Mahmoud Darwish shared the struggle of his people with the world, writing: “Identity Card.” This poem was one of Darwish’s most famous poems. It symbolizes the cultural and political resistance to Israel’s forced dispossession of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians of their homeland. His poem spoke to millions of Palestinians and Arabs around the world, resulting in him becoming the most well known and loved of Palestinian poets.

In “Identity Card” Darwish’s opening lines “Record! I am an Arab/ And my identity card is number fifty thousand” explains where he finds his identity, in the card with a number 50,000? Well millions of exiled people, who live in refugee camps and other areas, fit in this category.

In effect, identity is generally associated with place, with a state, which the Palestinians presently lack and for which negotiations continue with the objective of developing. The issue, of course, remains unresolved. And the continued violence (suicide bombers, assassinations, invasions, etc.) finds reflection in the poem’s conclusion, which is:

Therefore!

Put it on record at the top of page one:
I don’t hate people,
I trespass on no one’s property.
And yet, if I were to become hungry
I shall eat the flesh of my usurper.
Beware,

Beware,

Of my hunger
And of my anger!