THIS PORNOGRAPHY They CALL “PEACE”
When the voice of peace will soon no longer even be told to shut up nor beaten from the streets because these streets have swallowed all our dreams someone forgot to wake a long long time ago while the world was falling asleep
Tabreen School Building, Gaza City, 10th August, 2024,
the day Israel killed countless Palestinian children, women and men, sheltering in the School.
When the voice of peace is kept in a cage with its mouth shut tight its tongue turning to stone its words tied in knots this cage where lies are weapons and common sense tells your kind neighbour to “shut the fuck up” when the voice of peace grows hoarse with the noise of airstrikes and the catastrophic cacophony of the screaming missiles (“these blankets contain body parts of civilians the Israeli army perpetrated a massacre – Anas Al Sharif in the bombed al-Tabin School School Building) when the voice of peace will soon no longer even be told to shut up nor beaten from the streets because these streets have swallowed all our dreams someone forgot to wake a long long time ago while the world was falling asleep
in front of the TV screen when the music of peace is dressed in the business-as-usual of commodities in salesmen and arms dealers in press release and spokesmen when the sad strange music of peace is strangled at birth (“sheltering inside the school building victims were torn to pieces and medical teams collected the body parts that were scattered all over as we speak” – Anas Al Sharif) when the cry of peace turns into a child torn to pieces or her speechless father and mother giving birth in a bloodbath (“paramedics say that they haven’t been able to find a dead body that is still whole” – Anas Al Sharif) when the cruel crimes of peace are celebrated by billionaires and bankers and butchers in luxury hotels and dined on countless disasters and the pitiless philosophy of power and profit (“the school building is strewn with body parts and paramedics say that they haven’t been able to find a dead body that is still whole” – Anas Al Sharif)
when all this shuts your own already-dumb mouth in darkness and despair then it is almost time to try wake the fuck up..? time to ask a few questions: like who amputated this word from the tongue..? who holds us like hostages helpless in front of the TV screen..? who buried these children’s dreams in rubble and called it peace-keeping..? who among you built their empires on the bones of the Others and now keep on bombing and burning and building and finally which one of us will be left for the last funeral march after everyone is dead and O, my beloved, who killed all the beautiful birds in their peaceful passage across a parched and dying planet..?
There are other questions too buried in blood and fire and rubble (“the body parts collected in these blankets belong to a few of the dozens of dead bodies ripped to pieces and scattered all over” – Anas Al Sharif) but no one knows where to find them or how to free their frantic words from the madmens’ nooses they keep choking on nor where the truth is hidden like another hostage to newspaper or knesset or parliament where all words of resistance are laughed at or assassinated or starved while the ghosts of hope and despair pass each other on the road to nothing and nowhere
with neither a wing nor a prayer left saying what a surprise! after all the children were dead (”each blanket contains the body parts of more than one person” – Anas Al Sharif) and all the schoolyards and houses and hospitals bombed back to dust why in hell’s name is all that’s left this question like a child with its human heart broken with its voice paralysed (“as you can see many are collecting the body parts of their own relatives and siblings” – Anas Al Sharif) or one last beautiful bird finally free from its cage where its song was sealed tight why the fuck like all contradictions our collective silence is louder now and as helpless as that one moment of prayer there in the moque in the schoolhouse where we all could have knelt when a soft sad breeze brought the savage silence of the bomb while the newspapers chattered of ceasefires
and now no one will ever use this fucking word again and even the president here said there’s “no room anymore for anyone to avert their gaze” not knowing all these eyes are blind or blinded and that finally the harshest softest craziest word in the english language (“beyond any description” – Anas Al Sharif, journalist, the Tabreen school Building after the Israeli airstrike) has become a dirty word a word we hide from now as we wash its mouth out with the blood and guts of the others we were and are and will forever be unable to save.
séamas carraher
10-13 august 2024
Thanks to Anas Al Sharif, one of the surviving Palestinian journalists reporting from
the Israeli killing zone of Gaza.
IMAGE
“Israel 75th Independence Day – Israeli Air Force Fly By LXV.jpeg”
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
VIDEO REPORT
Israeli airstrike on school: Over 100 Palestinians killed during morning prayers
Video footage of Survivors
“This is the eighth time this month – Israel has attacked a school sheltering the displaced. “
NOTES
President Higgins: No room for anyone to avert gaze from Gaza
Israeli Bombing of Schools – August 2024
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