Written By: Naseem Tarawnah

As I write this, I am overcome with a surge of sadness that has not resonated in my heart for quite a long time. For as I write this, the great Arab poet, Mahmoud Darwish, one of my personal heroes, is being laid to rest in Ramallah; mind you, not his village of birth, Al-Birwa (now western Galilee). As I write this, many have flocked the streets of Ramallah to greet the body of an Ambassador and a Champion of the Palestinian cause; the Arab cause.

Darwish’s body was flown from the US to Amman, where I was fortunate enough to attend a rather solemn ceremony that included various dignitaries, ministers and Palestinian Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad. His coffin, draped in a Palestinian flag, was carried forth by Palestinian Liberation Army officers, as Jordanian honor guards saluted the great poet. After a serious of eulogies remembering Darwish, his casket was flown by a Jordanian military helicopter to Ramallah, to be greeted by his homeland for the final time.