POETRY | PALESTINE
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Harsh words belong to foes but sometimes friends need to hear it.
'IRAN IS NOT GAZA'
(my response to Arundhati Roy)
Gaza resisted I-don't-know-how-many Hiroshimas, And it lives.
Gaza defeated Repeated Plans to deport, And it stays.
Gaza withstood A siege, starvation Fire from the sky Amputations without anesthesia; And its one-legged, one-armed children Still hold their heads high.
No ma'am. Iran is not Gaza. To all those who bake soundbites out of our misery, But haven't spent a minute in Gaza,
Slow down, Take off your shoes, as you approach land the blood of children anointed.
This poem came to me spontaneously in response to Arundhati Roy's proverbial use of Palestine. What is the difference between that, I thought, and the threats an Israeli leader was making in another post from today, to "turn Beirut into Ga.."?
I understand the power of Arundhati Roy's words. I agree with what she says in these comments, but I felt jarred at that one sentence, which Zeteo unwisely chose for a title. It seems to disparage, not the Israelo-American bully-machine that's pummeling both Gaza and Iran (and Lebanon and a bunch of other places), but the people of Gaza who heroically withstood the cruelest siege in history.
I expected better of Roy.
Unlearn.
Refuse to judge with the same value system as Empire.
With love, Ramsey Hanhan Author and Public Speaker
Ramsey Hanhan is the Palestinian American author of two books (Fugitive Dreams and Palestine Bleeds For You), short stories, and poetry. He speaks about Palestine and literature. Formerly a physics professor, he lives near Baltimore.