By Hanin Abu Al Rub
Albawaba.com -- Amman
Palestinian poet Samih Al Qassem said Monday that a government decision to block his travel to Lebanon was more evidence of Israel’s hollow claims of democracy and freedom of speech, and that resistance to the occupation would continue.
“There is no separation between me as an individual and my issue as a Palestinian,” Qassem, an Arab Israeli, told Albawaba.com in a telephone interview.
“This action is nothing but one part of a violent and obvious escalation process against the one million Palestinians who have been living under occupation, choosing to stay in their houses and on their land since 1948.”
Israel barred Qassem, who prefers the term “Palestinian” to “Arab Israeli,” from visiting Lebanon to participate in the program Khalleek Fil-bait (Stay at Home) hosted by the Lebanese poet Zahi Wahbeh for the Future TV Station.
The poet’s strong nationalist views have led to his arrest on more than one occasion, and he has frequently been placed under house arrest.
Qassem said the Israeli authorities and “their oppressive means won’t succeed in closing our mouths and prevent our interconnection with other members of our community, or between us and the nation to which we belong.”
“What has happened to me removes the false cover under which Israel masquerades as a democratic state. It is a state that carries out the worst type of oppression,” Qassem reiterated.
Responding to a question on the relationship between the travel ban and the repression which Israel practices against the 1948 Palestinians, Qassem said, “The Israeli ban on my travel stems from the oppression campaign Israel has launched against us. The Jewish state has always attempted to suppress Palestinian cultural, political and social symbols. This issue is not new to us, and this is the real face of Israel.”
Commenting on reports that the Knesset intends to ban Arab Israelis from travelling to “enemy countries,” Qassem said that “the law was previously passed, but the new thing about it is its inclusion of those with diplomatic immunity. In other words, it applies to all classes.
“But what kind of a state is it that prevents a mother from visiting her daughter after 50 years of separation? Examples of such acts are legion, and despite that, Israel tries to appear in front of the world as the state of freedom and democracy.”
“Everyone should be aware that the Palestinian voice has come this time from the areas occupied in 1948. The trend is now deeper than what Israel thinks it can stop or eliminate,” Qassem said, responding to a question on the Israeli siege of Palestinians and its efforts to divide them.
The poet told Albawaba.com that the Lebanese TV program he missed was considered one of the best cultural programs in the Arab World, and that missing it signified the loss of interconnection with others.
Regarding his participation in other festivals, Qassem said: “I was in Jordan some time ago, where I participated in the Shabib and Ramtha festivals.
“I apologized for not being able to participate in the Jerash festival due to a lack of time. The Jerash festival this year will include an important event -- the participation of Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. Darwish and I complement each other by carrying the Palestinian voice to those who love it. I would like to assure them that the honor of culture won’t fail because culture has its own guards.”
Qassem was born in Jordan’s village of Zarqa in 1939. He received his primary education in the Palestinian town of Ramah and carried out his secondary studies in the city of Nazareth.
The poet first worked in the field of education, but was fired due to his poetry. He later contributed to the establishment of the Arab Land Organization, which aimed at leaving behind joint Arab-Israeli organizations and setting up purely Arab groups.
All of Qassem’s poems were compiled in one work in 1973. He wrote the novel Elal Jahim Ayyuhal Lailak (To Hell with You, Lilacs] in 1977.
