World Bulletin / News Desk

Samih al-Qasim, one of the most well-known contemporary Palestinian poets, has passed away after losing his three-year battle against cancer.

Known as one of the most popular names in modern Arab poetry, 75-year-old al-Qasim was recognized as a symbol of resistance and revolution.

Al-Qasim was born in 1939 in the city of az-Zarqa in northern Jordan while his father served in the Arab Legion of King Abdullah.

He came from a Druze family from the town of Rameh in the Upper Galilee where he attended primary there and then later graduated from secondary school in Nazareth.

His family did not flee Rame during the Palestinian exodus (Nakba) of 1948, which he recorded in his book About Principles and Art, saying:

'While I was still at primary school the Palestinian tragedy occurred. I regard that date as the date of my birth, because the first images I can remember are of the 1948 events. My thoughts and images spring from the number 48.'

He was jailed several times for his political activities that have involved advocacy for Palestinian rights and dissent against government policies, starting in 1960 for refusal to enlist in the Israeli army which is required of Israeli Druze.