Mahmoud Darwish, the world's most recognized Palestinian poet has passed away in a US hospital. Reports said the poet died a Texas hospital three days after he underwent open heart surgery.
Siham Daoud, a fellow poet and a friend of Darwish, said Darwish departed for the US ten days ago for the surgery and asked not to be resuscitated if it did not succeed. According to the AP, she said Darwish has a history of heart problems, and has been operated on twice in the past. The 67-year-old man was placed on life support two days ago following complications arising from the surgery, another friend told AFP.
Darwish has published more than two dozen books of poetry and prose rooted in his experience of Palestinian exile and the bitter Israeli - Palestinian conflict in a career spanning nearly five decades.
20 years ago he wrote the official Palestinian declaration of independence and served on the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) until 1993, when he resigned in protest at the Oslo accords. He has been living in the West Bank town of Ramallah since 1995.
Darwish has been criticizing Israel over the years and was detained several times by Israeli authorities in the 1960s. In the Arab world he has been widely considered one of its greatest living poets.
Born in 1942, in a village in northern Palestine, Darwish and his family were expelled during the 1948 war that followed the creation of Isreal, though they returned to Israel a few years later.
