Gaza, Palestine

 Another Unwritten Lament

Gaza, Palestine - Another Unwritten Lament 

"Here a god wretched with wrath walks.

Here without mercy or redemption a savage 

religion with a voice of thunder.

Here desolation descends among the people

like a prophet from the old bible:

(My son, I buried him here

with my own hands...

I found your grave, Saleh.

I found your grave, my beloved son.)"

 

(Middle East Eye - July 12, 2024) 

The Lament

 “I found your grave, my beloved son.”

A Palestinian mother bids farewell to her son

 “My son is here

O Saleh, Oh Saleh

– there is no god but God

May God be pleased with you,

Saleh.

 

My son, I buried him here

with my own hands…

I found your grave, Saleh.

I found your grave, my beloved son.

 

My soul, my son, the joy of

my heart.

My beloved son.

My soul.

My Heart.

My beloved.

 

I swear my son, I cannot

sleep at night

when you come to my mind.

I swear my son, I cannot sleep at night.

 

The joy of my heart, Salah.

The joy of my heart.

My dear, my precious, my light.

My handsome Salah, the light of my life.

 

God willing. my son, you are

in the highest ranks of paradise.

 

My dear, I am patient.

I entrusted you to God my dear.

And I did what you wanted, my soul.

But I am saddened.”

(Anonymous)

 -----  

"In recent conflicts, such indirect deaths range from three to 15 times the number of direct deaths. Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death to the 37 396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186 000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza. Using the 2022 Gaza Strip population estimate of 2 375 259, this would translate to 7·9% of the total population in the Gaza Strip. A report from Feb 7, 2024, at the time when the direct death toll was 28 000, estimated that without a ceasefire there would be between 58 260 deaths (without an epidemic or escalation) and 85 750 deaths (if both occurred) by Aug 6, 2024."  

The Lancet (July 5, 2024)

 Global Right - Full Poem (& Links)

ELEGY

for al-Shifa Hospital

Global Rights - Elegy for al-Shifa Hospital

1.

 

Dread rains on my roof with

its pictures of death and destruction.

Sorrow and her sister, terror, come visit

with their shrill symphonies of pain.

“Famine looms, disease outbreaks spread

and trauma injuries increase”  the

noisy radios boast.

 

i tried reason with the pictures.

Tried turn the sound right down on the radio.

Tried to pull the plug from the wall, bury

my head in the sand, tried it all.

 

Tried to pry their heartless hands from

strangling my throat

 

“...some of the victims had their hands tied and they were buried alive and others according to eyewitness accounts were crushed with tanks and what appears to be an attempt to cover up evidence...”

 

ELEGY for al-Shifa Hospital - FULL POEM 

 

Al-Shifa Hospital ‘an empty shell with human graves’: WHO

April 6, 2024 – “WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says the UN agency and other partner organisations have managed to reach the medical complex in Gaza City following Israel’s deadly two-week siege. “The team witnessed at least five dead bodies during the mission. Most of the buildings in the hospital complex are extensively destroyed and the majority of assets are damaged or reduced to ashes. Even restoring minimal functionality in the short term seems implausible,” he said in a post on X. “An in-depth assessment by a team of engineers is needed to determine if the remaining buildings are safe for future use. WHO and partners’ recent effort to support the revival of basic services at al-Shifa are now lost, and people are once again deprived of access to lifesaving health care services.””

Al Jazeera – April 7, 2024

 

A Ceasefire Fell

like an Angel Shot from the Sky

 https://globalrights.info/2024/04/a-ceasefire-fell-like-an-angel-shot-from-the-sky/

"Mere minutes after the UN Security Council voted 14 to 1

(a solitary America raising the Flag of Abstention like

a marker over a mass-grave),

voted unanimously for the much needed - if temporary –

ceasefire to the savage slaughter of the Palestinian people

in the grim ghetto of Gaza

 

the sun broke through a catastrophe of clouds and

showered all the fearful faces with nameless blessings.

 

Even the dead tried stir from their restless sleep

to spread the news.

The children unpacked their tormented toys buried now

for over five months in rubble and broken body parts, in

desperation and debris

 

and even Hunger itself seemed

to denounce this meaningless and murderous fast

 

…when Algeria and Guyana, when Mozambique and Sierra Leone,

finally decided to say

No! Basta! Enough! Nunca Mas! No more! Never Again!

to this savage slaughter of helpless beings..."

(...contd.)  

 

Global Rights - Talking Peace - Palestine  (Full Poem)

“…It is a historic day today where for the first time after almost 6 months the Security Council adopted a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire…:” 

 

 Ambassador Riyad H. Mansour, Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the United Nations 

Palestine's Response to UN unanimous Vote for Ceasefire 

CURSE

 In A Time of Endless War

Curse?

A child's tears before the blows fall

In Mariupol or Khan Younis.

These laughing soldiers with their

teeth reeking of human flesh.

This small unborn baby, already emaciated.

A hundred thousand body parts stored in the

speechless rubble.

Another child's terror drowning in daylight.

 

Curse is now the prayer promised

by both diplomats and presidents with

their handshakes that have starved thousands.

 

Curse is a name for the silence left

after all decent tongues are ripped out

and replaced with a madman's microphone.

 

Curse?

These poisoned feasts of propaganda

the prime minister prepares for a famished people.

