The New Nation - Internet Edition

Mahmud Darwish, the world's most recognised Palestinian poet has passed away in a US hospital. Reports said the poet dies in Texas three days after he underwent heart surgery.

Siham Daoud, a fellow and a friend of Darwish, said Darwish departed in the US ten days ago for the surgery and asked not to be resusciated if it did not succeed. According to AP, she said arwish has a history of heart problems and has been operated upon twice in the past. The 67 year-old man was placed on life support two days ago following complications arising from surgery, another friend told AFP

Darwish has published more than two dozen books of poetry and prose rooted in his experience of Palestinian exile and the bitter Israeli- Palestinian conflict in a career spanning five decades.

Twenty years ago he wrote the Palestinian declaration of independence and served on the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) until 1993, when he resigned in protest at the Oslo accords. He had been living in the West Bank town of Ramallah since 1995.

Born in a village in north Palestine, Darwish and his family were expelled during the 1948 war that followed the creation of Israel a few years later.