Tawfiq Ziad facts for kids

Tawfiq Ziad (Arabic: توفيق زيّاد, Hebrew: תאופיק זיאד, also spelt Tawfik Zayyad or Tawfeeq Ziad, 7 May 1929 – 5 July 1994) was a Palestinian Israeli politician well known for his "poetry of protest".

Biography

Born in Nazareth, Palestine during the Mandatory Palestine, Ziad was active in communist circles since his youth. His nom de guerre was Abu el-Amin (‘The Trustworthy One’). Ignoring Israeli closure measures, he played an important inspirational role in rallying villagers in the Galilee against a number of measures, and urging a tax revolt. He was arrested at Arrabeh on 24 April 1954, and confined to Nazareth for half a year and therefore subject to restrictions on his freedom of movement. Under Israeli military rule (1948-1966) he was arrested and imprisoned several times. Between 1962 and 1964 he was educated at the Higher Party School in Moscow.

After returning home, he was elected mayor of Nazareth on 9 December 1975, as the leader of the Democratic Front of Nazareth, a victory that is said to have "surprised and alarmed" Israelis. He would serve as mayor for 19 years, until his 1994 death in office.

Elected to the Knesset in the 1973 elections on Rakah's list, Ziad was active in pressuring the Israeli government to change its policies towards Arabs - both those inside Israel and in the occupied Palestinian territories. A report he co-authored on Israeli prison conditions and the use of torture on Palestinian inmates was reprinted in the Israeli newspaper Al HaMishmar. It was also submitted to the United Nations by Tawfik Toubi and Ziad after their visit to Al-Far'ah prison on 29 October 1987. It was subsequently quoted from at length in a UN General Assembly report dated 23 December 1987, where it was described as "Perhaps the best evidence of the truth of the reports describing the repugnant inhumane conditions endured by Arab prisoners."

Poetry

The theme of sumud, which became a major literary theme as a form of resistance, played an important role in Ziad's poetry. He is particularly well known for his poem Here We Will Stay:

In Lydda, in Ramla, in the Galilee,

we shall remain

like a wall upon your chest, and in your throat

like a shard of glass

a cactus thorn,

and in your eyes

a sandstorm,

We shall remain

a wall upon your chest,

clean in your restaurants,

serve drinks in your bars,

sweep the floors of your kitchens

to snatch a bite for our children

from your blue fangs.

Death

Ziad died on 5 July 1994 in a head-on collision in the Jordan Valley on his way back to Nazareth from Jericho after welcoming Yasser Arafat, the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, back from exile. He was survived by his wife and four children. At the time of his sudden death, he was still Mayor of Nazareth, a member of the Knesset and "a leading Arab legislator". A street is named after him in Shefa-'Amr.

See also

In Spanish: Tawfiq Ziyad para niños