18 - 24 April 2002
Issue No.582
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 18 - 24 April 2002 Issue No.582 |
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'To Palestine'
"We are gathered here to affirm that Jenin, Nablus, Tulkaram, Qalqiliya, Ramallah, Bethlehem, and those steadfast there in the Church of the Nativity, are our towns and homes; their people, our people; their cause, ours; their martyrs, ours... We are all under siege with the Palestinian people and their leader held hostage..."
Thus spoke Talal Salman, editor and publisher of Al-Safeer newspaper, in a speech opening the 25,000 strong fund-raising solidarity event held in the Beirut Stadium last Sunday and which was titled Hassir Hissarik (Besiege your Siege) after a poem by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. His reading was the main item in a programme that also included Lebanese singers Magda Al-Roumi and Ahmad Qaabour.
Following the Lebanese and Palestinian national anthems and a moment of silence in remembrance of the Palestinian dead, Salman began his speech by reminding the audience of how the stadium in which they were now gathered was the place from which Israel launched its 1982 occupation of Beirut. "Immediately behind us," he reminded those in attendance, "is the site of the Sabra and Shatila massacres, planned and supervised by Ariel Sharon... who, 20 years later, is doing the same in Jenin."
Introduced by Salman, Darwish came to the podium to thunderous applause. Before reading Hassir Hissarik, Al-Qurban (The Offering) and, his most recent poem, Halit Hissar (A State of Siege, the English translation of which appeared in last week's Al-Ahram Weekly -- and before Al-Roumi sang Hassir Hissarak and Qaabour, Tawfiq Zayyad's Unadeekum, he gave a speech which, like Salman's, had as its departure point the Israeli invasion of Lebanon 20 years ago. "Close by, at the port," Darwish reminded the audience, "Yasser Arafat was asked: Where to? He replied with what, then, seemed to us rhetorical wishful thinking: To Palestine... Here we are, 20 years later, and Beirut has risen from the ashes... and the south of Lebanon liberated from occupation... Now, each Arab carries within a Palestinian heart. Now, we are all Palestinians without exception. Palestine has returned to its proper place." Although the details have changed, Darwish pointed out, the antagonist, as army general or elected president, has not.
Neither has the steadfastness of those who, half a century later, are still resisting-living under occupation. "We will love life." Darwish ended the speech bringing in its wake poetry and song, "because we are, till the last moment, the children of life. A freedom fighter from the besieged Jenin refugee camp phoned a friend outside of Jenin and said: 'Tell me a joke before I die.' 'How can you laugh,' his friend replied, 'when you are at the brink of death?' 'Because I love life,' came the answer, 'and I would like to bid her farewell with laughter.'"
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