Gaza: Language Ideology of  “Resist my People, Resist Them,” Dareen Tatour

BORDERLANDS

v. 25, i. 03.19.gaza005

Introduction

     An assignment in English 205, Creative Writing and Fiction, University of Nevada, Reno, Summer 2019, required analysis of Palestinian Dareen Tatour’s most widely recognized poem.

     Not available at the time was synthetic intelligence (AI capability, included here, and yet another class, Anthropology 281, linguistics in which language ideology was presented as a major topic. The first was where the essay in this post was submitted, the second combines the use of AI and language ideology, addressed under the heading of Capsules below.

(Image credit: https://dareentatour.bandcamp.com/)

Capsules

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Dareen Tatour

Dareen Tatour is a Palestinian poet, photographer, and political activist from Reineh, Palestine12. Born on April 16, 1982, she writes in Arabic and has gained international attention for her poetry and her experiences with the Israeli legal system3.

In October 2015, Tatour was arrested by Israeli authorities after posting a poem titled “Resist, my people, resist them” on social media platforms35. She was charged with incitement to violence and supporting a terrorist organization, leading to a controversial trial that sparked debates about freedom of expression34.

After spending time in jail and under house arrest, Tatour was convicted in May 2018 and sentenced to five months in prison57. However, her case garnered significant international support, with organizations like PEN America and Jewish Voice for Peace advocating for her release46.

Following her release in September 2018, Tatour continued her work as a writer and activist25. She has published several works, including:

1. “My Threatening Poem – The Memoir of a Poet in Occupation Prisons,” detailing her experiences in the Israeli penal system2.

2. “I Sing From The Window of Exile,” a bilingual collection of poems written during her time in Sweden2.

Tatour has received recognition for her work and advocacy, including:

• The Oxfam Novib/PEN Award for Freedom of Expression in 201913

• The Danish Carl Scharenberg Prize in 20171

• The Freedom of Expression Award in Norway – Oslo in 20201

Currently, Tatour lives in the West Bank, where she continues to work as a photographer and writer, documenting her experiences and those of the Palestinian people28.

https://www.perplexity.ai/search/dareen-tatour-qZ5XRZHVRxqE6Kh3I.BF0w

Dareen Tatour arrest imprisonment

language ideology in “Resist, My People, Resist Them”–DAREEN TATOUR.

Dareen Tatour’s poem “Resist, My People, Resist Them” exemplifies a powerful use of language as an ideological tool for resistance against Israeli occupation. The poem’s language ideology is rooted in several key aspects:

Arabic as a Symbol of Identity

Tatour’s choice to write in Arabic is itself an act of resistance1. By using Arabic, she asserts Palestinian cultural identity and challenges the dominance of Hebrew in Israeli society. This linguistic choice serves as a direct address to Palestinian-Israelis and the broader Arabic-speaking population, reinforcing a sense of shared identity and struggle1.

Religious and Cultural Allusions

The poem incorporates religious imagery and cultural references that resonate deeply with Palestinian identity:

• Jerusalem as a focal point: “In Jerusalem, I dressed my wounds and breathed my sorrows” establishes a connection to the religious and cultural significance of the city2.

• Martyrdom imagery: References to martyrs and religious figures like Jesus create a sense of divine right and moral authority in the resistance struggle1.

Imperative Language

Tatour employs strong, directive language throughout the poem:

• Repeated calls to “Resist”: The refrain “Resist, my people, resist them” serves as a rallying cry, using language to mobilize and unite Palestinians2.

• Rejection of pacification: Lines like “Pay no mind to his agents among us / Who chain us with the peaceful illusion” explicitly reject language that promotes passivity5.

Reclamation of Narrative

The poem asserts the Palestinian right to narrate their own story:

• First-person perspective: By speaking in the first person, Tatour claims agency in telling the Palestinian experience1.

• Challenging oppressive structures: The poem calls to “Shred the disgraceful constitution,” directly confronting the legal and political language used to justify occupation2.

Through these linguistic strategies, Tatour’s poem embodies the concept of language as a tool of resistance, using words to construct and reinforce Palestinian identity, challenge oppressive narratives, and inspire collective action against occupation3.

https://www.perplexity.ai/search/language-ideology-in-resist-my-gZon_Ez1QxikgN4sEi1WBw

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Assignment

ENG 205–Crtv Writ: Fict & Poetry– University of Nevada, Reno, Summer 2019.

06/17/19: “Resist, My People, Resist Them”–DAREEN TATOUR

     Conventional literary analysis of a work of poetry follows a predictable pipeline with variables related to cohesion, strengths-weaknesses, abstractions, line breaks, rhythm and several other aspects. This does not necessarily reflect the cultural perspective of the piece in question. From a linguistic standpoint, a new paradigm can be modeled following certain fundamental assumptions such as the four maxims described as the “cooperative principle” and other tools such as “code switching.”

  Cooperative principle is defined by Paul Grice in four maxims: quantity, quality,  relevance and truth.  (UPenn) Code-switching in linguistics is defined as the “process of shifting from one linguistic code (a language or dialect) to another, depending on the social context or conversational setting.” (Britannica) Both of these established paradigms can be utilized for analysis of a piece of literary work in a cultural context. For the Grice maxims, the process of transformation is straightforward, in the case of code switching, a new set is created with respect to gender-person, tense, inertia, and temporal consideration.

