Maxim Ghilan we miss you

Google can be the best and the worst tool when you look for an old friend and suddenly discover his obituary. This just happened to me as my search for Maxim Ghilan ended up in some unexpected news that he passed away on April 2, 2005.

Long time no see, this time the long traveller left for an even longer journey – although I am confident than in the very far away where he is heading to, there has to be a gathering place where all men of good will meet at the end of the (last) day.

A place where some of his great friends are already waiting for him across all borders and walls, because Issam Sartaoui is no more in his Amman cemetery than Maxim in his Kibbutz Einat, outside Tel-Aviv.

Maxim remains for me the unforgettable man who pushed me, in 1982-83, to dedicate some time to the Israeli-Palestinian first discussions in Paris, allowing me to discover a powerful network of unknown heroes backed by dozens of anonymous and devoted supporters. A work that remained half-way after Issam’s sudden, but not unexpected by him, murder in Albufeira, and again Maxim forced me to conclude and publish a book, whatever incomplete, whatever hopeless the landscape – this was ten years before Oslo.

You always feel guilty when a friend passes away. I had kept his Paris number in my phone directory for years, always thinking to reach his new one in Israel but never doing it. How guilty do I feel today!

And more particularly because one of the articles describing the funeral of "a poet, revolutionary and freedom fighter" also mentions that he always preferred to keep in the shade and never tried to acquire the fame and fortune he so much deserved, suggesting that he died as he lived, very poor.

Well, his legacy is a treasure. His ideas and generosity are still way ahead of the present politics, not only on Middle East issues. No doubt these ideas will go on growing and feeding us with hope. Thank you, Maxim!

Comments

[Rédigé par : Lantenois catherine]

Une pensée pour Maxim, pour son action de toujours.
Catherine

[Rédigé par : berlin]

Gut!

[Rédigé par : pierre]

Thks Berlin, any more comment? I am still trying to gather whatever can remind us of Maxim, I&P and all that. Best regards.