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- Country of residence: Portugal
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Ali Muhammad Qattoush, known as “Ali al-Batiri,” was born in the village of Battir in the Bethlehem Governorate on November 22, 1945. He is married and has seven children. He studied primary school at Battir and Beit Jala Preparatory Schools, and secondary school at Bethlehem Secondary School, from which he obtained his high school diploma in 1962. He received a diploma from the Khadouri Institute in al-Arroub in 1964. He worked as a teacher at al-Salt Secondary School in 1964, then as the librarian of al-Jabal al-Akhdar Preparatory School in 1995. He worked in print journalism for the Jordanian newspaper Al-Sabah and the Abu Dhabi newspaper Al-Fajr. He supervised a number of children's magazines in Jordan, and was an editorial consultant for the magazine “The Little Policeman,” published by the Jordanian Public Security Directorate. He was the managing editor of the magazine “Wissam” between 2002 and 2006, and the managing editor of the newspaper “Zaha,” published by the Zaha Cultural Center affiliated with the Greater Amman Municipality, in 2007.
Al-Batiri was one of the founders of the Union of Palestinian Writers and Journalists in 1969, and a member of its administrative body. He has been a member of the Arab Writers Union since 1974, and a member of the Jordanian Writers Association since 1974. He composed national poetry, and was commissioned by the professional associations in Jordan to write a special anthem for resisting normalization aimed at children. His fellow poets gave him the title of Poet of Jerusalem because of the connection of his poems to Jerusalem and to the Palestinian resistance.
He published a number of poetry collections, including: Paintings Under the Rain (1973), The Mediterranean in the Embrace of its Children (1981), Children of Palestine Write Letters (1984), The Voice of My Country (1987), Muhannad Raises the Flag (1992), Why Did You Throw Away the Roses of My Blood (2002), Windows Tired of Waiting (2004), Songs of a Rain Lover (2007), Palm Trees Have One Moon (2007), We Are the Independent (2007), Children Love the Homeland (2009), Sajoura’s Journey in the Human Body (a story, 2011), and I Wear My Voice as a Sword (2013).
Al-Batiri won twenty awards from Jordanian and Arab festivals related to poetry and song lyrics, including: the Khalil Al-Sakakini Award for Children’s Literature from the Jordanian Writers Association (1996), for his entire body of work, the Golden Microphone Award at the Fifth Arab Song Festival (1996), for the song “How Can I Sing”, the second prize at the First Jordanian Song Festival (2000), for the song “Let Me Sing”, the Grand Prize at the Sixth Cairo Song Festival (2000), for the song “Come Back to Me”, the gold medal at the Arab Song Festival in Cairo (2005), for the song “A Child at the Gate”, and the Golden Microphone Award from the Arab Song Festival in Tunisia (2008), for the song “Waiting for the Past”.
Al-Batiri calls for the unity of the Palestinian people on the basis of popular and armed struggle, and demands that the Palestinian system be democratic. He believes that the just solution to the Palestinian issue is the complete liberation of historical Palestine and the return of refugees to their homes from which they were displaced. This solution deserves resistance and a firm will from the Palestinian people, in addition to the solidarity of the Arab and free peoples with the Palestinians, and combining the role of the word and the role of the rifle in the national struggle. He believes that the Arab revolutions were a glimmer of hope for the peoples to rally around their national issues, foremost among them the issue of Palestine.
Al-Batiri suffered throughout his life; he was arrested by the occupation in 1968 and expelled from Palestine, and prevented from visiting it for 32 years.
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