17 Facts About Rashid Hussein

Rashid Hussein Mahmoud was a Palestinian poet, orator, journalist and Arabic-Hebrew translator.

Rashid Hussein was the first prominent poet to appear on the Israeli Arab stage.

Rashid Hussein attended elementary school in Umm al-Fahm, a town near his home village.

Rashid Hussein was educated in Nazareth, where he graduated from Nazareth Secondary School.

Rashid Hussein taught poor, rural Arabs in dilapidated schoolrooms lacking sufficient textbooks.

Rashid Hussein was a member of the left-wing Israeli political party, Mapam, and edited its social weekly Al Mirsad.

At that time, Rashid Hussein began translating the Hebrew works of Israeli poet Hayim Nahman Bialik into Arabic.

Rashid Hussein collaborated with Jewish poet Nathan Zach as a co-editor and translator of Palms and Dates, an anthology of Arab folk songs.

Rashid Hussein wrote that humiliation, discrimination and arbitrary decision-making characterized the conditions of Arabs at the hands of the Israeli state, and often criticized David Ben-Gurion, various Israeli governments, the upper echelons of the bureaucracy and Arabs he considered collaborators with the authorities.

Rashid Hussein accused the Voice of Israel radio's Arabic-language service of being strongly biased against Nasser, while positive towards Nasser's Arab rivals, including Abd al-Karim Qasim of Iraq, Habib Bourguiba of Tunisia and the Saudi royal family.

Rashid Hussein asserted that while all of the latter opposed Zionism, only Nasser consistently developed his country, combated imperialism and made strides toward Arab unity.

Rashid Hussein decried the morale of those in his generation who sought to simply make a living instead of fighting for their rights.

In 1962, Rashid Hussein was expelled from Mapam, and his application to become a teacher was rejected.

In 1965, Rashid Hussein moved to Paris, and two years later, he became a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and was stationed at its New York City office, where he worked as a Hebrew-Arabic translator.

Rashid Hussein moved to Damascus four years later, where he co-founded al-Ard, known as the Palestinian Research Center.

On 2 February 1977, Rashid Hussein died in a fire at his New York apartment.

Rashid Hussein's poetry was influenced by the 11th-century Arab skeptic al-Ma'arri and the early 20th-century Lebanese American poet Elia Abu Madi.