Tawfiq Ziad

Tawfiq Ziad (Arabic: توفيق زيّاد‎, Hebrew: תאופיק זיאד‎, also spelt Tawfik Zayyad or Tawfeeq Ziad, 7 May 1929 – 5 July 1994) was an Israeli Arab politician well known for his "poetry of protest".[1]

Tawfiq Ziad
Faction represented in the Knesset
1973–1977Rakah
1977–1990Hadash
1992–1994Hadash
Personal details
Born7 May 1929
Nazareth, Mandatory Palestine
Died5 July 1994(1994-07-05) (aged 65)
Jordan Valley, West Bank

Biography

Born in Nazareth during the Mandate era, 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.[2] Under Israeli military rule (1948-1966) he was arrested and imprisoned several times, and in 1955 he was tortured in the Tiberias prison.[3][4] Between 1962 and 1964 he was educated at the Higher Party School in Moscow.[5]

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.[6]

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."[7]

Poetry

The theme of sumud, which became a major literary theme as a form of resistance, played an important role in Ziad's poetry.[8][9] 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. [10]

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.[11] 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.

Footnotes
  1. Ben Ze'ev 2011, p. 218
  2. Hatim Kanaaneh, Sumud, crucifixion, and poetry: The life of Palestinian leader Tawfiq Zayyad, Mondoweiss 19 December 2020
  3. Kanaaneh 2019:'Zayyad described being strung up by his arms and legs to the window frame of his cell and beaten till he lost consciousness. Zayyad called his torture a “crucifixion,” similar to the ways British Mandate authorities tortured Palestinian rebels in the uprising of 1936-39. Every time he woke up he would spit in the face of his torturers and they would beat him unconscious again..'
  4. Sorek, Tamir (2020). The Optimist: A Social Biography of Tawfiq Zayyad. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978 -1-503-61274-7., pp. 37-40.
  5. Sorek, Tamir (2020). The Optimist: A Social Biography of Tawfiq Zayyad. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978 -1-503-61274-7., pp. 55-56.
  6. 'Rakah Victory in Nazareth,'|, Journal of Palestine Studies Spring-Summer 1976, Vol. 5, No. 3/4 pages=178–180
  7. General Assembly (23 December 1987). "Report of the Special Committee To Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population of the Occupied Territories". United Nations.
  8. Abdelwahab M. Elmessiri, The Palestinian Wedding: Major Themes of Contemporary Palestinian Resistance Poetry, Journal of Palestine Studies Vol. 10, No. 3 (Spring, 1981), pp. 77-99 pp.93-94
  9. Khaled Furani, 'Dangerous Weddings: Palestinian Poetry Festivals during Israel's First Military Rule,' The Arab Studies Journal Vol. 21, No. 1, (Spring 2013), pp. 79-100 pp.81-82
  10. Honaida Ghanim, Poetics of Disaster: Nationalism, Gender, and Social Change Among Palestinian Poets in Israel After Nakba, International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society March 2009 Vol. 22, No. 1 pp.23-39 p.37
  11. "Tawfik Ziad, 65, Mayor of Nazareth, Obituary". New York Times. 6 July 1994.

References
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