On this day: Mahmoud Darwish dies

Darwish was an iconic figure to the Palestinians; a poet, but also a prominent political voice. When he died he was mourned by ten thousand Palestinians and the Ramallah Cultural Palace was renamed in his honour.

His poetry covered the themes of exile and conflict, and was intensely critical of Israel as well as some elements in the Palestinian leadership and the split between Hamas and Fatah.

It was also seen as a key contributor to the development of a Palestinian national identity in the years after 1948, with Darwish recruited to write a Palestinian Declaration of Independence by Yassir Arafat. In 1974 he penned Arafat's "gun and olive branch" speech to the United Nations

His work, more than 21 poetry collections was translated into some 20 languages and he was celebrated in the literary community.