The poem “Resist My People, Resist Them” by the Arab activist 37 year old Dareen Tatour will be analyzed. (Code Pink)  The Pen America bio on Ms. Tatour notes her background and  activism which resulted in the Israeli government convicting her of inciting terrorism on social media;

“A poet and Palestinian citizen of Israel, living near Nazareth in northern Israel, Tatour was arrested in 2015 during a broader period of unrest and subsequent Israeli crackdown on Palestinians. In addition to the video post and accompanying poem, the charge cited two additional Facebook posts. In the first, she wrote about Islamic Jihad’s call for an intifada” (Pen America) Tatour spent several months in jail and house arrest because of her online activity. The poem is as follows:

Resist, My People, Resist Them

by Dareen Tatour , (translated to English by Tariq al Haydar)

01  Resist, my people, resist them.

02  In Jerusalem, I dressed my wounds and breathed my sorrows

03  And carried the soul in my palm

04  For an Arab Palestine.

05  I will not succumb to the “peaceful solution,”

06  Never lower my flags

07  Until I evict them from my land.

08  I cast them aside for a coming time.

09  Resist, my people, resist them.

10  Resist the settler’s robbery

11  And follow the caravan of martyrs.

12  Shred the disgraceful constitution

13  Which imposed degradation and humiliation

14  And deterred us from restoring justice.

15  They burned blameless children;

16  As for Hadil, they sniped her in public,

17  Killed her in broad daylight.

18  Resist, my people, resist them.

19  Resist the colonialist’s onslaught.

20  Pay no mind to his agents among us

21  Who chain us with the peaceful illusion.

22  Do not fear doubtful tongues;

23  The truth in your heart is stronger,

24  As long as you resist in a land

25  That has lived through raids and victory.

26  So Ali called from his grave:

27  Resist, my rebellious people.

28  Write me as prose on the agarwood;

29  My remains have you as a response.

30  Resist, my people, resist them.

31  Resist, my people, resist them.

  Analysis by the new paradigm of maxims and switching can be found in a line-to-line breakdown of the poem. Throughout, the content satisfies the maxims of quantity, quality, relevance and truth. It is no secret that the Palestinians are fed up with Israeli occupation and the constant patrolling and harassment and invasion of the territories and Gaza. The two-state issue has stumped the United Nations since it was founded.  Truth is directly alluded to in Line 23. “The truth in your heart is stronger.”  By quality she appeals to the soul in Line 03 and to the heart, again in Line 23. The poem is cataloged throughout with relevant examples of the injustice: Lines 12-13, where the “constitution …imposed degradation and humiliation;” and specifically, in Lines 16-17, with reference to  “Hadil, they sniped her in public, Killed her in broad daylight.”

This is in reference to Hadeel al-Hashlamoun , a young Palestinian woman who was gunned down at an Israeli checkpoint by soldiers. (Haaretz)

  Code switching, although confined normally to linguistics, is useful in poetry as it defines in a different set of parameters some of the same techniques in classical literary analysis. Note, for instance, the switching from present to past tense throughout. The title is in the present tense and is reflected through most of the piece, as for example from Lines 05-12. Note then a conversion to the past tense in Lines 13-17;

  “Which imposed degradation and humiliation, And deterred us from restoring justice. They burned blameless children; As for Hadil, they sniped her in public, Killed her in broad daylight.”

There appears to be no apparent reason for the conversion to past tense other than to develop a sense of truth in the form of cited, third person flashbacks.

  By “gender-person” the poem moves from just such references to “they” and “her” instead of “you” in those lines. When it comes to Dareen, she speaks in the first person;

Line 02: “In Jerusalem, I dressed my wounds and breathed my sorrows,”

Line 07: “Until I evict them from my land.”

  A simple definition of “inertia” is “a tendency to do nothing or remain unchanged.” (Wikipedia) The poem refers throughout to various possibilities to do nothing or change. Line  06 “Never lower my flags,” Line 25 “That has lived through raids and victory.”  Note also that Line 25 is in the present perfect, “That has lived,” denoting a past action event with present consequences. (Stack Exchange)

  Paradigms become entrenched in culture due to acceptance by the status quo. They offer little opportunity to advance or refine new theories on interpretation, not just confined to the scientific field. I have demonstrated in this presentation another perspective in examination of a piece of literary work. The results have met with limited success but the evolution of this new process cannot be underestimated for what it might hold in the future.

Works Cited:

Maxims, https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/dravling/grice.html

Code Switching, https://www.britannica.com/topic/code-switching’

Bio, https://pen.org/advocacy-case/dareen-tatour/

Resist My People, Resist Them, https://www.codepink.org/resist_my_people_resist_them

Hadil, https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-execution-of-hadeel-al-hashlamoun-1.5417049

Inertia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inertia

Has Lived, https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/19471/when-to-use-has-lived-vs-lived-vs-had-lived

Trial, https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/israel-hands-palestinian-poet-dareen-tatour-five-month-prison-sentence-1.6335232

Twitter Hashtag, https://twitter.com/hashtag/DareenTatour?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Afterword

     The ongoing serial destruction of the unrecognized state of Palestine reflects the impending doom for the people caught in the crossfire of a determined Israel and a murderous terror organization tasked with defending itself from extermination. Unfortunately, the people, as in most wars, suffer the most: displacement, victims of indiscriminate military bombing, hostages used as human shields and mere bargaining chips, all pawns in the merciless crossfire.