The fedayeen and the process of Palestinian national identity-building in the poetry of Mahmoud Darwish

Abstract

By the end of the sixties, the resurgence of the Palestinian armed resistance movement marked a crucial juncture in the process of nation building. In Lebanon, conditions were so favorable that the guerrilla fighter – or fedayín – rapidly became the symbol of a new collective identity. Song lyrics and poetry provide evidence of the immense popularity he enjoyed in those days, both as a national hero and as a paragon of moral virtues. However, the Palestinian armed presence and military activity on Lebanese soil would eventually destabilize Lebanon’s fragile political system. After the eruption of the civil war (1975-1990), guerrilla fighters lost their momentum. In his poem Ah. mad al-Za‘atar, which was written shortly after the massacre of the Tell Zaatar refugee camp (1976) to commemorate its victims, Mahmoud Darwish captures the essence of that historical moment, and portrays the ethos that the fedayín embodied, the notion of heroic sacrifice which to this day legitimates the Palestinian cause.