Child. Cold. Death “…in Slow Motion” – 2

“The world will not let us suffer that much. I used to believe this.”

Saga Hamdan

 

1

This one here, this bitter cold

that travels far deeper than bones

nameless and dead and lined up

like old shoes

 

in queues and breadlines for

the entertainment of oligarchs

and other

most-murderous-monsters

 

this here cold

is colder even

than the hatred bred in

the dark and in the dungeons

of these deadly Gringos

and Demagogues.

 

Every day it crawls from the airwaves

and the snooping Internet of the Spies

towards the small toes and still-beating

hearts of babies

 

born

on the wrong side

of a history

that never knew

a right side.

 

2

And so this last elegy

posted here

in wind and rain:

 

Dear Rahaf Abu Jazar, (8 months old),

Dear Mohammed Khalil Abu al-Khair, (2-weeks old),

Dear Hadeel al-Masri, (9 years old),

Dear Taim al-Khawaja, (another infant

“whose precise age is unclear”),

 

Dear Ali Hussam Azzam, (four days old),

Sila Mahmoud al-Fassih, (14 days old),

Aisha al-Qassas, (21 days old),

Ali Essam Saqr, (23 days old),

and Jumaa al-Batran, just one month old…

 

Dear Children,

it was always too late

to say “sorry”

…and much too soon.

 

3

Instead i now put on my hat and coat

i layer three sweaters over this sinking heart

each morning

just to listen to the insane news.

 

i rub my frozen fingers

between ghosts i cannot redeem

from the hell of hypothermia,

this hell of these obscene butchers

with their foolish voices

perpetually on fire.

 

But nothing i do can stop

this shivering fear

this gut wrenching terror

day after day

 

while we sleep in our millions

in overheated bunkers the Rich

already abandoned for their

space colony on Mars or

an island off Honduras.

 

4

All of this – i tell my interrogators,

i, my self,  add to the torture

of nerves that travel

from my unhappy skeleton

all the way to a mind that left

two years ago

 

all of this and more, yet

none of it cannot even begin

to dream

of holding one small child

 

the one now freezing

to death

in this hell

of the petty politicians.

 

5

How can you bear the frozen death

of even one small child

and not go mad with rage or grief?

 

How can you bear it

 

but for this dumbfounded-but-deadly

sleep

your drunken singing and dancing

unleashes

 

like a cold-dead-stone

in place

of your body

and soul?

 

6

This elegy now, posted

here in wind and rain

for all our worthless

and unforgiving

 

“sorry”.

 

 

séamas carraher

1-12, January, 2026

https://seamascarraher.blogspot.com/

 

IMAGE

Displaced Palestinians receive food from charitable Tekiya during Ramadan in Deir el-Balah, Gaza Strip

Ashraf Amra, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO, via Wikimedia Commons

 

Reference

“Eight-month-old Rahaf Abu Jazar died on Thursday from exposure to severe cold in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

“Medical workers said she died after prolonged exposure to low temperatures.”

Middle East Eye – December 12, 2025

 

Title

 “Death in slow motion”: “Israel has committed 738 violations of the ceasefire agreement between October 10th and December 12th, including 358 land and air bombardments, the killing of at least 383 Palestinians, and the injuring of 1,002 others, according to the Government Media Office in Gaza, and the Palestinian Health Ministry. That’s an average of six Palestinians killed daily in Gaza, down from an average of 250 a day before the ceasefire… The genocide is not over. Yes, the pace has slowed, but the intent remains unchanged. It’s slow motion killing.” [4:43 – 5:31]

Chris Hedges: Rebranding Genocide  – December 20, 2025

“Ceasefire”: “the genocide that continues through other means:”

Francesca Albanese – Channel 4, December 11, 2025

 

Quote

Palestinian journalist Saga Hamdan: ‘The world chose not to see us’

“Palestinian journalist and writer Saga Hamdan, who spoke at an event at the SOAS University of London on 19 December, said that many governments and media outlets have turned a “blind eye” to Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza.”

