[Announce-DAN] Israeli poem about Palestine

["Val Phillips" <phillips_val@hotmail.com>]

>The following is an excerpt from a poem that caused a sensation when it
was read at Tel Aviv marking the first year of the [first] Intifada. The
poet is an Israeli professor of Hebrew literature. He was
commissioned by the Israeli government to write many of its military
songs.
>
>We Shoot Children Too, Don't We
>by Dan Almagor
>
>Most of these people truly desire
>To harvest their olive trees
>As they have for hundreds of years.
>Most of these people truly desire to raise their kids
>Not to throw stones
>Or Molotov cocktails,
>But to study in peace,
>To play in peace,
>And to raise a flag.
>Their own flag.
>And facing that flag, to cry
>As we did, that night, then, excited as we were.
>And we have no, have no, have no
>Right in the world
>To rob them of this desire.
>This flag,
>These tears.
>These tears, which always, always
>Come after all the others.
>Let us start preparing our defense.
>We will need it soon enough.
>All those who actually did it,
>And those who still do.
>And those who hushed it up,
>And those who still do.
>And those who said nothing,
>And those who clucked their tongues, saying
>"Something must be done, really;
>(But not tonight. I have a concert,
>A gala,
>A birthday!)"
>Yes, we'll all get our summons one day
>For the Colonels' trials.
>The Colonel's trials are coming,
>Their time will come, it must be so.
>The trials of the Generals, the Colonels,
>The division, the battalion,
>And the platoon commanders.
>There is no escaping it.
>This is how history works.
>What shall we say?
>What will the Colonels, the Captains, the
>Corporals say?
>What will they say
>Of those terrible beatings,
>The brutality,
>Of houses blown up,
>And most of all, the humiliation.
>That humiliation.
>Of patients forced to wipe the writing
>off the walls.
>Of old men forced to take down a flag
>From an electric pole,
>Who were electrocuted, or fell
>And broke their legs.
>Of the old water carrier
>Whom soldiers ordered off his donkey
>And rode on his back, just for fun.
>Mean, arrogant, and dumb.
>Who do we think we are?
>Who gave us the right
>To be so deaf, so dumb?
>Ignoring the obvious: They are as human
>As we are, as we are.
>At least as human as we used to be
>Only forty-one years ago.
>No less diligent, no less smart.
>As sensitive, as full of hope.
>They love their wives and children
>As we do, no less.
>And our children now shoot theirs
>With lead, plastic bullets, and gas.
>The Palestinian state will come to pass.
>It will.
>Not a poet wrote this.
>History will.
>And seasons may come, and seasons may go,
>And life goes on as we very well know.
>Weddings, and births, and deaths all the same-
>But just the shame of it. The shame.
>
>

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