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.