By Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD
A Bedouin in Cyberspace, a villager at home
http://qumsiyeh.org
We are angry at rhetoric of oppression
Hafrada-Segregation-Apartheid and Security
Two-states, one state, cantons and autonomy
The chosen state’s right to exist
While colonialism can persist
Addicts now to talk about talking
And hold meetings about more meetings
Maybe to revive the “peace process” charades
to ensure no peace for a few more decades
giving the monster created by Western powers
time to gobble more of the holy pieces
and belch its pleasure in more negotiations
devoid of human rights or UN resolutions
We are angry at statistics of oppression
11,000 political prisoners
534 Destroyed villages and towns
35% seeking stolen jobs
450 km of apartheid walls
7 million displaced or refugees
1.5 million uprooted fruiting trees
1.5 million in Gaza besieged
62 years of justice denied
We are angry at manufactured misery
Epidemics and pandemics
Genocides hidden with polemics
Swelling ranks of the disempowered
Phosphorous bombs on Gaza showered
An apartheid wall that snakes around
Running sewage in the streets abound
Children barefoot in a refugee camp in 2009!
While the unelected leaders repeat the same line
We are angry at spies
Some come take pictures and pretend to care
Others just watch and hope to avoid the glare
Some punished by law or by a guilty conscience
Others abandoned by their racist masters
Some feed stomachs but starve their souls
Others fall for carnal desires as fleeting as the empty goals
Some serving the colonial racist regime
Others think it safer with the quisling theme
Some commit suicide or die forgotten
Others repent and are soon forgiven
We are angry at hypocrisy
Those who claim then need their human right
While not sparing children from their plight
Those who champion International laws
While leaving heavy trails of bloody claws
Those who smile plunging knives in your back
While screaming loudly that they are under attack
Those who use a religious heritage to support overt racism
While defaming anyone who dares to speak out: “anti-semitism”!
We are angry at collaborators
Those with nice suits and those with guns
Those who sell their people for shekels
Those who do it out of ignorance
And those who with malice and malfeasance
Presidents, Pundits, and peasants
Large or small petty criminals
We are angry at being angry
While it may help us break the chains
Yet our love through anger diminishes
And our faith in humanity shrinks
And even what we want for ourselves
So maybe this final anger motivates ….
To shed anger and keep high our heads and spirits
In our world there are many who deserve merits
good, honest, brave activists
Philanthropists, protestors, poets…
men and women of all life stages
tailor-made therapists for all ages
Political Prisoners and Martyrs
Intellectuals and small farmers
Working to plant the blood-soaked lands
With cactus, figs, olive trees, and almonds
watering hopes and dreams like a growing grape vine
tendrils reaching out to free beloved immortal Palestine
