Poetry and the Gaza Children

For many of us Israel, Gaza and the Palestine question are all far away, or at least present only when we watch tv or read the newspaper. Many of us ask, "How can that be? How can that massacre happen? How can they let them do such terrible things on civilians? How can certain superpowers do whatever they like without any kind of reaction or sanctions from the civilized world? Are we really civilized? How can we say and do nothing in front of such bloodshed?" Imagine us in the place of the Gaza/Israel innocent civilians.

This wants to be a condemnation of both sides. Both sides are behaving unetichally and without any respect towards their brothers or rivals. Both Hamas and Israel have dirty clothes to wash and say sorry and pay for their atrocious acts.

The following is a poem written by Teresinka Pereira, Brasilian-American poet, and President of the International Writers and Artists Association (IWA) and President of the International Congress of the Society of Latin Culture.

CHILDREN OF GAZA

Children dying in Gaza
did not have the privilege
to celebrate the 2009 new year
with their innocent laughs.
Their days, months, few years of life
were filled with darkness and fear,
tears and pain. Their blood fertilizes
the exact piece of land where
they were born. Their land.

In my understanding, this war in Gaza
is not justified in any way by any side.
It does not matter to me who
is the landlord of the rich settlements,
or the poor Palestinian houses next to them.
I don't care who is paying
with the obligatory federal taxes for
the arsenal. I consider criminals
and killers the people who are launching
the missiles, who are selling and who are
buying these terrible weapons of death.
I condemn the hands that are taking lives
of innocent people on both sides
of the border, although the number
of deaths in Gaza speaks for itself.

The life of a child is worth more
than the whole land, more than
all ideologies and religions or the
politics of drawing new maps according
to the winners of any war.
Each child is the owner for a lifetime
of the land where she is born.

TERESINKA PEREIRA