perpetrated against Palestinians by Israeli settlers. Settler violence goes largely unpunished, so settlers feel they have tacit impunity for their actions.

In March of 2014 Pope Francis visited the West Bank and made a surprise stop in Bethlehem to pray at the separation wall. Many Palestinians interpreted his gesture as a nod to Palestinian suffering. One Palestinian Catholic witnessing the event said, “He is trying to tell the world what is happening to Palestinians is so unfair… We are dying inside.”

Challenging circumstances require creative responses, as in a bold move on December 18 by Bethlehem Palestinians who dressed up as Santa Clauses and marched to the separation wall. “For Christmas I want every child back home,” they chanted, referring to the growing number of Palestinian children whom Israeli soldiers have arrested in the last two months.

A January 2015 report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs concluded that “Israeli policies and practices applied since the beginning of the occupation, which have accelerated in recent years, have resulted in the increasing fragmentation of the Bethlehem governorate and its population.” The policies include land seizure, settlement building, restrictions on physical and administrative access, inadequate planning and zoning, and ineffective enforcement of the law on Israeli settlers. The result is a vulnerable population living in a fragmented physical and social space.

Like Rev. Mitri Raheb, Bethlehem’s mayor, Vera Baboun, also characterizes Bethlehem as having contradictory identities: “Bethlehem, the Palestinian city under siege, and Bethlehem, the universal city of the message of peace,” she says. This Christmas season, as Christians the world over sing of Baby Jesus’s little town of Bethlehem, they must also remember that this city remains under a crippling Israeli occupation. There will be no meaningful peace in Bethlehem as long as the Palestinians there have to live with the wall, settlements, and an unrelenting military chokehold.

Zeina Azzam is executive director of The Jerusalem Fund and its educational program, the Palestine Center. The views expressed are her own.

read more...

Trump’s Latest Muslim Bashing: The Country Must Redouble Efforts to Defeat Him

Listening to and reading Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s vicious comments and speeches against Muslims over the last several weeks is bad enough, but of special concern is the reaction of the crowds he addresses. On December 7 he read this statement at a rally in South Carolina:

“Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what the hell is going on,” he said, adding the word “hell” for emphasis this time.

The Washington Post also reported that “Supporters erupted in applause.”

Alarmingly, more and more Americans seem to be applauding Trump’s statements, which discriminate against and disparage Muslims. He flaunts his bigotry and racism freely, giving license to his supporters to do the same.

The venom with which this presidential candidate has been imbuing the Republican Party is moving the national conversation about diversity, tolerance, and respect to the far right. Earlier, Trump also called for stepped-up surveillance of mosques, and he did not rule out the establishment of a database to track Muslims in the country.

Those in leadership positions—whether sitting presidents, or those vying for the role—have a responsibility not to incite hostility toward religious or national groups. They must invoke and buttress the protections for all citizens regarding freedom of religion, which are enshrined in the US Constitution. As for the treatment of non-citizens or refugees, it is incumbent on leaders to provide wisdom and moderation, not xenophobic diatribes that paint the United States as prejudiced and partisan with little empathy, especially, for victims fleeing war.

Despite media questioning and negative repercussions from many in American society, Trump continues to do well in the polls. Each time he makes an outrageous pronouncement, he receives an abundance of attention, which serves to keep his ratings high. In a sense he is rewarded, time and again, for offensive remarks that damage the fabric of American society.

In the American Muslim and Arab communities, these are chilling and shocking developments. US Muslim leaders are calling for extra protection for community members, as hate crimes and vandalism of mosques are on the rise.  Many Muslim women who wear the hijab now are afraid to go out in public. Muslim parents are fearful that their children will be mistreated, and many in the community are experiencing increased profiling when traveling inside and outside the country. Racist comments against Muslims pervade the internet.

President Obama’s address to the nation regarding the San Bernardino attacks and the war on ISIS, on December 6, rightly cautioned that “We cannot turn against one another by letting this fight be defined as a war between America and Islam.” The president admonished Americans to “reject proposals that Muslim Americans should somehow be treated differently.”

