Shame on Us
POETRY FORMAT, 16 Sep 2024
Mazin Qumsiyeh – TRANSCEND Media Service
Shame on us
for silence on Palestine, Kashmir, Amazon, Bahamas, detention centers in US and much more
for letting our neighbor’s homes be demolished
for allowing fascist politicians to take over our countries
for merely paying lip service to our martyrs after they are killed
for saying prayers and then forgetting what they died for
Shame on us
for blaming the colonization for more than it is responsible for
for our own actions and lack of actions
for silence on the murder of Israa Gharib by her own family
… and many more beautiful girls for supposed “honor”
… no honor in brutal murder or in excusing it
Shame on us
for patriarchy and tribalism
for tossing trash into our streets
for not composting
for buying Israeli products while speaking of resistance
for tolerating corrupt leaders
for shaking hands with corrupt officials
for silence and for cajoling powers
Shame on us
for our self-imposed weakness and for lack of organizing
for not respecting law and order
for inaction and for apathy in the face of oppression
for believing in might instead of right
for letting down Basel Al-Araj, Bassam Aburahma
… and thousands more
Shame on us
for allowing Netanyahu to visit occupied Hebron
… leaving only a few young people challenging him
for letting self-appointed “leaders” attack Issa Amro and youth against settlements
for superstition and belief in a god who would save us
Shame on us
for “security coordination”
and for following orders
for accepting to be paid blood money to help the occupiers
for allowing a few bad apples spoil much of the population
for feeling helpless
and internalizing repression (mental colonization)
Shame on us
for lack of reading
for losing dignity
for ignoring
… our power to change
… our own history
… our rich canaanitic culture
… our young minds
… suffering for so many people
Fellow human beings
… and the suffering of our planet
Home to fellow living things
Shame on us
for forgetting that Palestine was and is the country of beauty
… of the Fertile Crescent
… of the cradle of civilization
… of successful resistance*
… of miracles of rebirth
For forgetting that this planet earth is our only home
… home of good and bad
… home of Einstein and Ben Gurion
… Ibn Sina and Ibn Saud
… home of death and rebirth
… home our only home
8 Sep 2019
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Mazin Qumsiyeh, associate professor of genetics and director of cytogenetic services at Yale University School of Medicine, is founder and president of the Holy Land Conservation Foundation and ex-president of the Middle East Genetics Association. He won the Raymond Jallow Activism Award from the national Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee in 1998. He is co-founder and national treasurer of Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, and has written extensively about the Middle East. Qumsiyeh is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment, author of Sharing the Land of Canaan and Popular Resistance in Palestine, a professor at Bethlehem University and director of the Palestine Museum of Natural History in Bethlehem. http://palestinenature.org
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Tags: Gaza, Genocide, IDF, Israel, Palestine, Poetry, West Bank
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 16 Sep 2024.
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