Wednesday, October 21, 2009

PEACE TALKS

by Samah Sabawi


Let's talk
Let's negotiate
Let's have a conference, a summit, a debate
A multifaith dialogue to eliminate hate
They'll call us men of peace
And after our love fest
We can issue a joint release
Of how we talk!

Let's talk
But not about ethnic cleansing
Forget Dier Yassin
Don't speak of apartheid
Or the destruction of Jennin
Be blind to the pain in Gaza
The hunger, the disease
The rubble, the fires
The uprooted trees
Sewerage floods and darkness
Drones and the Siege
Most of all
DON'T MENTION THE RIGHTS OF REFUGEES
When we talk!

Let's talk
Let our words float in the air
Devoid of meaning or clarity
We'll establish our own facts on the ground
And you will be paid your salary
Never before has talking of peace
Caused so much damage and agony
Yet still we talk!

So let's talk
Let's negotiate !
We can have a conference, a summit, a debate
A multifaith dialogue to eliminate hate
We'll shake hands and smile
And make the six o'clock news
For supporting the peace process
Between Arabs and Jews
And we will only talk!


PS This post has ben made possible courtesy of Adib S Karwar

Souirce:
http://www.bdsmovement.net/?q=node/68 Take action: Support the call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Rich Siegel


"IN PALESTINE"

Rich Siegel and Dave Lippman, two Jewish writers, co-wrote a telling and haunting song about children dying in Palestine, and Rich Siegel played it beautifully on piano with his vocal accompaniment. In the process Rich tells of his awakening to what was hidden from him about Zionism and the history of the making of Israel.

We reproduce here the lyrics of the song, which has been written in memory of Abir Aramin, daughter of Basam Aramin and of the 437 children of Gaza who were killed by the Israelis in their Dec.08/Jan.09 invasion of Gaza.

The lyrics are copyright.

You can hear Rich’s rendition of the song and the comments by both the writers at: http://vimeo.com/6630724 The entire video lasts just 12 minutes.


Please see the note at the end of the lyrics.



"IN PALESTINE"
Music by Rich Siegel
Lyric by Dave Lippman and Rich Siege
Copyright 2009, all rights reserved

You tell me all peoples need land of their own
All the others have theirs, why not leave us alone?
We bought it, we brought it to bloom in the sun
It's ours- always was
We won't let them take back our homes and our trees
We won't have them driving us into the seas
That's why we are forcing them down on their knees(pause)
But the children are dying in Palestine

You tell me of centuries caught in despair
Pogroms, persecutions, and final solutions
The need of a homeland, safety for JewsI hear you
You tell me of hatred, of fear and attack
Of enemies everywhere, we must fight back
The border town's under the gun- (pause)
But a hundred to one, the children are dying in Palestine

You say
There can never be peace'til their outrages cease
Of course, they say the same
You say it's not true that we forced them to leave
That Jews would do that you just cannot believe
The Arabs are treacherous, born to deceive
The hate us
Well, it's true we've been hated, but when we arrive
And take over their country in the name of our surviv-al
Is it any wonder that peace cannot thrive
While the children are dying in Palestine?

Instrumental break

I'm told
Every state has its Jews
Even Jews have their Jews
They've been there all along
You say we must search for some moderate way
We must find a middle ground to save the day
We shouldn't have settlements,
They shouldn't prey on our nation
But where is the middle and where the extremes?
We've settled their farmlands and stolen their streams
Our generous offers are not what they seem
And the children are dying in Palestine

We’re trapped in this horror, it won’t go away.
We’ve conquered, but conquering won’t win the day
We inspire their hatred, we watch in dismay
It’s madness
Suppose we did take their land, planned it all along
Can we look at ourselves and admit we’ve done wrong
Can we all live together, can we all belong
Can we stop all this killing in Palestine?
Please God no more children dying in Palestine

*******************



Notes:
The song can be downloaded at: http://richsiegel.bandcamp.com/
(You can pay whatever you like for this download, minimum $1. 20% of earnings will go to charities that help Palestinian children, including the following, in alphabetical order: Global Help Initiative for Palestine http://www.help-initiative.org/ Humanity without Borders humanitywithoutborders.ning.com Middle East Children's Alliance http://www.mecaforpeace.org/ Playgrounds for Palestine http://www.playgroundsforpalestine.org/ The balance will go to funding Rich Siegel's upcoming CD project "Spirit and Justice" which will include the song "In Palestine", and when that is complete, to other recording and video projects. Any parties interested in assisting with or taking a sponsorship role in these projects please contact Rich directly at rich@richsiegel.com.)

The song, Rich’s talk and Dave Lippman’s comments can also be seen on two You-tube videos. The total playing time for both the videos is 12 minutes.

