Every Time the News from Gaza
and peace falls from / its harmless crutches / outside the blood-stained ruins / of one more Palestinian or Lebanese hospital… A poem by Séamas Carraher
“Let me take this moment to condemn again, from the bottom of my soul and my guts, the State of Israel. Damn you, State of Israel! Damn you terrorists and murderers…” (Hugo Chavez – 2009)
One
Every time the news from Gaza escapes, i shut down my sorrow with
home-made and improvised munitions, manufactured from the merciless agony stored in this silenced world’s sick-sordid soul.
No factories needed. No friendly handshakes across continents colonial in their well-fed contempt. No bribes. No cynical “ceasefires” here! No fabricated and fictitious falsehoods from this scandalous and homicidal “axis of settler evil”. No butchery. Just this homemade-stuff, sharper than the sigh of shrapnel to the spirit, conceived and born, likewise, in dangerous and deserted laneways and alleys of the imagination, amid the debris and the destroyed lives that will forever drift like ghosts all around us.
Every time the news from Gaza (or Beirut) takes flight, slips its “administrative-detention” like another calamity fleeing through forests of fear, (those forged in the furious forgetfulness of foolish politicians), i shut down my grief with plans to blow up the whole of this wretched-wicked world
with sad clowns’ balloons and the birthday parties of dead children who will laugh no longer but must today sit in judgment on this, our strange savage species and this cruelty we somehow call “humanity”.
Every time, yes, every single savage time.
Two
Still, i have wished for an end to blindness, for ears that must hear both terror and truth, eyes able to see beyond each daily and deadly descent into darkness, a mouth that no longer will grow silent on the silencing of the dead and a Mind – our human and inhuman essence, its hurt, the weight of it, holy and unholy, both blessed and cursed in the contradictions of its learned carelessness – a mind that will learn how not to hate even this cruel killing that never stops.
And then i have wished to be without wishes…
Three
…and instead to rest with both grief and rage, sun-soaked in the sunlit rubble of decimated lives and cities shortly to be rebuilt with the wounded bandages of the old people already bombed into oblivion by arms dealers and depraved presidents and prime ministers, by the workers in the killing-factories and these enormous lies that wish to replace even this lousy language we are slowly, and surely, being taught to loathe…
And so we must learn to speak or shed this bloodbath with bitter tears…
Four
And then i would rebuild all these countless-lost-lives with Laws and Justice that no one could ever purchase or prostitute for profit or impunity; and so repatriate the heart and soul of a species too-long without integrity, with little resilience, without a single wish for redemption, a species that has grown greedy on the rotting festering garbage of the rich and the powerful, who we know by now have always been this nameless disease, this disaster we are too fearful to speak of, too terrified to diagnose, too stupid it seems, soon, to survive..?
Each time the news, now only in whispers, escapes from Gaza…
Five
And, so, today, of all days, in this endless time of agony and despair, of armed Armageddon, of Paroxysm and Apocalypse, i wipe my eyes with a bloody cloth, lift my battered body from this stretcher i once called life, and walk out into the darkness to howl and rage, rage and howl
knowing my only hope must now be an-animal-thing, a creature-incarnated, somehow similar but unlike our selves, its being born both of Nature and our own unspeakable Inhuman-Unconscious-Catastrophe, maybe the last of its kind, or the first, surely another “double-tap” target scheduled to be exterminated, perhaps already long lost, or impossible, but whose sleepless-waking-manifestation will anticipate a time when this sleep-walking-merciless-and-speechless species with its wordless-rotten-priests and its loud-mouthed-bankers, these servants and shopkeepers of profit and propaganda…have long passed
and peace falls from
its harmless crutches
outside the blood-stained ruins
of one more Palestinian or
Lebanese hospital…
séamas carraher
2 – 15 June, 2026
https://seamascarraher.blogspot.com/
IMAGE
Graffiti against Israeli soldiers, Cyprus, 2025
Acediscovery, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The News from Gaza…
“Like countless mothers in Gaza I had feared hunger for my children. I had feared displacement, terror and interrupted education. But despite everything I never dared think of death…
“There is a “ceasefire” now and children are being killed on an almost daily basis in Gaza. Perhaps because the world has grown accustomed to seeing Palestinian children as numbers not as human beings…
Ryan and Yamin are not numbers, they are my children who the world failed to protect…”
How the world failed a mother’s children, killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza
“Palestinian journalist and mother Aya Shamaa wrote about how an Israeli strike killed her children, newborn Ryan and seven-year-old Yaman. Like countless mothers in Gaza, she saw her children as gleams of hope amid a fragile ceasefire.”
