Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
How can you be from the generation of the third renaissance under the occupation (resistance poetry), in the same party (Rakah), and in the same intellectual affiliation, and not enjoy what they enjoyed in the same newspaper and the same fame? Because he was simply not like them in “clean” professions such as education, journalism, and music. Rather, he was an industrious person outside the well-known cultural group. Perhaps - in fairness and objectivity - the reason may be that they were not under occupation before 1967. There were
few whose trade union struggle overshadowed their fame, work and talent, and most of the poets wrote for Palestine and struggled with poetry for it, and held evenings and events, and perhaps they were arrested for this reason (such as Mahmoud Darwish and Samih Al-Qasim And their comrades)... and some of them took up arms and fought (such as Khaled Abu Khaled and Naji Alloush).
But Khalil Touma was the pure trade union activist who did not hesitate or back down in the trade union struggle in areas where he worked, whether in the Hotel Workers Union or in the Palestinian Writers Union.This was the poet whom the late critic Farouk Mawasi summarized as follows:
Let me summarize and put it more beautifully: Touma is a proletarian poet who lacks some of the components of the poetic tool. He does not lack sober images (romantic realism), and they intercede for him to observe the world with an honest perspective and “a bud of thunder and a seed of earthquake.” They must mature.
Who is our poet?
He is Khalil Touma, a Palestinian poet from the city of Beit Jala in Palestine. He was born in 1945. He completed his primary and secondary studies there.
He began his poetic career in high school, when he published in local and Arab newspapers and magazines. After the occupation, he published in the magazines of the Israeli Communist Party, the underground press, and Palestinian newspapers and magazines published in Palestine.
After he finished high school, he worked in a hotel in Jerusalem, joined the Hotel Workers Union there, and became a member of its administrative body in 1966. He worked with others after the Israeli occupation in 1967 to protect and revitalize union work in the city, form labor committees at work sites, and restore Reviving the Hotel Workers Union, which was closed by the occupation authorities for many years. In 1980, he was elected president of its new administrative body in 1981 and 1982. It was one of the largest and most active unions in the occupied territories.
Therefore, he is one of the most prominent people who revived trade union work in Palestine, and declared his bias towards the working class in thought and action.
Because of his struggle, he suffered injustice and arrest. He was administratively arrested between 1974 and 1976. He was also subjected to numerous arrests and harassment during his trade union activity.
While working in hotels and in his trade union activities, he obtained a bachelor’s degree in English literature from Bethlehem University. He entered the field of translation, and worked for many years in the field of print journalism in Arabic and English, and translation from Arabic to English and vice versa.
He worked with a number of writers to establish the Palestinian Writers Union in the Occupied Territories in the early 1980s, and served as its president until the ranks of writers were unified. He was elected a member of the administrative body of the Palestinian Writers Union inside the country in the early 1990s.
In his poetry, Touma focused on the national struggle and the concerns of his people. He fought in action and in word for the issues of Palestinian workers, looking forward to the day of liberation, freedom and justice for his people. In this regard, his poetry was clear and specific in its form and content, a true expression of the struggle of the Palestinian people, adding his struggle specialization in political, social, and humanitarian issues, free of affectation and linguistic artifice, weakened by some colloquial words and occasional profanities, but on the other hand, he expresses what is on his mind, his sincere feeling, and his national commitment. Aligning with the issues of the toilers, and optimistic about achieving their revolutionary goals in the future.
Thomas published four poetry collections: Songs of the Last Nights. Star over Bethlehem. Come on everyone. The call.
All of his works were collected in the volume of complete poetic works.
The poet Khalil Carlos Touma died on February 12, 2019 in Palestine and was buried there.
News about Khalil Carlos Touma
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