Curse them all / Mallacht Dé ort

Go dteachta na bréachra thú / May their lies

choke them!

 

CURSE. In A Time of Endless War (Full Poem)

 

“This war is a war on children. It is a war on their childhood and their future,” said UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini, who described as “staggering” the latest Gaza health authority data indicating that at least 12,300 youngsters have died in the enclave in the last four months, compared with 12,193 globally between 2019 and 2022." United Nations - 13, March 2024

 

 

Irish potato "Famine" (depicted - 1849)

 

"Once, they said, it was better to

light a candle than curse the darkness.

 

Then the rockets came."

 

GLOBAL RIGHTS - Human Rights 

A Dictionary of (Palestinian) Silence

After UN ambassador for Palestine, Riyad Mansour, held back tears at the international court of justice hearing on Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories

 

1         

“In the beginning was the Word...”

(“...and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John said)

 

2         

Vindictive:

is the snipers bullet

 

3         

Terror:

these small children i see on my TV screen.

 

4         

Trauma:        

these same children, as each new day begins.

 

“And the light shines in darkness;

 and the darkness

comprehended it not.”

(John also said).

A Dictionary of (Palestinian) Silence (Full Poem)

...22      

Mathematics – On March 8, the Gaza Health Ministry defined          

Math as

Dead: 30,878

Injured: another 72,402

Missing: countless

In Fear & Flight: 1.7 million people (over 75 per cent of the population) ...30...

 

Global Rights - Talking Peace (Palestine) 

Ambassador Riyad Mansour

“…after more than 75 years of Nakba… 56 years of belligerent occupation… 17 years of blockade… and nearly 140 days of vindictive punitive Siege and massacres perpetrated by Israel in Gaza which is a genocide……what crimes has Israel not committed..?”

 HUNGER (& the HATRED)

 

1

 

Hatred

like a wildfire

stalks the machinery of

my mercenary chest.

 

The blood,

well-armed in its rage

likewise pleads for revenge.

 

Night soon settles like

a smokescreen over this murderous heart

where a million mute massacres cry out

for redemption.

 

Who lit this fire that

sweeps whole worlds away?

Who forged these cruel contracts

signed in blood and retribution?

What bitter Bible blesses their ruthless laws?

And who, each day, lights the spark

on such senseless suffering?

 

And, tell me, Mr. Netanyahu

what merciless mother

would feed her children

on famine and starvation?

...

HUNGER (& the HATRED)   (Full Poem)

 

“There is no food to feed my children nor is there any bread… we came to the point where we are eating tree leaves we are eating the food of this donkey … you are asking me why did I come here I came because I want to take flour …look my leg is broken and I came to take flour I came to take flour … I came yesterday and people stepped over me I came today… even if I were to die I want to take a bag of flour because I can’t feed my children I don’t have anything to give my children to eat even if I die I will stay…”

(Democracy Now Interview, 1’56” – February 28, 2024)

"According to the Ministry of Health in Gaza as of 1 March, at least 30,228 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip since 7 October. About 70 per cent of those killed are reported to be women and children. Another 71,377 Palestinians have been reportedly injured."

UNRWA Situation Report 85

 

"i’m telling you, people of Israel,

people of Palestine,

it will take more than 30,000

godforsaken funerals

to calm these troubled waters."

 

GLOBAL RIGHTS - HUMAN RIGHTS 

Hind Rajab, Almost Six Years Old,

Gaza, Palestine: Dead.

(A Poem of Barbarism)

1

 

Who pulled the trigger on Hind Rajab?

Who pulled the trigger on her wounded cousin,

Layan Hamadeh, just 15-year-old?

Who fired the bullets that killed uncle and aunt?

Who sent death to collect all three cousins in the fleeing car?

What did the news say when their bodies

rose up from the fire to condemn this wretched world?

Who drove the tank

and who pointed the weapons?

Who loaded the guns and who paid

for the ammunition, the American shells,

the moving and immovable parts?

And who sleeps safe in their bed

each night these small children are driven,

like beasts, to their slaughter?

 

And who, endlessly, lectures us on human rights

from an English parliament, an American university, a German

holocaust memorial?

And, finally, who are these madmen-and-women

screaming antisemite antisemite

every time i blow my nose?

 

So I ask again:

who pulled the trigger that killed Hind Rajab, almost

6 years old, from Tal al-Hawa district, in southern Gaza City,

January 29, 2024?

Hind Rajab, Almost Six Years Old...(Poem) 

 2

 

Dear Hind Rajab, a chara mo chroí

your birthday is in May, i am told.

 

For a present if only i could wind

back the clocks and

slip so softly into this sleeping car

as night falls

and you ask: please come, quickly,

quickly “come take me. Please,

will you come?”

 

i could try hold you, falling

as we all fly away, together...

 

Monday, 29 January, 2024,

at about 5 p.m.

 

 

Global Rights  (Full poem)

Hind Rajab's and Layan Hamadeh’s voice recorded 

Hind Rajab was trapped in a car "with the bodies of her parents and siblings, one of whom was killed while on the phone pleading for help" from the Palestinian  Red Crescent. 

Al Jazeera - 31 January, 2024

 

Also: The Palestine Red Crescent Society recording’s of a call from Hind Rajab reading Quran

Middle East Eye - 16 February, 2024

 

The body of six-year-old Hind Rajab is found by relatives

Middle East Eye - February 10, 2024