On Facebook and other social media platforms, many are saying that the Trump campaign, which was viewed with mockery and amusement at first, has become downright dangerous. It is now clear that Americans were silent for too long and did not realize they needed to halt Trump’s scurrilous campaign in its early stages. The country—Republicans, Democrats, and everyone else—must rally together to undo the damage this leading Republican presidential candidate has already caused. Together, we must also work hard to try to make Trump’s supporters understand the perniciousness and divisiveness of his views and to put the reins on the candidate’s progress toward securing the Republican nomination.

Zeina Azzam is executive director of The Jerusalem Fund and its educational program, the Palestine Center. The views expressed are her own.

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Bashing Arabs, Muslims, and Refugees

The bomb attacks in Beirut on November 12^th, and in Paris on November 13^th, have underscored the brutality of the Islamic State. ISIS has also claimed responsibility for horrific attacks in other countries including Turkey, Egypt, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, and Iraq.

Judging by the vitriolic reactions against Muslims—and especially Syrians—in U.S. society after the Paris bombings, it is clear that few understand that the vast majority of the casualties of ISIS’s bloody strikes are actually Muslims. The group has wreaked havoc in majority Muslim states for a number of years. But so many people in Europe and the United States seem not to understand that the Islamic State does not represent Muslims, and that Muslims are in fact terrified by and abhor the savage tactics of the group. They are trying desperately to escape the lands under ISIS control.

In the same way as during the aftermath of 9/11, we are now witnessing a hysteria against Muslims in the United States. The latest ISIS attack has made many question allowing Syrian and Iraqi refugees into the country; indeed, the House of Representative just approved tougher refugee screening—a brazen move against President Obama, who has threatened to veto such legislation. Earlier this week, thirty governors called for stopping the resettlement of Syrian refugees in the United States altogether.

In fact, negative perceptions and treatment of Arabs and Muslims started way before 9/11, with media analyst Jack Shaheen characterizing stereotypes of Arabs as “bombers, belly dancers, and billionaires.” After 9/11, Shaheen notes, Muslims and Arabs took on the more heinous stereotype of the villain in Hollywood and in American popular culture.

Stereotyping is the first phase in a vicious cycle that leads to prejudice, and then, to discrimination. This “psychology of prejudice” suggests a strong linkage between stereotyping (for example, “Syrians are violent”), prejudice (“I don’t want Syrians to be settled in my state because they are violent”), and discrimination (“Let’s pass laws against allowing Syrians in our country”). In the United States we have experienced this same process—stereotyping leading to prejudice, leading to discrimination—historically with many ethnic, racial, and other minority groups, but most visibly and profoundly with the African-American community, to disastrous results that continue to reverberate deeply in our society today.

In Israel, Prime Minister Netanyahu took advantage of the current global antagonism against Muslims and Islam and declared the Islamic Movement in Israel an unlawful association. The timing for this declaration is clearly to plant the idea in the international community that this Islamic group, which represents many Palestinian citizens in Israel, espouses similar violent strategies as ISIS. The Palestinian civil and human rights group, Adalah, countered that the Islamic Movement “is part of the national representative bodies and elected local bodies of the Palestinian citizens of Israel, and all its political activities are in accordance with the law. The order issued by the Defense Minister, without a hearing or trial, is a violation and crackdown on the Islamic Movement’s rights to freedom of association and political expression, and harms the Palestinian-Arab minority in Israel as a whole.”

The situation of the Palestinian citizens of Israel is a true example of institutionalized discrimination. Indeed, there are over 50 laws in Israel, enacted since the establishment of the state in 1948, which discriminate directly or indirectly against the Palestinian citizens of the country in such arenas as “political participation, access to land, education, state budget resources, and criminal procedures.”

It’s a slippery slope from stereotyping to prejudice to discrimination, and the United States should look at its own history—and that of its allies—as a cautionary tale. It would serve us well to check our words and public pronouncements about Arabs, Muslims, and refugees before making hasty decisions that are harmful to us and to those we are trying to help.

Zeina Azzam is executive director of The Jerusalem Fund and its educational program, the Palestine Center. The views expressed are her own.

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