ON 15TH FEBRUARY THE WORLD WOKE UP TO A NEW
RESPONSIBILITY
NO MORE WAR
PHOTOGRAPHS FROM ALL OVER THE
WORLD THANKS TO A YAHOO SEARCH ENGINE AND NEWSPAPERS
IF YOU AND I
WERE ALWAYS SILENT.
This poem is dedicated to all who speak out as
Conscientious Objectors
Who ordered this carnage?
We hold these broken bones in our hands
We are silent
We wonder where to put down these burdens
But the children are too far away....
Shall we drop them here, where we see
The black lumps of carcases....
What have I got here hiding in my sleeve?
It is a rat
It is hungry for the ground
It is hungry for the grease of death
It is hungry for those with guns
Whom it may follow for hunger
To be satisfied
Why do we, you and I,
Stand here in horror?
We knew what was going on...
A photographer caught the dead child
In his arms and this picture
Of that child was made by someone else.
It is on a torn note of paper; you can just see the arm
raised, there is a small stone
in his hand and the child is shouting out - or, what is
it I hear? I can hear his voice that issues
from the flute of this bone that I have in my hand.
Now the children come, running.
They will carry away my burden and I shall never forget
the look in their eyes.....
by Jocelyn
Braddell
HISTORY
HAS
UNYIELDING TRACKS ...
history has
unyielding tracks
whereon we carry surfeit,
as unrelenting refugees
into the future...
always in reach of a weapon's blow,
the child awe-struck by fear,
fear's howling gasp.
history...unyielding track,
path beaten - a scar
on the surface of the brain
creating the pattern
of half-formed fears;
creating the stairway
where, unwary, we climb.
this is no goat-path
for a frolic of leaping.
it is the unyielding track
of history, where rivals
on every step of tradition
claim transparent
rights: violence at the fist ,
signed,
ghost remedies in Law.
history...unyielding track,
path beaten - a scar
on the surface of the brain,
under which ominous arch
the innocent pursue joy...
love and freedom,
aspects of the will, long imprisoned.
history...unyielding
track,
path beaten - a scar
on the mind
at the threshold.
history without exits,
designed in a mirror
of gestures.
history...unyielding
track
that innocence surveys
entering the domain
of archetypes ruling
mankind's hands.
NOW ...
WALK ON YOUR HANDS
! NOW !
WALK ON YOUR HANDS,
PLANT THEM NAKED
ASLANT THIS VITAL TRACK
WHERE, IN FREEDOM,
WE GREET
THE DAYLIGHT
AND THE DARK.
jocelyn braddell
THE
ARAB WOMAN'S CALL
Over
the far hills, brother,
You must come now and draw down
To the wells of the black tent.
Over the upright rocks
Over the broken waves of the sand-dune
Over the bones of the camel and the sheep
Come brother, come down to the horse,
To the well, the well of the black tent.
Here
I, in a long high chant,
I will set your blood singing.
Here I can show you the delicate bone
Of my wrist and my long thigh.
In a restless moment you will
Rush onward and down to the tent
Of the coloured tapestry within
Where I lie as a knife
Offering up reflection to light.
Over
the sensitive dawn
Knowing only a black night,
Over a moment when sound breaks
Out from the Kaaba,
Over all sudden music
That passes beyond the machine,
We will travel together
Yoked as the foreign hound,
Penetrating all directions of wind
With a cry that shatters the bell.
No
columns of metal or armies, brother,
Can forget our shape on this path.
All must pass under this shadow, this light.
No soldier of any tribe
Insolently planning to take a life
Will endure, describe, or call down
The battle of war, brother.
That vision of death was a holy book
Locked with metal,
Tyrant of the brain....
But the meaning of life now, is a secret revealed...
Assaulting my mind.
jocelyn
braddell©
THE INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT
Our Messages to You:
Friends,
Lately our messages to you from the Occupied Palestinian
Territories
have reported increased violence from Israeli soldiers
against
international civilians - Caiohme was shot in the leg in
Jenin, soldier
aimed an M16 rifle at Susan's head and fired right
through her
hair, Annie threatened with rape and violence,
internationals pushed,
beaten, shot at..
It may seem that the benefit of having internationals
here has
diminished. We want to make sure that you do not fall
into the trap of
believing this. What the Israeli government is trying to
do is get
foreign civilians to stay away so that the brutal acts of
repression and
human rights abuses against Palestinian civilians
continue, with no
one to see the inhumanity of Israeli occupation policies
and no
one to witness the suffering of the Palestinian people.
From
confiscating footage and slandering ISM volunteers in
efforts to
delegitimize our message to the world, to efforts to
intimidate with
violence the internationals that stand in the way of
daily human
rights abuses committed against Palestinian civilians,
the Israeli
government wants to prevent our efforts and most
importantly silence
our voices. ISM eyewitness accounts and reports expose
daily that the
Israeli government policies are not carried out in order
to
protect Israeli civilians; quite the contrary, they are
the very root of
attacks on Israelis.
ISM is lending its voice to the Palestinian
struggle because it's not a
struggle against Israelis or Jews, it's a struggle for
universal
values of freedom, human rights and equality, based not
on religion,
skin color or nationality! , but on humanity.
Your presence can help
ensure that what is being done to us does not go
unnoticed and
unrecorded; your presence is a civilian-based effort to
protect human
rights in the face of great violence; your presence can
give voice to
our cries, which are often muted or vilified; your
presence
shows the world that being anti-occupation does not mean
being
anti-Semitic, anti-Jewish or anti-Israel, but rather
anti-oppression,
anti-discrimination and anti-violence; your presence
tells the people
here that they are not alone - that when governments fail
to act in
the interest of humanity, the people will act; and your
presence is a
show of solidarity with a struggle for freedom and
justice.
The conditions here are abhorrent, the violence is
disgusting, and
everyone is trying to survive and resist against odds
that seem
overwhelming...
But there is a light here in Palestine that shines on the
darkness of
the occupation and keeps us believing; there is a force
that mutes
the fear and makes us strong; it's the determination of
people to rise
up and resist injustice, your outstretched hands that
make our
stand powerful and your voices that make our message one
that cannot be silenced.
Please join us.
For further information on any of the above, please
contact Huwaida at
+972-67-473-308. For information about joining
the ISM, please see www.palsolidarity.org
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