Chavez Quote Background
“Chávez cut all ties with Israel during the 2008-2009 Gaza war, denouncing it as a “state terrorist“ entity. In 2009, Venezuela formally recognized the State of Palestine, affirming its support for Palestinian sovereignty.”
Muslim-Central – February, 2024
“Between 2008 and 2009, Israel killed 1,400 Palestinians in Gaza,
including hundreds of children. Chavez accused the country of committing genocide and broke diplomatic relations with Israel. Then, Israeli soldiers killed 10 activists that were taking aid to Gaza on a flotilla. Chavez called it terrorism.” [17:36 – 17:50]
Hugo Chavez:
”Obama’s government condemns terrorism, as long as it is not done by them, by them, the United States or their allies, Israel. Let me take this moment to condemn again, from the bottom of my soul and my guts, the State of Israel. Damn you, State of Israel! Damn you terrorists and murderers…” [18:04]
“How cowardly is the army of Israel” Hugo Chavez
“He poignantly asks: ‘What if our own children and grandchildren were to die like the children in Gaza?’
“The Gaza War, also known as the First Gaza War, Operation Cast Lead, or the Gaza Massacre and referred to as the Battle of al-Furqan by Hamas”
Wikipedia – Gaza War (2008–2009)
Alternative Quote
Soumaya Ghannoushi:
“Eid has just ended. Across much of the Muslim world, families gathered around tables, children wore new clothes, homes echoed with laughter. But in Gaza, Eid arrived carrying death. One image showed a mother named Hidaya taking her daughters shopping for Eid clothes. The girls went inside. She stayed outside. Moments later, an Israeli strike hit. The girls ran back outside in panic. Their mother was lying in the street, dead, covered in blood. Another clip lasted only a few seconds. A man stood among the ruins of a building destroyed by an Israeli air-strike. In his arms, he carried the body of a little girl. Her body was shattered, charred, soaked in blood. As he lifted her from the rubble, he screamed, “This is the first day of Eid.” The third image showed tents burning in the darkness of an Eid night…Think about that for a moment.” [0:07 – 0:47]
Middle East Eye – June 3, 2026
Soumaya Ghannoushi, writer and expert in Middle East politics, says that the ceasefire in Gaza is a deception designed to lower public scrutiny while the conflict continues. She notes that around 1,000 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire was announced, with air strikes and the destruction of civilian shelters persisting during Eid.
References (Text)
One
slips its “administrative-detention”
“Administrative detention is incarceration without trial or charge, alleging that a person plans to commit a future offense. It has no time limit, and the evidence on which it is based is not disclosed. Israel employs this measure extensively and routinely, and has used it to hold thousands of Palestinians for lengthy periods of time. While detention orders are formally reviewed, this is merely a semblance of judicial oversight, as detainees cannot reasonably mount a defense against undisclosed allegations. Nevertheless, courts uphold the vast majority of orders…”
B’Tselem Palestinians in Israeli Custody
‘Nations committing genocide don’t recognize it in real time’: Yuli Novak on Israel’s moral crisis
Haaretz Podcast – June, 5, 2026
“Among 9,400 detainees currently in occupation prisons, there are 3,376 administrative detainees according to the Palestinian Prisoner Society (PPS).”
The Palestine Information Centre – May, 2026
dead children – “ceasefire”?
“At least 229 Palestinian children have been killed and another 260 wounded since a ceasefire was announced in Gaza last October, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).”
Two
descent into darkness
Rosa Luxemburg
“Friedrich Engels once said: “Bourgeois society stands at the crossroads, either transition to socialism or regression into barbarism.” What does “regression into barbarism” mean to our lofty European civilization? Until now, we have all probably read and repeated these words thoughtlessly, without suspecting their fearsome seriousness. A look around us at this moment shows what the regression of bourgeois society into barbarism means. This world war is a regression into barbarism. The triumph of imperialism leads to the annihilation of civilization. At first, this happens sporadically for the duration of a modern war, but then when the period of unlimited wars begins it progresses toward its inevitable consequences.”
