I sit in preventive detention
The reason, sir, is that I am an Arab.
An Arab who has refused to sell his soul
Who has always striven, sir, for freedom.
An Arab who has protested the suffering
of his people
Who has spoken out against death
in every corner
Who has called for - has lived -
a fraternal life.
That is why I sit in preventive detention
Because I carried on the struggle
And because I am an Arab.
Fouzi al-Asmar
"Because I am an Arab"
Exiled from his homeland in 1972, Fouzi al-Asmar is the author of numerous works in English, Hebrew, and Arabic, including
Poems from an Israeli Prison
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Palestine: A Photographic Journey... Published 1991Palestine: A Photographic Journey - Page 125 - Google Books Result
books.google.com/books?isbn=0520075447
George Baramki Azar - 1991 - History
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ReplyDeletePalestinian Journalist/Author/Poet/Activist Fouzi El-Asmar, R.I.P.
... On the birth of his twin grandsons Omar and Ziyad, El-Asmar wrote:
YOU burst into the world at the autumn of my life,
But lo and behold: the autumn exploded into the Spring,
You opted to land on a frosty morning
Bringing back to life the chirping nightingales
With the flowing tears of bliss,
Two (blooming) flowers
Filling the deserts, wastelands, and pastures
With their sweet fragrance...
El-Asmar was a doting husband, father, grandfather, a devoted friend, and a respected journalist who died this month at age 76, three weeks after the passing of his wife.
He had asked to be buried in his native land.
Only after becoming an American citizen could he visit Arab countries to speak at conferences, meet with other intellectuals, and promote his publications...
ReplyDeleteFouzi El-Asmar recalled how the inhabited land of mandate Palestine became the state of Israel and how the Arab Christian and Muslim natives were turned into second-class citizens... The experience initially recounted in Hebrew, which he mastered, and later in his native Arabic, was "To Be An Arab In Israel," a searing book published in 1975 and later translated into nine languages. Palestinian Journalist/Author/Poet/Activist Fouzi El-Asmar, R.I.P.
Dr. El-Asmar also wrote several collections of poetry, including Poems from an Israeli Prison and The Wind-driven Reed and Other Poems.
Part of a poem by Fouzi El-Asmar:
" The Wandering Reed
Of what benefit is it, if man were to gain
the whole world
But lose the green almond in his father’s
orchard?
Of what benefit is it,
If man were to drink coffee in Paris
But none in his mother’s house?
Of what benefit is it, if man were to tour
the whole world
But lose the flowers on the hills of his
native land?
He gains nothing but deadly silence
Within the hearts of the living.... "
El-Asmar was a doting husband, father, grandfather, a devoted friend, and a respected journalist who died this month [September 2013] at age 76, three weeks after the passing of his wife: He had asked to be buried in his native land.