1. Samih al-Qasim was born in Transjordan and later lived in Mandatory Palestine and Israel.
12 Facts About Samih al-Qasim
1. 2.
Samih al-Qasim came from a Druze family from the town of Rameh in the Upper Galilee.
3.
Samih al-Qasim's family did not flee Rameh during the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight, which occurred in the midst of the invasion of multiple Arab armies aiming to defend the fleeing Palestinians.
4.
Samih al-Qasim was among the regular contributors of the Lotus magazine of the Afro-Asian Writers Association.
5.
Samih al-Qasim claimed that the pan-Arab ideology of Nasserism impressed him during the nationalist post-1948 era.
6.
Samih al-Qasim was jailed several times for his political activities that 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.
7.
Samih al-Qasim was held under house arrest from 1963 until 1968.
8.
Samih al-Qasim joined the Israeli Communist party Hadash in 1967 and was detained along with other members of the party at the outbreak of the Six-Day War.
9.
Samih al-Qasim was sent to al-Damoun prison in Haifa.
10.
Samih al-Qasim would recite many of his poems to large audiences at monthly gatherings in the Arab towns and cities of the Galilee.
11.
Samih al-Qasim was prevented by Israeli authorities from leaving to Lebanon for a poetry event in 2001.
12.
Samih al-Qasim's funeral was held on August 21,2014, in Rameh.