Marxists.Org – The Junius Pamphlet – Chapter 1
Walter Benjamin
“There is a painting by Klee called Angelus Novus. An angel is depicted there who looks as though he were about to distance himself from something which he is staring at. His eyes are opened wide, his mouth stands open and his wings are outstretched. The Angel of History must look just so. His face is turned towards the past. Where we see the appearance of a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe, which unceasingly piles rubble on top of rubble and hurls it before his feet. He would like to pause for a moment so fair [verweilen: a reference to Goethe’s Faust], to awaken the dead and to piece together what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing from Paradise, it has caught itself up in his wings and is so strong that the Angel can no longer close them. The storm drives him irresistibly into the future, to which his back is turned, while the rubble-heap before him grows sky-high. That which we call progress, is this storm.”
These on History – Global Rights (Download)
Slavoj Žižek / Antonio Gramsci
“Perhaps the most succinct characterization of the epoch which began with the First World War is the well-known phrase attributed to Gramsci: ‘The old world is dying away, and the new world struggles to come forth: now is the time of monsters.’
Are Fascism and Stalinism not the twin monsters of the twentieth century, one emerging out of the desperate endeavor of the old world to survive and the other out of the misbegotten endeavor to build a new one? And what about the monsters we are engendering now, propelled by the tech-gnostic dreams of a society with biogenetically controlled populations? All the consequences should be drawn from this paradox. Perhaps there is no direct passage to the new, at least not in the way we imagined it, and monsters emerge necessarily in any attempt to enforce the passage to the New.”
(Living in the Time of Monsters
Author(s): Slavoj Žižek
Source: Counterpoints, Vol. 422, CRITICAL PEDAGOGY in the new dark ages: challenges and possibilities (2012), pp. 32-44)
Three
this lousy language we are slowly, and surely, being taught to loathe…
“A year-long analysis of BBC coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza reveals a pattern of bias, double standards & silencing of Palestinian voices.
Despite 34x more Palestinian deaths, Israeli fatalities received 33x more coverage per death.”
Report: BBC on Gaza-Israel: One Story – Double Standards
Centre for Media Monitoring – June, 2025
Four
with Laws and Justice that no one could ever purchase or prostitute for profit or impunity
Why international law can’t stop mass atrocities | All Hail the Military
“The law is highly selective from which suspects are pursued for prosecution through to which crimes are prioritized or ignored. Political considerations shape all of that. There’s sometimes this belief that law stands above politics, that it’s this last refuge of civility in a chaotic world. There’s this myth of a neutral legal arbiter above the fray. But the truth is internationa law isn’t some straightforward solution to conflict. It’s deeply political and sometimes makes conflicts even harder to resolve. I think understanding that is key to using it more effectively.” [2:53 3:20]
the rotting festering garbage of the rich and the powerful,
Chris Hedges: The Warped Psychology of the Rich
“Once oligarchs achieve unchecked economic and political power, as they have in the United States, the citizens too become disposable. The public face of the oligarchic class bears little resemblance to the private face.”
Chris Hedges Channel – June 2025
How the Rich Develop Un-Human Relationships (w/ Rob Larson)
Chris Hedges Channel – July 1, 2025
Five
Paroxysm – “Paroxysm didn’t just burst onto the scene recently; its roots go back to ancient Greek. … In its earliest known English uses in the 15th century, paroxysm referred to a sudden attack or increase of symptoms of a disease—such as pain, coughing, shaking, etc.—that often occur again and again.”
one more Palestinian…
“A conference held at the Imam Mahdi Islamic Center in the Italian capital, Rome, focused on the systematic and deliberate destruction of healthcare systems, facilities, and, personnel, by the Israeli regime in the occupied Palestinian territories.
“The Israeli forces have carried out around 800 attacks on health care facilities since October 2023, destroying or extensively damaging 94% of Gaza’s hospitals.
“Furthermore, more than 1500 health workers have been slaughtered by the regime in the same period.”
…or
Lebanese hospital…
Example: LEBANON: ISRAELI ATTACKS ON HEALTHCARE
PROVIDERS MUST BE INVESTIGATED AS WAR CRIMES
“The Israeli military repeatedly attacked healthcare facilities, ambulances, medics and civil defence workers in Lebanon, which are afforded specific protection under international law. Amnesty International investigated four Israeli attacks on healthcare facilities and medical vehicles that killed 19 healthcare workers and wounded 11 more in a one-week period between 3 and 9 October 2024. The attacks should be investigated as war crime.”
