Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
In 2008, when I was editor-in-chief of the Palestinian Al-Awda magazine, I was interested in Palestinian figures who combine literature and politics, and I asked our correspondent in Gaza to conduct an interview with the educated minister Nahed Al-Rayes, and I did not know him well, and when I received the material and some details that we did not publish at the time, I realized that this man is a Palestinian national treasure who deserves our honor and emulation.
He was an old man with clean hands. His father was the mayor of Gaza. He was provided with worldly means, comforts and comfort. He was born in a big house and a lot of money. He was given family prestige and a political and administrative position in Gaza and Palestine. He could have remained under occupation, or worked in a respectable profession. Outside the occupation...but he preferred the path of Dhat al-Suka, the path of struggle for Palestine, and to establish his Palestinian identity, through struggle, thought, politics, law, literature, culture, science, and religion, so that Palestine would not be for fighters without culture, or for intellectuals without weapons.
He is the poet, writer, minister, judge, and intellectual Nahed Munir Al-Rayes.
Nahed Al-Rayes was born in Gaza City in 1937. He received his primary and preparatory education at the Imam Al-Shafi’i School and his secondary education at the Palestine School in Gaza. He then moved to Egypt in 1954 to graduate from Cairo University in 1958, where he completed a Bachelor’s degree in Law. He participated in establishing the General Union of Palestinian Students in Cairo. When the first general conference for Arab students was held in Cairo in 1959, it was attended by delegations from Arab, Asian-African, European and American countries. The General Union of Arab Students emerged from the conference, and Nahed Al-Rayyes (Palestine) was elected vice-president.
After graduating, he worked as a prosecutor in Gaza City until 1965, then he left his job and volunteered as an officer in the Palestine Liberation Army. He was a platoon leader in the 319th Battalion, and he was a distinguished officer. In the 1967 war, he was a platoon leader at the Al-Mantar site. He and his comrades and soldiers did well, and he was wounded in the side.
He joined the resistance under the occupation, and after the persecutions intensified, he left on the back of a camel, crossing Sinai to Jordan, where he joined the resistance bases in Jerash and then assumed command of a base in the Jordan Valley.
The president left the easy life and the comfortable bed to live in a base in the Jordan Valley, in a difficult and hot area, out of a desire to continue the struggle. After the events of Black September, he moved to Damascus and served as Chief of Staff of the People's Liberation Forces.
He met the martyr Kamal Adwan and became one of the leaders of the western sector. He continued his mission after Commander Khalil Al-Wazir “Abu Jihad” led the sector. He has been responsible for operations in the Gaza Strip since 1973.
Two years after his return to the Gaza Strip in 1994, he was elected a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council after the Palestinian general elections in 1996. With the formation of the first Palestinian government headed by Ahmed Qurei, he was assigned the justice portfolio, and then he was appointed head of the Supreme Judicial Council of the Palestinian Authority.
Nahed Al-Rayes died on April 13, 2010, at the age of 73, after a long struggle with illness.
The author of the “Encyclopedia of Palestinian Notables,” Muhammad Omar Hamadeh, says about our poet, whom he knows personally: He is an encyclopedist of culture... honest and loyal, clean in hand and tongue, completely humble, close to the heart and soul, his patriotism is completely sincere, he does not lower his head except to God..
His literary life
Our poet was not an ordinary man. He was a man of principle and steadfastness in his stances, loyal to Palestine and defending its principles. Despite his preoccupation with politics and his struggle, he did not turn away from literature and poetry. He wrote about literature, politics, children’s stories, and poetry, such as “Singing to the Cities of Palestine” and “Palestine in the Decisive Time,” and he wrote some radio and television series.
When he returned to Gaza, he wrote in the Palestine News newspaper, and in the meantime, he translated the book “Guerrilla Warfare” by Ernesto Che Guevara from English, and published it in episodes in the newspaper. The Beirut magazine Al-Adab also published many of his poems.
After 1982, he wrote hundreds of articles in various Arab newspapers, including Al-Qabas, Al-Bayan, The National Guard, Forward, and Ibdaa. He published seven books, including two books on political analysis and four poetry collections. Because of his belief in the importance of raising children on new foundations, he published twenty-one stories for them and wrote for television. A series entitled “Khair al-Din Barbarossa...Prince of the Seas” and the book “The Life Story of Van Gogh” was translated from English.
His works:
In his poetry: When Oranges Bloom (1978). Al-Qassam Song and Other Poems (1982). Singing to the Cities of Palestine (1986). Looks at the Homeland’s Concerns (1998). Kingdoms of history.
And in his stories of boys and children: The Brigade Commander’s Bag (1981). Olivet of Ramah (1981). Wedding in the Woods (1987). Rainbow Dress (1987). At Leisure (1987). Armor and Cunning (1987). Winner (1987). Hassan and Hassan Love to Fly (1987). Half a Dream (1987). Climbing the Mountain (1987). The Dove and the Yellow Flower (1987). Rabbit and Duck Race (1989).
He has written political books: A Speech on the Palestinian Entity (1986). What do we take from negotiations? (1986). Living statesmen of the Zionist entity (1986). Jerusalem between the falsity of Israeli law and the inability of international law. Gaza in the Belly of the Whale (2008). An enemy outside the house. Palestine in critical times.
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