Thursday, January 15, 2009

Bearing Witness

Every morning as I wake up, it dawns upon me that it is yet another day of sorrow. I try to dodge the task I have set for myself, bearing witness. Sweet life pulls me in the direction of my art. Images of beauty and harmony wash all over me summoning me to that world which is the negation of all horrors and all woes. But I force myself to turn away from the beauty of the world to walk in the valley of the shadow death that Israel is forcing upon the people of Gaza. My spirit departs, its destination Gaza, The screams of women and children engulf me and I fall into the abyss of hell amidst the thick clouds of phosphor and the dense smoke of burning homes and carbonized bodies. Israel is also screaming Hamas Hamas Hamas did that Hamas is the murderer, Hmas is the devil. hamas has masterminded the assault. We are only defending ourselves. The  holy trio of the Israeli government rail and rave Hamas Hamas We are defending ourselves against the monster Hamas, but I am all eyes and all I can see is a city of refugees being sacked and torched, gradually forced to its knees among its ruins and the corpses of its children. May the holy trio of Israel choke on the charred bones and flesh and the heaps of rabble clogging the landscape. Are they waiting for the one thousand deaths to multiply to three, one thousand corpse for each, one thousand for Barak, one thousand for Livni and one thousand for Olmert.
 
Al-Jazeera was trying to contact a women, taking refuge with her children and other women in a room at a high-rise building in the besieged Deir Al-Hawa. She tried to talk on her mobile to describe the situation, They are surrounding our building with their tanks and fires, they.... are... downstairs.  Save us save us. Then there was nothing but screams, screams of terrified women and louder piercer screams of demented children. Screams, then more screams.The line suddenly fell silent. No more screams.
 
Thank you Thank you Thank you
 
Hail to the victor
Hail to the three forthcoming summits the Arab leaders are scrambling to hold, each trying to outdo the other.
Drape yourselves in black and walk in shame. 
The valiant city is falling
Gaza is dying
Convene your summits on its ruins and eulogize in the best tradition of the great Arab poets of old.

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