“Thieves” and “Murderers” (Whitewashing War Crimes)

There is no time now to write books. / No time to bury our dead. / Our world has had its tongue castrated / by those in power, / its humanity ethnically cleansed, / cruelty is now “reasonable”, “realistic”, “rational””, / its war only massacre and genocide / in the name of peacekeeping

 

…What we’re seeing every single day in Gaza…is gut wrenching and the suffering we’re seeing among innocent men women and children breaks my heart…” Anthony Blinken – United States secretary of state.

Reuters, January 17, 2024

“…[the] US officially is the defender of the international rules-based International Order… that you know the rule of law must be followed… international law must be followed etc. But now they’re actually threatening to attack an international court… this is a classic case of Imperial power… this is a classic case of might versus right as, clichéd as this might sound, this is exactly there we are at the moment of American might facing down international right… international law…” Al Jazeera, November 21, 2024

 

Little time left to rescue all language

long stolen by the thieves and murderers

of our human dream where

words like “west” and “east” are now bottled

in American factories with the blood and

stolen breath of  their victims.

 

North and South will soon choke,

strangled on the garbage of these grim gangsters.

 

See how the children of words, orphaned of meaning,

have been taken from their parents.

A world once known through the wide-open window

of speech is now nearly banned and made illegal.

Its noisy protest still beaten from the streets with

batons and bullets and Zionist flags

 

soon even the dictionaries will be padlocked and imprisoned.

 

In this oasis of wealth and greed

all the best are deluded with bribes and threats

and look, here, at the sacred hour of the news

watch!, every single honest voice is now

seen swimming for its life far out beyond

a sea of slaughter and lies and

their technology of terror.

 

There is no time now to write books.

No time to bury our dead.

Our world has had its tongue castrated

by those in power,

its humanity ethnically cleansed,

cruelty is now “reasonable“, “realistic“, “rational“,

its war only massacre and genocide

in the name of peacekeeping,

its dialects empire and fighter jets, its

culture and poetry “rendition” and torture,

the curse of its philosophy – its philosophers

naked and on trial, imprisoned and poisoned,

or left beating their bibles into swords and tank shells.

 

In all this noise the dead stay dead.

 

All that is left, West and East,

North and South, in this

graveyard of our dreams

is an old man called Civilisation

sitting beneath a mountain of bones

while the TV screens and their celebrities

drown out the silence with prosperity

or pornography, with blinding lights flashing

in downtown New York or Berlin and in the

bloodless sanitised districts and settlements in

Tel Aviv, in Jerusalem, in Texas

 

and on all seven of the seven days

all we can hear now

and here beneath this catastrophe

of ruin and wreckage

is this wordless whispering

 

“here dwell thieves and murderers”

 

for now

even the blind must soon see

and the dead, stone deaf in their resistance

will come to hear

soundless and silent in its slow descent

the strange and strangled music

of empire and emperors

these thieves and murderers

who all will fall

drowning

once more

in our bitter

and bewildered

blood.

 

séamas carraher

18 november – 2 december, 2024

 

Note

“The historic ICC arrest warrant marks the beginning of the end for Netanyahu”: Marwan Bishara

The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes in Gaza.

 

…The international criminal court the IC at the Hague… issuing arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister

Yoav  Galant for war crimes committed in the Gaza …the ICC accuses Netanyahu and Galant of war crimes including using starvation as a method of warfare and crimes against humanity such as murder persecution and inhumane acts the court says Netanyahu and Galant knowingly deprived Gaza’s civilian population of food water medicine and fuel It also says that by preventing humanitarian assistance Israel failed to fulfill its obligations under International humanitarian law…”

Al Jazeera, November 21, 2024

 

Image

White washing war crime

Images by Carlos Latuff are copyright-free.

Wikimedia Commons

 

Postscript

“Between 7 October 2023 and 26 November 2024, according to the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Gaza as reported by OCHA, at least 44,249 Palestinians have been reportedly killed in the Gaza Strip while 104,746 have been reported injured.”

(Information updated for 19-25 November 2024, valid as of 25 November 2024 at 22:30

UNRWA Situation Report – 149

 

 

 

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