Regardless of how we got to this dire situation, with two million displaced Palestinians now at risk of starvation, international pressure must surely force the Israelis to halt this genocidal stranglehold on Gaza, allow the aid trucks to roll in and let the UN humanitarian organisation resume its efforts to distribute water, food and medicines to the people of the Strip. I am of the opinion that what we are witnessing is genocide, and that a large faction of the coalition Israeli government would dearly like to annex the Strip as Israeli territory and force the relocation of the Palestinians elsewhere (to Egypt? to Jordan?) They have even voted in principle to proceed with a formal annexation of the West Bank, territory they have held illegally since 1967. But first and foremost must be aid relief for the starving in Gaza, or the world doesn't have a conscience anymore.
And it should never be forgotten that it was an Israeli terrorist organisation that first commenced a civil war in Palestine after WWII and unilaterally annexed part of the region, expelling nearly a million Palestinians from their homeland, to create the State of Israel in 1948. The UN and western powers failed the Palestinian people then, under pressure from the United States. We must not fail them again.
I find it difficult to write a poem to order about something as monstrous as what is happening to the Palestinians in Gaza, but I hope this hits the mark. I must also warn you that because it's a 'concrete' poem approximately in she shape of the Gaza Strip (see above), it may look completely jumbled up unless viewed in landscape mode. Anyway, here goes...
Gaza Stripped
From north to south,
neither living nor dead
but breathing corpses,
nil by mouth. Dr Josef
Mengele could hardly
have managed it better
this inhumane suffering
imposed on a population.
Hungry on waking,
walking like sticks
their thin shadows
pointing seawards
where Israeli warships
block aid. Constantly
defiled. Hungry on
sleeping, emaciated ribs
encaging hopeless hearts,
huddled into rubble, their
shadows at dusk lengthening
eastward across what was once
their homeland, before the Nakba.
Israeli soldiers fence them in, block aid,
shoot down men, women, children, babies
desperate for food. The IDF are razing the
Gaza Strip, hoping it will be theirs some
day, this riviera death camp ripe for
redevelopment. Lots are being
reserved already as we view
skin and bone newsreels
nightly, wringing our
complicit hands
again.
Those previous blogs on topic are linked here. I urge you to read them too:
Glittering Prize? (the detailed historical background - part one)
Injustice (the detailed historical background - part two)
Thanks for reading, S ;-)
14 comments:
I know the intention was to shock, but I suspect many Jewish people will be offended by your Mengele analogy. It's not as though the Israelis are experimenting on Palestinians - though they probably do want them out of Gaza as your poem infers.
Well said Steve. Keir Starmer thinks it’s ‘Unspeakable’. Odd that all he’s done so far is ‘speak’ but take no action - except to call for yet another emergency inquiry.
It is a shame what happens when you start a war and it backfires.
Tony, the war started in 1946 when the Haganah (a Jewish guerrilla group) drove 750,000 Palestinian Arabs out of their homeland in order to create the Zionist state of Israel by unilateral declaration of independence in 1948. Educate yourself. The Palestinians had been corralled in Gaza for 20 years by the Israelis, dependent on international aid to survive. No wonder they hit back at their oppressors. I don't condone the Hamas attack, but I can understand it. The latest Israeli genocide is inexcusable on any level and 'self-defence' is a joke. They knowingly let October 7th happen (deliberately ignoring Egyptian Intelligence warning of the attack).
I'd agree with you. Israeli intelligence is second to none. I think they deliberately let their own people be murdered to give them the excuse to do what they are now doing - murdering innocent people and making the whole area uninhabitable so they can take over. They've been illegally settling in it for years - this has just speeded things up. All done with American approval.
Israel keeps on denying there is any starvation in Gaza. So why won't they allow any outside journalists in to confirm this?
Israel that Palestinians do not accept the state of Israel. So why is it never pointed out that Israel also does not accept the state of Palestine? Why has Israel never confirmed its own borders? And why, why is any criticism of Israel met with cries of antisemitism?
I have to disagree with you on this topic. Who would run this Palestinian state? Hamas, who have always devoted themselves to the total destruction of Israel? You want Israel to be "at least" as small as its pre-1967 borders. But Israel lost territory when the Arabs attacked it in 1948. I don't dispute that the Gaza situation is tragic, but the only truly genocidal organisations are hamas and hezbollah (they have stated, many times, that they regard all Jews as their enemies. Oct 7 '23 showed what their intentions are.) I also question the accuracy of some of the claims made against Israel.
It's a very moving poem and I'm sure you're right about the need for formal recognition of the State of Palestine. I'm not convinced that it will happen while Trump and Netanyahu are in office.
A brilliantly executed poem. How ever long did that take you? 👏
Absolutely heart-breaking what is happening in Gaza. What a moving poem.
Well said, Steve. Despite your disclaimer I think you've created a wonderfully powerful poem. And do I detect echoes of The Waste Land in there? The shadows imagery, fear in a handful of dust?
An excellent poem. 🇵🇸
Well said. Recognise Palestine now! As for Israel, as well as annexing large parts of Gaza and the West Bank illegally, they still hold territory they took from Lebanon and Syria after earlier wars. The international community really needs to get a grip on this. That includes the USA which has been protecting Israeli interests for decades now.
Action not more words.
Powerful poem.
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