Fragments
I can only think in fragments and single syllables. My words have been replaced with anger and rage, with tears of blood, with disbelief.
Day 177
burn, shoot, bomb
bodies in bags
more bodies in bags
mass graves
no way to honor all the dead
reduced to numbers
not counting bodies
How many massacres?
dehumanized, criminalized, normalized
Find ways to justify even through lies…
They don’t understand.
They don’t want to understand.
They won’t let themselves understand.
“It is too complex.”
Victim and victimizer
Occupied and occupier
images speak for themselves
What is so complex?
We complicate so we can continue to ignore the truth.
Alive but dead..
What does it mean to survive or be alive?
eyes as witnesses
shattered hearts
broken
breathing but with a broken spirit
screaming with no one to hear
tears of blood…an endless flow
aura of death
SUFFOCATING
terror
NO… TERRORISM
Homes once filled with love now graves
bodies torn
digging through rubble for signs of life
The children…..
Children with their names on their limbs
someone’s everything
GONE
nurtured for nine months in their mother’s wombs
ripped to pieces by American bombs
burned to the bones with chemical warfare
DEAD
NO… RUTHLESSLY MURDERED
grave injuries
missing limbs
“Mama, will my leg grow back?”
children burying children
children forced into parenthood
sole survivors of their families
“I want my mama”
no one to heed the cry
ALONE
innocence stolen
laughter lost
dead babies in incubators
rotting babies in hospital beds
no life is spared
dreams colonized
“What do you want to do when you grow up?
“We don’t grow up, we die.”
Famine…
empty pots accompanied by empty stomachs
forced starvation
contaminated water
eating grass
borders closed
aid dropped through the air
people drowning
skin and bones
more kids suffer then die
No one spared
kill the storytellers
murder the healers
rape the women
make their children watch
KILL THEM ALL
violations of human rights
violations of international law
organ theft
child prisoners
hostages not human enough to be considered hostages
Not white enough?
Too Arab?
“They look like terrorists.”
But what does a terrorist look like?
It hurts to breathe…
generational trauma
mass exodus
Deir Yassin 1948
massacre
my Sido survived
1967 Naksa
parents displaced
Beit Hanina Refugee camp
Shhhh
“Your story doesn’t matter.”
“This began Oct 7th.”
“Your Palestinian identity is offensive, can you tone it down?”
“Israel has a right to protect itself.”
But what about the rights of Palestinians?
2024 more mass killings
more mass displacement
land theft
mourning in silence
a narrative stolen
survivor’s guilt
speak and be silenced
Shhhh…
“You are antisemitic.”
American and Palestinian identities contending
conditional acceptance
Palestinian voice “nothing is enough”
American reality
veto humanitarian aid
veto a ceasefire
fund a genocide
and more money
and more money
my tax dollars killing my people
billions
America is killing Palestinians by the thousands
“It’s not a genocide”
How many have to die for it to be a genocide?
Betrayed by world leaders
morally bankrupt
emotionally inept
SILENT
Lies…
media is a war criminal
“murdered babies”
“human shields”
“Israeli — Hamas war”
erasure of Palestinian suffering
a war with one army?
“But do you condemn Hamas?”
gaslighting
“Not a genocide.”
malnutrition of humanity
no appetite for justice or liberation
Failure…
drops in the ocean
Boycott, Divest, Sanction
Protest
Civil disobedience
SCREAM!
Shut it down!!!
Vote them out..
Justice denied
What does justice look like after 177 days and 75 years of terror?
Condemnation….
Here is what I condemn….
beginning the narrative on Oct 7
disproportionate use of power
disproportionate political support
testing new weapons
bombing schools
bombing hospitals
killing children
raping women
justifying injustice
violating international law
using my tax dollars
decades of apartheid
Israeli jails filled with Palestinian children
blaming Hamas for Israeli terrorism
conflating anti zionism with anti semitism
your lies.
I condemn …
the killing of my ancestors
the theft of my ancestral lands
the denial of my grandfather’s right to return
Israeli terrorism
American complicitness
the silence of world leaders
the rewriting of history books
erasing Palestine off world maps
claims that this is a religious war
YOUR LIES.
This blog post is part of the #30DaysArabVoices Blog Series, a month-long movement to feature Arab voices as writers and scholars. Please CLICK HERE to last year’s blog posts.
