Mahmoud Darwish and Tamar Ben Ami: The impossible love of a Palestinian poet and an Israeli dancer

In the early 1960s, in Haifa, Israel, the young Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish fell in love with Tamar Ben Ami, a Jewish Israeli dancer. Their romance was intense but brief. From this forbidden love, the writer composed a poignant poem, 'Rita and the Rifle,' which is still sung throughout the Arab world.

In the early 1960s, in Haifa, Israel, the young Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish fell in love with Tamar Ben Ami, a Jewish Israeli dancer. Their romance was intense but brief. From this forbidden love, the writer composed a poignant poem, 'Rita and the Rifle,' which is still sung throughout the Arab world.