Machmud Darwisch

Machmud Darwish (1941–2008) was a Palestinian poet and writer. He was born in al-Birwa, Palestine, and fled to Lebanon in 1948 before later secretly returning to Israel. His poetry collection “Olive Leaves” made him widely known in the 1960s. He left Israel again in 1970 because of political repression and subsequently spent many years in exile. In 1987 he joined the PLO, leaving it in 1993 in connection with the Oslo Accords. His work has been translated into numerous languages. Darwish died in Houston in 2008 and was buried in Ramallah.