Jerusalem between Revelations and Resistance in Contemporary Palestinian Poetry
Ibrahem Mousa, Department of Arabic Language and Literature, Birzeit University, Ramallah, Palestine.
Abstract
The study looks into the image of Jerusalem in contemporary Palestinian poetry; it revolves around two axes. The first views Jerusalem as a city filled with both revelations and immanentism which are two rituals directly related to Sufism, a process through which Palestinians identify and unite with Jerusalem. Revelations and immanence also create an image that can be seen and felt in all aspect of life in Jerusalem.
The second axis revolves around the resistance of Jerusalem against the Israeli occupation, against the topographic and demographic Judaization of the city, and against a life full of oppression, torture, and injustice. This struggle comes as a defense of its Arab and Islamic identity and its dignity as well.
This research is also an attempt to identify and recognize the dimensions of poetic experiences in writing about Jerusalem and the poets’ spiritual relatedness to the holy city in an attempt to reflect their awareness of reality through stylistic critical analysis on both the subject and artistic levels of poetry about Jerusalem to uncover its linguistic, expressive, and esthetic characteristics.