Egli proveniva da una famiglia drusa dalla città di Rameh in Alta Galilea. Ha finito la scuola secondaria a Nazaret. La sua famiglia costretta ad abbandonare la sua casa in seguito alla guerra (Nakba) del 1948. Nel suo libro su Principi e Arte, egli spiega,
While I was still in elementary school the Palestinian tragedy occurred. I consider 1948 to be my date of birth, because the earliest images I can remember are from that war. My thoughts and images are born from the number 48
Samih al-Qasim
Al-Qasim wrote 24 volumes ofpoetryand published six collections of poetry. His poems are generally relatively short, some of only two lines long.
Let others sing peace friendship, brotherhood and harmony.
Leave the singing of the crows to others someone will scream in the ruins in my verses towards the black owl hunting debris of dove towers.
Let others sing peace while the grain is consumed in the fields longing for the reapers songs to echo.
Let others sing peace.
While over there, beyond the barbed wire in the heart of the dark the tent of the cities draws closer.
their inhabitants, settlements of sadness and fear and the tuberculosis of memory.
While down there, life fades away, in our people, in the innocents, who never hurt in life!
And here, at the same time, many have lived…in so much wealth! Their ancestors left so much wealth for them and also, alas, for others.
This legacy – the pain of the years – belongs to them now! So let the hungry eat their fill. And let the orphans eat the leftovers from the grudge stand. Let others sing peace.
In my land, among its hills and villages peace has been killed.
