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Tales of a City by the Sea 
i strive with Palestine
The greatest crime of our time is the injustice inflicted in Palestine
to allow others to decide another’s fate without their input is a never-healing wound
as ethnic cleansing was implemented a great iniquity began & thus Hanthala was born
the holy land subjugated by military occupation ever since anyone can recall
Immigrants here have partitioned what should have been a simple solution into an absurd complexity
to brawl over ownership over what cannot be owned is an absurdity
for the descendants of victims to victimize the innocent is an abomination
to abuse antisemitism & the holocaust to justify atrocities & crimes against humanity is the epitome of perdition
As walls are constructed you sow apartheid
with segregation you seed injustice
Inequality breeds indignation
anger cultivates into violence & the cycle echos into the darkness
One Person
One Vote
One Nation
founded upon egalitarianism was/is/can be the only viable, tenable resolution…
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Cracks
Cracks expanding like silky threads of a spider’s web
reaching spreading bonding more & more to wrinkle linking spokes everywhere
cracks on the face of the apartheid wall deepening connecting bonding -dazzling
Each fissure a breath of freedom every fracture a warm touch of hope healing despair
a frozen lake of apathy, indifference & silent conformity relentlessly split by insatiable struggle
ruptures popping & cascading from ripples of unfaltering struggle for social justice
Lines of free will forming creating a canvas from abuses & usurpations for all to see
listen to them crackle and pop as they sing their hope for emancipation & autonomy
i heard them sing of a power within the prison of Bethlehem that could never be muffled nor muted
Each burst of light illuminating insidious ethnic cleansing, occupation & military subjugation
the 30 foot tall great grey prison walls are crumbling from the weight of their own oppression
for on the other side i see free people strongly stepping out of the darkness lit in integrity
Splinters like Courage to Refuse & B’tselem reaching into every dark corner
Bab al-Shams,& True Torah Jews Against Zionism spreading their truth
The Black Hands, Gaza Youth,EI, & CPT together with the same message; Let my people go
So that one day i see the radiance even illuminating the Knesset
for one day egalitarianism will fill this the darkest hole of the abyss
from water to water no fence, no check point no more ethnic cleansing no more apartheid
When all the cracks unite to splinter the wall of hate as it then falls crumbles into dust filling the grave
on a warm summer day when all the soot settles from this great inevitable collapse
as all the people; jew, muslin, christian & secular diverse yet united as it is meant to be
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Sumud
It sure takes alot of guts & sheer bravery
to arrest children for throwing rocks at occupying soldiers hiding inside of tanks
then to haul them away to a jail to be traumatized by sheer ‘legal’ terrorism
until shaking in fear.bleeding, white with pain they sign confessions in a language they do not understand
My my what tremendous courage it must take to point a tank’s barrel at a kid
who is on the way to school who dared to stop to throw a stone at the big ugly beast
What backbone & pluck one must possess to be armed to the teeth harassing women, children & unarmed men in their own country at a checkpoint deciding who can pass who cannot…& when
What kind of gallantry does one need to bomb schools & hospitals
using state of the art weaponry to destroy homes, farms & orchards
as brave cowards slaughter civilians en-caged in an open air prison for voting the wrong way in a free election but voting for a democracy your captors disapprove of
what absurd chutzpah this is to call this crime against humanity; self-defense or justified
A dozen jeeps screech to a stop outside a home in the occupied ‘terror’tories
fully armed soldiers race out shouting then break down the door of a families home at 3 am
to photograph 13 year olds for future reference while mom & dad are forced to freeze by a gun shoved in the face outside in the chill of the night
after the raid to salute such daring gallantry with smiles and salutes which took such pluck & grit
But the truly brave the honestly courageous are those who don’t blink when faced with such overwhelming force
real heroes are those who endure with unconquerable sumud day after day, year after year
they stay with unpassable defiance and refuse to cede or yield
as the Palestinian gets jeered harassed & marginalized by the court fed by zionist policies he smiles with a grace incomprehensible
West Bank Palestinians resist under the yolk of foreign military occupation as they survive by endurance
under the wire mesh overhang of the markets from the trash tossed from above
to the Palestinian who stands up to the racism,abuse & mistreatment with a smile of fortitude & the calmness of valor
i walked with your children on public dirt roads while red-eyed demonic pious immigrants waved guns screaming rabid hatred
i was atop a teachers house in Hebron who showed us where the occupation soldier pissed in her watertank during the 2nd intifada
i broke bread with a family whose lineage goes backs thousands of years and have a stone at the entrance to their farm with the word’s; ‘we refuse to be your enemy’
i was born in a land called canada
my ancestor blood flows Lakota blackfoot
i eschew nationalism, patriotism and others vices of bigotry, elitism, xenophobia & exclusiveness
but i shout with idealism & with solidarity i am Palestinian
i accept that all bloods flow red and one…
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Jaffa; a clockwork orange
I have a key to a home that has no door nor walls
but i can still smell jaffa oranges sweet in the breeze down the hill
over there stands a park where a village once stood
so my grandmother told me one day, almost everyday
Have you ever been to the sea
i’ve never been there but my grandfather has
it was warm and salty he says with moist eyes
but for me the wet of the sea is not allowed
Not too long ago we walked this land from water to water
over the hills and down into the farms tending rows and rows of orchards
some of the olive trees were thousands of years old
before armored bulldozers came broke and razed them into piles of kindling
Al Quds is a dream for all of us to see
without roadblocks checkpoints and permits
without smug smartass soldiers barking and pushing
that day seems so far away
What is ours we cannot build upon
for illegal immigrants with an army tear it down
yet they build what they want where they want
with all the water filling their pools as our crops wither and die
I walked with children in the southern Hebron hills
on public dirt roads not bothering no one
but then it rides roaring down from inside a fortress colony
guns waving, curses launched from inside of beeping revving cars
In the courts to be tried by foreigners in your land is surreal
in a military court judged by bigotry what chance do you have
someone somewhere somehow saw you throw a rock at a tank
you must pay for scratching the paint
Inside the stinking squalid cell in between your beatings
the words of your grandparents echo in your heart
you can almost smell the oranges on the limbs of Jaffa
you can almost taste the salt of the sea….you endure as a freedom rider
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What a beautiful piece hanthala. Thanks for sharing it.
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