Mahmoud Darwish was a Palestinian writer born in al-Birwa in Galilee, a village occupied and later razed by the Israeli state. Darwish spent many years in exile in Beirut and Paris. He authored numerous books, essays, and poetry collections, and received many awards, including the Lannan Cultural Freedom Prize from the Lannan Foundation, the Lenin Peace Prize, and the Knight of Arts and Belles Lettres Medal from France. Darwish passed away in 2008 in Houston, Texas.