MER FLASHBACK (July 1997)
.
BEING
FOR "PEACE NOW" IS
OFTEN
MORE SELF-SERVING THAN HELPFUL
MER - In these terribly depressing
and confusing days while the "Palestinan Authority" arrests professors,
journalists and human rights leaders; while Israeli troops masquerading
as Arabs have become "death squads" and apartheid-style barricades and
regulations of the "autonomous" areas are common-place; and while Arafat's
lieutenants are begging for meetings with Ariel Sharon and thanking him
for his contributions to the "peace process" -- this moving poem by a Palestinian
woman intimately familiar with the tragedies of her people and the duplicitous
words of help often sent their way. 7/7/97.
W A T C H
M E B L E E D
by L.M.Hashim
(Um Ahmad)
Come, my brother, enter herein - enter
my life.
You wanted to know.
You wanted to see.
Come taste my strife.
You speak of peace so easily -
not knowing my war - not feeling my
pain.
Your "justice of all" is only "justice
for few"
while the guilty remain.
You want us to put our weapons down,
while their weapons persist.
For you - easy talk.
For you - food, family and freedom
exist.
It might make you feel good to speak
out
on aggression and say that you care.
But that does not give you license
to make
my decisions while I am not there.
You set up your conferences to
"educate others" on our situation.
Yet, you pick your own speakers to
represent us while we lose our nation.
You say you are with us and convince
all around you it is peace that you
seek.
You say you will listen. You say you
will
hear us, but you won't let us speak.
And you with the peace signs, organizing
your marches, please only yourselves.
You think your good thoughts can alone
change
the world like your signs on the shelves.
You must face reality. You think it
is
simple - it simply is not.
Reality is watching your land taken
away
and your relatives shot.
Two fingers up does not stop a bullet
and make everything right.
Righteous indignation does
you no good if you won't see the light.
You ask lots of questions, but won't
hear
our answers about what we need.
The only thing left is for me to invite
you to come watch me bleed...
