"For Gaza and the Palestinian People"

Friends,

As I pack for Greece, Israel and Palestine this week, I’m thinking about the people we will meet—the people I’ve already met and the new ones we will meet on this trip. We will see the way the soldiers ignore the Palestinians waiting at the checkpoint, while they flash friendly smiles and say “welcome” to us in English when they see our blue American passports. We will see the teenagers in uniform, the girls checking their hair and makeup in the mirror, standing in groups in the plaza, flirting with one another, automatic weapons casually slung over their shoulders. We will see Palestinians bravely starting a new college in Bethlehem, ignoring the obstacles of building permits, and supplies held for weeks by the Israeli soldiers at the checkpoint.

We won’t see the devastation of Gaza, however. The bombed-out buildings, the tunnels built to bring in much-needed food and building supplies, still under attack. The farmers still shot at while they try to harvest their crops. The fishermen still shot at by the Israeli soldiers when they put out to sea in their boats. We won’t see the children who get only one meal a day and the ones who join the military clubs because they don’t have anything else to do or to hope for. But I remember them as I visit one more elected official this week, to tell my story of what I have seen and heard.

Mairead Maguire writes about it in her poem, composed while she was in the Ramle prison in Israel in June, after she was arrested for trying to bring medical supplies to Gaza:

For Gaza and the Palestinian People*

As long as
The People of Palestine
Have no liberty, no freedom
Those of us with a voice to speak:
Must speak!

As long asThe Children of Gaza
Live in fear of Israeli
Bombs and occupation
Those of us with a voice to speak:
Must speak!

As long as
Six million Palestinian refugees
Are deportees around the world
Those of us with a voice to speak:
Must speak!

As long as
Millions of God's Children
Are hungry, imprisoned, and without hope
Those of us with a voice to speak:
Must speak!

Because it is in speaking
We find our liberty, our freedom
And no prison bars can take away
Our peace, our love
Which is the true Spirit of Humanity!*

Written by MAIREAD MAGUIRE, Nobel Peace Laureate, during her incarceration in Ramle prison, Israel 3lst June, 2009 http://www.propheticimagery.com/Spirit%20of%20Humanity.htm