Gaza, Palestine. Another Unwritten Lament

On July 12th, 2024, Middle East Eye, published this video of a Palestinian mother at the grave of her son, killed by an Israeli air-strike, in Gaza city. Here, now, is a lament no one has written yet

 

An antidote to a peoples’ history?

A cure for grief?

A desperate cure, for a cursed humanity

…not yet discovered?

 

(“My son is here.

O Saleh, Oh Saleh

– there is no god but God.

May God be pleased with you,

Saleh.)

 

Here a god wretched with wrath walks.

Here without mercy or redemption a savage

religion with a voice of thunder.

Here desolation descends among the people

like a prophet from the old bible:

 

(My son, I buried him here

with my own hands…

I found your grave, Saleh.

I found your grave, my beloved son.)

 

Here all the books are burning with revenge.

Here where words are wrapped round each other’s throat.

Here silence is a bottomless pit where mutilated bodies are buried.

Here hypocrisy is just another loud-mouthed American prayer.

 

(My soul, my son,

the joy of my heart.

My beloved son.

My Soul.

My Heart.

My Beloved.)

 

Here, where we are told there is

a better cure for grief:

an Israeli bulldozer!

 

Here we have made welcome the prophets of a new age,

the snipers and their masters, the bearded butchers

with their arms dealers and stock-brokers, the well-dressed politicians

with their heartless heart in hands, like all statesmen, the salesmen

and paid prostitutes of profit and savagery.

 

(I swear my son, I cannot

sleep at night

when you come to my mind.

I swear my son,

I cannot sleep at night.)

 

Here is a philosophy for corpses, for hatred

this Zionism of the claw, this armed and deadly Zionism,

a propaganda for criminals, this poisonous philosophy

…another catastrophe for a dying civilisation.

 

Here Humanity, with no clothes to wear, with

few words left to lose, must bow its shaved head,

must make its naked way to the train station

once again.

 

(The joy of my heart, Salah.

The joy of my heart.

My dear, my precious, my light.

My handsome Salah, the light of my life.)

 

Here, now, is a lament only a mother could write.

A lament when the countless dead grow old

beyond counting.

A lament where the children will never grow old.

 

(“God willing. my son, you are

in the highest ranks of paradise.)

 

Here, now, please listen,

when the American and German

guns fall silent

and the killer jets have somehow

rocked themselves to sleep

when the lies and their loudmouthed liars

are long gone

when all the prayers have turned into

ceasefires

 

“My dear, I am patient.

I entrusted you to God my dear.

And I did what you wanted, my soul.

But I am saddened.”

 

i.

am.

saddened

 

séamas carraher

12-17 july, 2024

 

Source: Middle East Eye

 Grief-stricken mother bids farewell to son after finding his grave

July 12, 2024

“I found your grave, my beloved son.”



“A mother from Gaza mourned the loss of her son, who was killed by an Israeli air strike, after finding his grave on Friday.
She had searched for her son’s grave after the Israeli army withdrew from the industrial area in Gaza City, where the army bulldozed some of the graves in the area.”

Video – Middle East Eye

https://www.middleeasteye.net/

 

Image

Gaza City (2009)

Al Jazeera English, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

 

Links

“The medical journal the Lancet… as many as 186,000 people have been killed either directly or indirectly as a result of Israel’s genocidal assault on the Gaza Strip … 8% of a population of 2.3 million people and that number is of course still rising as Israel continues its assault with the full complicity and support of the US and the EU…”

Clare Daly, July 14, 2024

The Lancet

 “The U.S. has long been by far the largest arms supplier to its closest Middle East ally, followed by Germany – whose strong support for Israel reflects in part atonement for the Nazi Holocaust – and Italy.”

Israel’s Weapons Suppliers – Reuters

 

“We cry with the Palestinians’ suffering”  Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss.

Zionism – or – Anti-Semiticism?

 

“In the coverage of Israel-Palestine in the Western media, an ideology that is central to the story – Zionism – rarely gets discussed. Instead, we hear a debate about whether opposition to it – anti-Zionism – is anti-Semitic.”

“35 years ago, I said you don’t have to be Jew to be a Zionist and I’m a Zionist…” Joe Biden, American president.

“We Need to Talk about Zionism”

 

Lament

 “I found your grave, my beloved son.”

A Palestinian mother bids farewell to her son

 

“My son is here

O Saleh, Oh Saleh

– there is no god but God

May God be pleased with you,

Saleh.

 

My son, I buried him here

with my own hands…

I found your grave, Saleh.

I found your grave, my beloved son.

 

My soul, my son, the joy of

my heart.

My beloved son.

My soul.

My Heart.

My beloved.

 

I swear my son, I cannot

sleep at night

when you come to my mind.

I swear my son, I cannot sleep at night.

 

The joy of my heart, Salah.

The joy of my heart.

My dear, my precious, my light.

My handsome Salah, the light of my life.

 

God willing. my son, you are

in the highest ranks of paradise.

 

My dear, I am patient.

I entrusted you to God my dear.

And I did what you wanted, my soul.

But I am saddened.”

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