A Ceasefire Fell – like an Angel Shot from the Sky

“…It is a historic day today where for the first time after almost 6 months the Security Council adopted a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire…:”

Ambassador Riyad H. Mansour, Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the United Nations  March 25, 2024

 

“It is the hope of the E10 that the resolution adopted today will be implemented in good faith by all parties and will help ease the suffering of the population in Gaza… humanitarian aid must flow immediately  …

Mozambique & Others on Security Council’s Adoption of Gaza Ceasefire Resolution | United Nations – March 25, 2024

 

 

Mere minutes after the UN Security Council voted 14 to 1

(a solitary America raising the Flag of Abstention like

a marker over a mass-grave),

voted unanimously for the much needed – if temporary –

ceasefire to the savage slaughter of the Palestinian people

in the grim ghetto of Gaza

 

the sun broke through a catastrophe of clouds and

showered all the fearful faces with nameless blessings.

 

Even the dead tried stir from their restless sleep

to spread the news.

The children unpacked their tormented toys buried now

for over five months in rubble and broken body parts, in

desperation and debris

 

and even Hunger itself seemed

to denounce this meaningless and murderous fast

 

…when Algeria and Guyana, when Mozambique and Sierra Leone,

finally decided to say

No! Basta! Enough! Nunca Mas! No more! Never Again!

to this savage slaughter of helpless beings…

 

“…Israel has to abide by its obligation and the Charter and it has to immediately stop the fighting… this is what the Resolution called… immediate ceasefire… any member can interpret as they wish but the law is the law… the language of the Resolution is crystal clear… an immediate ceasefire… therefore an immediate ceasefire has to be put in place …”

(Ambassador Riyad H. Mansour,

Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the United Nations,

among the members of the Arab Group

speaking to the waiting world).

 

Even melancholy music could be heard from the troubled hearts

of those in search of refuge and shelter, in search of safety and

sanctuary, those in tent, and basement, in prison cell and

in the mortuaries and killing fields and the corridors of Al Shifa hospital.

 

Poetry itself decided to learn how to dance and

all the professors threw their philosophy books

in a fire lit to cook this soup of grass and hope and hunger

(made up with words like truth and lies, with words like guided munitions, bunker busters, collateral damage, kill-zone, words with the weight of megatons and the 25,000 tons of bombs of explosives dropped so no stone would ever stand on stone again, words like destruction, atrocity, detention, torture, disappearance, words deadly and armed with all the acts of genocide, with the rhetoric of death,  and this politician’s recipe for humanity, annihilate annihilate… annihilate them all…)

 

An hour or two after Ecuador, Japan, Malta, the Republic of Korea,

Slovenia, and Switzerland said Stop the Slaughter! Ceasefire Now!

 

…an hour or so later the abandoned birds began to sing.

The bone-bare and starving dogs took up the hunt for scraps of food.

The marchers and the protesters in every land, in every city, in every country

and continent, even in Israeli and German and Russian prisons

all stopped to catch breath

 

in the short hours after

 

“…it’s a binding language which is based on Article 25 of the Charter as such it is a mandatory resolution that has to be carried out…”

 

So all the clocks could plant a smile on their busy faces.

The few buildings left standing heaved a sigh of relief.

Only the smug Israeli soldiers cursed their missed opportunities

to dance with death in the far distance of their foolproof sights,

their F16s and Apache helicopters.

The weapons dealers buried their greedy head in hands

and the generals and the ministers locked their doors and their windows to pound the unforgiving walls…

 

“…If you’re talking about Chapter 7… when we use Chapter 7… it is for enforceable measures if a country violates international law in a manner that threatens international peace and security… you can use force or impose…sanctions…this is what Chapter 7 is…”

 

Only the president turned a deaf ear

and the mindless Ministers for Defense and Offense

turned a deaf ear.

The well-fed and bloody-bearded Knesset members

turned a deaf ear

turned their angry faces to the wall

turned the sound down on the television

blindfolded their wives, their dogs and their children

threw the radios out the door into the well swept streets

turned their dictionaries upsidedown and ordered

additional words for ethnic cleansing, occupation, theft,

murder and genocide

in whatever language it is easiest to lie…

 

But then,

about one hour after,

two hours later,

or even less…

 

after the UN Security Council rose in applause,

after 148 other useless and ridiculed Resolutions

after five and a half months of slaughter, of murder, of massacre

against 100, 000 thousand, a million, two million innocent Palestinians

after the world finally said “enough is enough”,

Basta! Nunca Mas! Ceasefire Now! No more! Not in Our Name!

