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A poet beseiged in Ramallah
The following email letter, from
Sarah Maguire in England, describes a little-known and devastating effect of the Israeli
invasion of the West Bank — the destruction of
Palestinian cultural life. The New People will follow this story, in hopes of presenting an
up-to-date report on the fortunes of Zakaria Mohammed in the next issue.
April 14, 2002
Dear All,
Many of you will know that for some
time I've been translating the poems of the distinguished Palestinian poet, Zakaria
Mohammed, who lives in Ramallah. Some of you met
Zakaria when he came over to England to give some
extraordinarily powerful readings in 1999. Others of you will have read his wonderful poems.
As you'll appreciate, I've been seriously
concerned for his welfare over recent weeks.
Finally, after many failed attempts, I
managed to talk to him earlier this evening. I'm
afraid to report things are worse than I'd imagined.
Zakaria is holed up at home hearing the
Israelis as they work their way through the city rocketing each house, destroying the property
and taking away the male residents. He's waiting
his turn and it sounds as though time is running out.
He and his family (he lives with his wife
and teenage daughter and son) were last able to
leave the house, briefly, on Thursday to get food.
They are fortunate in that, for the time being, their
electricity has been restored and they have running water, though little food left. They are
surrounded by unimaginable destruction, violence and death.
Added to this, Zakaria told me that today
the Israelis have completely destroyed the
incredibly beautiful, well-appointed arts centre, the
Sakakini Centre, where Mahmoud Darwish also edited
Al-Karmel. So the arts are under threat, as well
as people's lives.
The Israelis are systematically
destroying every computer and phone line they can lay
their hands on, so the cultural and social
infrastructure of Palestine is being deliberately obliterated.
It's fair to say that Zakaria is probably
the leading Palestinian poet left inside what
remains of Palestine — Mahmoud Darwish is in
Beirut (he went there the day before the invasion
and, obviously, is unable to return).
When Wole Soyinka, Breyten
Breytenbach and other members of the International
Parliament of Writers visited Ramallah a few weeks ago, Zakaria was chosen to read with
Mahmoud Darwish and the international writers. He's
also a distinguished journalist and, uniquely for a
Palestinian, a columnist.
His columns in the Palestinian press
arguing against suicide bombing and the increasingly
Islamic nature of Palestinian society have led to great widespread condemnation, including a
fatwa being issued against him last year. So he is a
person of enormous distinction — and courage.
I am sending all of you this email because
I know some of you will be as deeply affected by this distressing news as I am. I'm also using
my media contacts in the hope that Zakaria will be interviewed — if contact can be made before
his home is destroyed. I feel it's incumbent on all of for "revenge.") planted three bopmbs at the
Sur-Baher Primary school in East Jerusalem. 12
children and two teachers were injured. The blast occurred around 9 o'clock as the children
were playing outside their classrooms.
Israeli medical teams were slow to arrive
at the scene, Palestinians charged.
The "Nikema" group stated that it would
seek to kill more non-Jews "until the land of Israel
is made pure of gentiles."
HELLO GENTILES IN
AMERICA!!!!!!!! Does this even affect you even in the least?
I mean, really, do you like for your tax dollars
to support this? Maybe you can find no sympathy for the vow to kill Palestinians. . .but what
about the vow to kill all gentiles?
I am thinking now of the man who killed
the Israeli soldiers the other day. He had 25
bullets. One archaic gun. Twenty-four bullets hit their
target. I think seven were fatal shots and the
rest injurious. Then he disappeared into the hills
leaving behind the spent weapon.
Until the world gets in step with the reality
of the situation here, this is all the people have
to hope for. I would appreciate it if President
Bush and his minions would stop saying "Arafat
should do more to prevent. . . ," while at the same
time they support the bombing of his facilities.
Well, it is time to make my way to the
downtown. I hope the planes take a coffee break
until I can return to the university.
LONG LIVE PALESTINE
Calista Weichel
sisyphus_in_hijab@hotmail.com
The New People
Table of Contents, May 2002
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