“Wadha Abu Amr, 62, said her family were refugees from
Beersheba who fled in 1948 during the war over Israel’s founding. ‘I’m afraid
that this is another 1948,’ she said. ‘God forbid. We were driven out in 1948
and we are being driven out again now.’” (from The Age, July 22, 2014, reporter, Anne Barnard from Gaza City)
From State of Siege
by Mahmoud Darwish (translated from the Arabic by Munir Akash and Daniel
abdal-hayy Moore, 2010):
“Standing or sitting, perpetually, eternally,
We have just
one goal: to be!
Beyond that,
we disagree about everything—
We disagree on the design of the national
flag
(my people, you’d be wise to choose the
modest donkey for its symbol!)
We disagree
about the words of the new anthem
(you’d be wise to choose the marriage song of
the mourning dove!)
We disagree
about the role of women
(you’d be wise to choose a woman to preside
Over all security arrangements!).
We disagree
on percentages, what’s private, what’s public,
But we agree
on one thing: to be.
Beyond that,
everyone should be free to choose
Whatever goal he or she desires.”
Litany of Failed
Vision
How does not recognizing the sadness of another exiled
people make Israel safe?
How does not recognizing the displacement of another people
make Israel safe?
How does not allowing the use of the word Nakbor make Israel
safe?
How does not allowing the poetry of Mahmoud Darwish to be
taught in schools make Israel safe?
How does the imprisonment of thousands of Palestinian children
and the brutal deaths of hundreds make Israel safe?
How does refusing Palestinian cancer patients the treatment they
need make Israeli safe?
How does refusing Palestinian college students permission to
travel for their educations make Israel safe?
How does the accumulated anger of 60 years of Occupation
make Israel safe?
How does relying on American money for military might
instead of Israeli empathetic diplomacy make Israel safe?
How do the illegal settlements make Israel safe?
How does the deaths
of thousands of Palestinian olive trees make Israel safe?
How does having a generation of Israeli children who think
hating Arabs is an Israeli social value make Israel safe?
How does Israel’s self vision as a country like no other, as
a people like no other, make Israel safe?
How does cultivating its own form of nationalistic extremism
make Israel safe?
How does only grieving for its own make Israel safe?
How does language like, “every few years, we go in and mow
the grass,” referring to Gaza and the deaths of its people, make Israel safe?
How does making life almost un livable for so many make
Israel safe?
How does letting itself be seen as the “villa in the jungle”
make Israel safe?
How does allowing rivers of hatred to flow in the streets
make Israel safe?
How does total control over an imprisoned people make Israel
safe, make it unlike all the other regimes who grew strong on the erased worlds
of unwanted others? Grew strong until others came to their senses.
How does trying to break the spirit of a proud people make
Israel feel safe?
What stories will it tell the future of what a once almost
erased people did in the world when it had its safety?
“All you who
stay up late, aren’t you sick of watching
The glitter
in our salt,
The glowing
roses in our wounds?
Hasn’t this gone on long enough?”
Mahmoud Darwish, from State
of Siege, (2010)
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