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC STATEMENT
[5 March 2025 MDE 18/9062/2025]
“MSF condemns the airstrike carried out by the Israeli army on the evening of 1 June in the vicinity of Jabal Amel Hospital, which we support, in Sour (Tyre). According to the Ministry of Public Health, the attack has so far resulted in four deaths and 127 injuries, including 39 hospital staff. Among the injured staff, four are in critical condition and remain under treatment in intensive care. Bodies are still being recovered from the rubble, and the total number of dead and injured could still rise.”
Lebanon: Israel must halt attacks on healthcare workers, medical facilities and first responders
“According to the World Health Organization, between 2 and 15 March 2026, 28 attacks on healthcare have been recorded, killing 30 people and injuring 35.
“Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health reported that as of 16 March 2026, 40 health workers have been killed and 96 injured. These include healthcare workers affiliated with the Islamic Health Association – a civilian institution affiliated with Hezbollah that provides medical and emergency services across Lebanon in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, the Islamic Risala Scout Association, as well as one paramedic from the Lebanese Red Cross. The Ministry also reported that five hospitals had been forced to close.
“In a recent statement, Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee alleged that ambulances and medical facilities in Lebanon are being used for military purposes. The Lebanese ministry of health denied the claim. The Israeli military had made a similar claim in 2024.”
ECOI-Amnesty International – March 19, 2026
HOPE – for the Future?
Mahmoud Alshaer:
“What have I survived?
Rubble that swallowed cities whole?
Memory that is no longer memory, but a palimpsest
of ash piled up in my throat? I have left,
but the place has not left me. I am trying
to shore up the crumbs of my life. To salvage
the part of me that has not yet been
bombed. The part that was hiding
in my chest all along,
like a small light.”
(‘What have I survived’ – New Poetry by Mahmoud Alshaer – translated by Wiam El-Tamami)
“Mahmoud Alshaer is an editor, curator, and poet who, until October 2023, was deeply involved in cultural work in Gaza, leading initiatives such as Majalla 28 and Gallery 28 and coordinating the cultural programme at Al Ghussein Cultural House in Gaza’s old city.”
Explore: “Letters From Gaza” (ArabLit Quarterly)
(Anthology Copyright © ArabLit Quarterly & Books, 2025)
View Online: Scribd – Letters-From-Gaza
Buy:
Order ‘Letters From Gaza’ from Kennys Bookshop
Hiba Abu Nada
“My back—I do not claim you broke it—
yet something in you sought to break it.
My wings, once burdened with pain,
now fly freely
in the skies of might.”
Hiba Abu Nada – murdered by the Israeli Defense Forces – while at her home in Khan Younis in southern Gaza. She was 32 years old…
“…was a Palestinian novelist, poet, educator, and nutritionist from Gaza. Her novel Oxygen is Not for the Dead won the Sharjah Award for Arab Creativity in 2017. She held a BA in Biochemistry and an MA in Clinical Nutrition from the Islamic University.”
Hiba was killed alongside her son in October 2023 by the Israeli bombardments.” (ArabLit Quarterly. “Letters From Gaza”)
NO HOPE – for the Future? Or – “Where is the ‘ceasefire’ people are talking about?”
GAZA CITY— “Eight-year-old Jad Suleiman was walking home from school in the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza on Monday when the Israeli airstrike hit. A piece of shrapnel lodged in his neck, killing him instantly. Outside Shifa hospital, his body lay on a stretcher wrapped in a loose white sheet. Dressed in jeans and a blue and red checkered shirt, the smallness of his body was accentuated by his oversized backpack, still on his limp shoulders.
“Three Palestinians were killed in the attack, including eight-year-old Jad and a 70-year-old man. Several others were wounded in the strike and brought into Shifa on stretchers, bloodied and wincing in pain.
‘You leave your house, not knowing whether you are going to return or whether you are going to die,’ Jad’s aunt, Warda Muhaysin, told Drop Site. ‘There is blood in the streets. It’s enough. Enough…where is the ceasefire people are talking about?’”
Drop Site News – June, 9, 2026
(Image & text Abdel Qader Sabbah – journalist and videographer in northern Gaza)
Make #thewrittenword a #subversive activity in an age of Resurgent #Fascism.
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