Part 1, Dedication and Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1x2axqjhI6g
Part 2, The Songwriters speak: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojv1FWFGCgw&feature=channel


Rich Siegel website
http://www.richsiegel.com/

Dave Lippman’s website
http://www.davelippman.com/

Monday, October 12, 2009

The Definition of Occupation

By Abdelnasser Rashid

Occupied, terrorized, genocide
while the whole world is hypnotized,
Sixty years, incessant tears
no day passes by without countless fears
For our lives, our wives, our children cry
yet the world turns away, and our spirits die.
For my land, I do stand
but I remain hopeless without a helping hand,
Oppression, suppression, depression
of every aspect of my life, you've taken possession,
Our weapons are stones, to protect our homes
but your bulldozers win and terror roams,
Yours are tanks, helicopters, and military jeeps
to kill the young man, as his mother weeps,
You control our electricity, you control our seas
you control our streets, and uproot our trees,
You close our schools, our children can't learn
you deny the refugees their right to return,
Suffering orphans, under your persecution
when they rise up, they face execution,
Families are separated, and farmers (merely) recall
the land they lost by your Apartheid Wall,
Through your diplomacy and your foreign relations
you attempt to justify and give credence to your occupations,
Palestine is my land, and I won't let you take it
and while you put the world to sleep, I try to wake it.
Abdelnasser Rashid is a 11th Grader.
April 15, 2006

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

WE ARE ANGRY

by Mazin Qumsiyeh


Maker of the Universe, where art Thou . . .?


We are angry at rhetoric of oppression
Hafrada-Segregation-Apartheid and Security
Two-states, one state, cantons and autonomy
The chosen state’s right to exist
While colonialism can persist
Addicts now to talk about talking
And hold meetings about more meetings
Maybe to revive the “peace process” charades
to ensure no peace for a few more decades
giving the monster created by Western powers
time to gobble more of the holy places
and belch its pleasure in more negotiations
devoid of human rights or UN resolutions

We are angry at statistics of oppression
11,000 political prisoners
534 Destroyed villages and towns
35% seeking stolen jobs
450 km of apartheid walls
7 million displaced or refugees
1.5 million uprooted fruiting trees
1.5 million in Gaza besieged
62 years of justice denied

We are angry at manufactured misery
Epidemics and pandemics
Genocides hidden with polemics
Swelling ranks of the disempowered
Phosphorous bombs on Gaza showered
An apartheid wall that snakes around
Running sewage in the streets aboubd
Children barefoot in a refugee camp in 2009!
While the unelected leaders repeat the same line

We are angry at spies
Some come take pictures and pretend to care
Others just watch and hope to avoid the glare
Some punished by law or by a guilty conscience
Others abandoned by their racist masters
Some feed stomachs but starve their souls
Others fall for carnal desires
as fleeting as the empty goals
Some serving the colonial racist regime
Others think it safer with the quisling themeSome commit suicide or die forgotten
Others repent and are soon forgiven

We are angry at hypocrisy
Those who claim they need their human right
While not sparing children from their plight
Those who champion International laws
While leaving heavy trails of bloody claws
Those who smile plunging knives in your back
While screaming loudly that they are under attack
Those who use a religious heritage to support overt racism
While defaming anyone who dares to speak out: “anti-semitism”!

We are angry at collaborators
Those with nice suits and those with guns
Those who sell their people for shekels
Those who do it out of ignorance
And those who with malice and malfeasance
Presidents, Pundits, and peasants
Large or small petty criminals

We are angry at being angry
While it may help us break the chains
Yet our love through anger diminishes
And our faith in humanity shrinks
And even what we want for ourselves
So maybe this final anger motivates ….
To shed anger and keep high our heads and spirits
In our world there are many who deserve merits
Good, honest, brave activists
Philanthropists, protestors, poets…
men and women of all life stages
tailor-made therapists for all ages
Political Prisoners and Martyrs
Intellectuals and small farmers
Working to plant the blood-soaked lands
With cactus, figs, olive trees, and almonds
watering hopes and dreams like a growing grape vine
tendrils reaching out to free beloved immortal Palestine


Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD A Bedouin in Cyberspace, a villager at home

http://qumsiyeh.org/

NAKBLINKA: The Bird has Died

by Dom Martin



A bird
That has eaten
Soars!

In Gaza
No bird
Has flown!

1.5 million:
Incarcerated;
Human stateliness:
Desecrated!

It's Nakba
Not NAFTA;
It's
Nakblinka
Not Treblinka!

From corporatism
To imperialism:
It's a collage of gulags
Bantustans
Afghanistans
Iraqs!

It's
xenophobism:
The metabolism
To corporatism
Bridged by munitions
Unabridged by renditions!




The Face of DU

Amidst our sacrosanct lies
Behold!
The child of innocence
Comes born
With no eyes!

Ghoulish tumors
Genetic sores
Patenting deaths . . .
It's the DNA
Of our War on Terror
The cherubic wreaths
To our lethal armor!

It's humanity that's
dead
As we continue to be led
By the reluctant progress
Of God’s egress!

God hasn't defected
Is merely splinted
In the one-way access
To our political abscess!

Alas!
The bird flutters
As the UN utters
Another veto!

The bird died
Of DU
As we congressionally lied
About what we knew!

Source: http://www.propheticimagery.com/Nakblinka.htm