By Safaa Kasraoui
Rabat – Moroccan poet Mohammed Bennis has been awarded the Medal of Culture, Creation and Art by the president of Palestine, Mahmoud Abbas.
The award was presented to Bennis by the Palestinian ambassador to Morocco, Zuhair Al Shun, in a ceremony held on March 16 at the Palestinian embassy in Rabat.
The event was marked by the presence of various important figures, including Murad Soudani, the Palestinian poet and president of the General Union of Palestinian Writers, and Abderrahim El Allam, the president of the Union of Moroccan Writers (UEM).
“The awarding of this medal to Bennis is an exceptional moment to celebrate the existence one of the Moroccan and Arabic icon of culture, which marks his humanism spirit,” said El Allam.
At the ceremony, Bennis highlighted some of the Palestinian writers and poets, namely Mahmoud Darwish, Emile Habibi and Edward Said, whose works were models and benchmarks for global solidarity with the Palestinian people.
Bennis proceeded to recite his poem dedicated to Al Quds entitled “A road to Al Quds.” He promised to gather all of his poems on Palestine in a collection to be published in the city of Ramallah.
The event was held to discuss the current situation of Palestine in favor of establishing peace, calling on the various countries of the world to recognize Al Quds as its capital. The Palestinian attendants expressed their appreciation to Morocco for its efforts in favor of the Palestinian case.
Mohammed Bennis was born in 1948 in Fes. Known for defending modernity in his linguistic, cultural, and poetic works, he is considered one of the most important figures of modern Arabic poetry.