 

…and even though 100,000 of the dead, the disappeared, the wounded

could no longer hear the news…

 

All the women and the children,

all the assassinated doctors and the nurses

thousands upon thousand of naked and beaten prisoners

all raised their voice in one-enormous-speechless

holding their breath

for…

 

…the silenced sirens sounded again

the American and Israeli warplanes flew overhead again

the drones and their vicious cargo whistled overhead…

 

then the children buried their heads and their toys

their already lost-pets and parents and loved-ones in the dark places

where the bombs now fall on Rafah, on a house, a refuge, a sanctuary in Rafah,

fell on the first seventeen dead in Rafah…

 

And Israel’s foreign minister says the military will not stop fighting.

“THE ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTER IN JUST THE LAST COUPLE OF MINUTES SAYING THE STATE OF ISRAEL WILL NOT STOP THE FIGHT. WE WILL DESTROY HAMAS AND CONTINUE TO FIGHT UNTIL THE LAST OF THE HOSTAGES RETURN HOME”.

 

So the people will go on dying, starving, hurting, being wounded, buried in rubble, dismembered, shot, broken, butchered, tormented and terrorised

…lied to and lied about…

 

and now

…“the violations continue with constant ongoing artillery shelling as well as attacks in the northern part that has been largely struggling with famine within the past weeks and on a daily basis ongoing attacks on hospitals and other public facilities…”

 

And Benny Gantz, who should be America’s next president, says the UN Security Council resolution

“will have no operational impact on how Israel conducts this war…”

 

And one single witness says

“Oh Allah, help and protect the people of Palestine.”

 

But know now:

 

that history itself

holds its breath

in an enormous immeasurable

waiting

at this deadly door to a future

for those

condemned to the decline and fall of empires,

to the ruthless murderous conspiracy of a handful of madmen

in their bullet-proof war cabinets, their locked-and-bolted bunkers

with their body-guards and American and European spokespersons

and war criminals

 

without a heart or a mind

or even a moment of kindness

or a kind word left

in amid their litany of lies.

 

So write now

their epitaph:

 

Your dark and destructive epitaph, Zionist,

the epitaph of a pariah and its powerful friends:

 

know that this Homicidal State

with its brain all twisted in

knots of fear and rage

 

will forever be a warning to

the children that survive

the children of tomorrow

all the children of future generations.

 

Let. All. These. Beings. Now. Beware.

 

And let Allah and the God of the Christian and the Jews

“Help and protect the People of Palestine”.

 

séamas carraher

25 march – 2 april, 2024

 

Image

From  Israeli military bombs house in Rafah, killing at least 17

Al Jazeera – 26 March, 2024 (“Fair-Use”)

 

NOTES

The Elected 10 Group in the UN: Algeria, Ecuador, Guyana, Japan, Malta, Mozambique, Republic of Korea, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, Switzerland…

“The United Nations’ (UN) charter endows its Security Council (UNSC) with primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security. Yet, there are contradictions in its institutional setup. The two-tiered system of membership, with five permanent (P5), veto-wielding member states and 10 non-permanent members (the elected ten or E10) that have no right to the veto, renders the UN institutionally unequal.”

Africa & UNSC Elected 10 – July 2023

 

Speech: Ambassador Riyad H. Mansour, Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the United Nations, among the members of the Arab Group speaking to the waiting world.

United Nations – March 25, 2024

 

in the mortuaries and killing fields and the corridors of Al Shifa hospital

Israeli “Kill Zones”

Al Jazeera – April 1, 2024

 

Chapter 7

https://www.un.org/en/about-us/un-charter/chapter-7

 

The weapons dealers buried their greedy head in hands

How big is Israel’s military?

Al Jazeera – October 2023

Who’s arming Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza

Al Jazeera – March 20, 2024

 

And Israel’s foreign minister says the military will not stop fighting.

MSNBC – March 25, 2024

 

Benny Gantz… says the UN Security Council resolution

“will have no operational impact on how Israel conducts this war…”

Al Jazeera – March 26, 2024

 

@asimbirajdar1190 posted on twitter/X,  on 26 March 2024

“Oh Allah, help and protect the people of Palestine”.

 

Other Links

 

No let-up in Gaza war despite UN ceasefire resolution • FRANCE 24 English

France 24 English – 26 March, 2024

 

Big UNSC Blow To Israel: USA Ignores Netanyahu’s Threat To Let Gaza Ceasefire Resolution Be Passed

Hindustani Times – March 25, 2024

 

War on Gaza: UN special rapporteur accuses Israel of acts of ‘genocide’

“History teaches us that genocide is a process not a single act. It starts with the dehumanisation of a group and the denial of that group’s humanity and ends with the destruction of the group, in all or in part…”

Francesca Albanese says “Israel has violated three of the five acts listed under the UN Genocide Convention Including: Killing members of a specific group, causing serious bodily or mental harm, and deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole and in part.”

She also found that genocidal acts were approved and given effect after statements of genocidal intent by senior Israeli military and government officials.

Al Jazeera – March 25, 2024

 

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