She continues:

“It appeared to me that it’s not that we are invisible. The world choose not to see us. After two years of hyper-visible genocide, while media outlets were turning a blind eye about what’s happening in Gaza using their own terms to describe the children, for example as “young people” and so on, visibility doesn’t produce action. Not because people did not sympathise with us; a lot of people did, like people like you, but the problem was in governments. Media played a role, like they are completing the role of political complicity and political regimes. And I discovered that there is no democracies. Governments are the same in the whole world. Even in the Global South or in the Global North but the difference that in the Global South dictatorships are clearly declared while in the Global North dictatorships are addressed by democracy. They are, like, just bragging that they have democratic regimes…” [3:17 – 4:29]

Middle East Eye – December, 2024

 

Alternative Quote

Edward Said: “It is the very presence and survival of the Palestinian people that persistently trouble Israel.”

The Shadow of the West | 1986 Channel 4 film by Edward Said

Jehan Alfarra – January 4, 2026

 

Gustavo Petro Urrego: “God’s Chosen People are all humanity…”

The President of the Republic of Colombia, address to the General Debate of the 80th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York.

Jehan Alfarra – September, 2025

 

References (Text)

 

This one here this bitter cold

Why Winter is Killing Gaza’s Children

“…he was just one month old – and he died freezing”

The National (UAE) – 23, December, 2025

Palestinian infant freezes to death in Gaza as Israel keeps blocking aid

Al Jazeera – 16 December, 2025

Gaza newborn dies of exposure while heavy rains cause buildings to collapse

Middle East Eye – 16, December, 2025

 

lined up

like old shoes

“At least 18,000 pairs of children’s shoes were placed in Stadhuisplein (City Hall Square) in Almere, Netherlands, as a powerful memorial for the Palestinian children killed in the Gaza Strip since the war began on October 7, 2023.”

The Siasat Daily – June, 2025

 

already abandoned for their

space colony on Mars or

an island off Honduras.

Bunker Mentality: The billionaires prepping for doomsday

RTE News – May, 2025

 

Bones?

Bodies of 25 Palestinians retrieved in Khan Younis almost two years after being killed

“We recovered them as bones only, nothing but bones. We cannot even identify whether it was a boy or a girl, a woman or a man,  Just bones, that is all…”

Middle East Eye – December, 27, 2025

 

Mohammed Khalil Abu al-Khair…

“Gaza’s Health Ministry announced the death of 2-week-old Mohammed Khalil Abu al-Khair, who died Monday after his body temperature plummeted due to exposure as cold, heavy rains, and fierce winds continued to batter the strip. Storm conditions have exacerbated the suffering of residents already weakened by more than two years of Israeli bombardment, invasion, and siege.

“The Ministry said that al-Khair was one of at least 13 Palestinian children who have died in recent days due to Storm Byron and subsequent rains. Confirmed victims include Rahaf Abu Jazar, age 8 months; Hadeel al-Masri, age 9; and Taim al-Khawaja, an infant whose precise age is unclear.”

Common Dreams – December 16, 2025

and Jumaa al-Batran, just one month old

“The Batran family’s experience reflects that of hundreds of thousands of others, forced from temporary home to temporary home as Israel carries out its campaign of killing and destruction.

“In their case, there has been no respite from death.”

Middle East Eye – December, 2024

 

Finally: Hope for the future?

 

Palestinian journalist Saga Hamdan

“I discovered that it’s really pointless to be a journalist. But I still believe in the human. I still believe that humanity should lead and govern and dominate. And that’s why we are here today to still educate ourselves and to educate our children. Not only about how Palestine will be free because Palestine will be free. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but definitely someday. But the problem is to educate our children how the whole world could be free as Palestine…” [4:48 – 5:21}

Middle East Eye – December 30, 2025

 

George Monbiot:

“…We need to inspire people. We need to create a new narrative. …

“We need a new story. Political failure is in essence a failure of imagination. If you succumb to despair, it’s because you are not imagining the change that can take place.

“…It’s not strong political leaders or strong political parties that change the world. It is strong political narratives.

“… The concept of The Commons, controlling resources together, resources on which we as communities depend rather than allowing just one or two people to take those things out of our hands and take them away from us.”

“… What we see is with genuine participatory deliberative democracy that people use their power wisely. They use their power responsibly because the power belongs to them. They can no longer be manipulated by a remote elite through the simplification of society. Is this a formula for a particular political party to gain power? No, it’s much bigger than that. This is about the people gaining power. And this is about making government of all kinds less relevant. [55:36 – 1:12:14]

The secret history of Neoliberalism | The Invisible Doctrine | Full Film

Journeyman Pictures – December 2025

‘Out of the Wreckage’ (2017 Book) A New Politics for an Age of Crisis

 

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