a commonplace book

archive of longings & sensations

[doggboyy]

[muskaanayesha]

So the borders become divisions become prisons become cemeteries. And a graveyard has more empty space than this land of death. The children become hungry become thirsty become nothing. And the parents mourn the death of their lineage. The family trees lose branches like a child loses teeth. And infants lose mothers like one loses strength. So oppressors become innocent become victims become heroes. Like the eyes have turned blind, and phosphorus burns the conscience. The son buries the father, the mother buries the son. Like the child becomes bolder becomes older becomes ten. And she wishes to be a doctor but the doctor loses her husband. The hospitals become churches become mosques become morgues. The sick are a threat and the babies are terrorists. So leaders become liars become accomplices become weapons. False claims spread like wild fire and fires destroy nations. Like misinformation becomes aggravation becomes justifications becomes a genocide. And thousands pay the price. Like the refugees become civilians become cunning become dictators. A hand outreached is a hand cut off. So desperation becomes resilience becomes resistance becomes a sin. To bite the hand around your throat is barbaric. Suffocate but don't retaliate. So innocence becomes tainted becomes animalistic becomes worthy of dying?

[ierbareta]

[mais-e-deactivated20231027]

[dayvan]

from 2014

[closet-keys]

“After every atrocity one can expect to hear the same predictable apologies: it never happened; the victim lies; the victim exaggerates; the victim brought it upon herself; and in any case it is time to forget the past and move on. The more powerful the perpetrator, the greater is his prerogative to name and define reality, and the more completely his arguments prevail.” -Judith Herman

[gustaving]

from “The Earth Is Closing In On Us,” by Mahmoud Darwish

[mangoslixes]

- Mahmoud Darwish, Unfortunately, it was paradise

[tendermimi]

Mahmoud Darwish, Journal of an Ordinary Grief

[her-moth]

from ‘Who Will We Be When We Are Free? On Palestine & Futurity’, Sophia Azeb, 2019

[gustaving]

From Palestinian poet Najwan Darwish

[firstfullmoon]

Naomi Shihab Nye, “Rumor Mill,” in The Tiny Journalist

[havingapoemwithyou]

rumor mill by Naomi Shihab Nye

[mangoslixes]

- Mahmoud Darwish, Unfortunately, it was Paradise

[tendermimi]

Mahmoud Darwish, The Hoopoe

[fromdarzaitoleeza]

From Two poems by Mahmoud Darwish

[scouse1g]

Do not allow yourselves to stoop to the level of antisemitism. This harms not only Jewish people, but Palestinians as well. The atrocities committed by the State of Israel are not attributable to all Jewish people. Likewise, violence committed by the religious extremists in Hamas does not reflect on every Palestinian Muslim.

Judaism is not the problem. The problem is the Israeli settler colonialist project, of which not every Jew supports. Zionist Jews are opposed by both secular and religious Jews in Israel and abroad for many reasons. The conflation between Zionism and Judaism only serves the interests of right-wing extremists on either side of the conflict. Do not allow far-right Zionists and antisemites to conflate Zionism with Judaism. Antisemitism is inexcusable.

Antisemitism reinforces Zionist rhetoric, inciting further hatred and violence against the Palestinian people. Oppose racism and bigotry of any kind. Reject antisemitism. Stand against apartheid. Reject Islamophobia. Stand with the oppressed people of Palestine. 🇵🇸

[miametropolis]

I want to make it clear to all my followers that, as a proud Jew, I have an abundant love for the Palestinian people & all those seeking freedom from suffering and oppression.

Israel—an exclusionary, militaristic ethnostate—will never deliver diaspora Jews from violence. It will never make our communities safer. It will not save us from antisemitism.

Within its borders, ethnic minorities such as Mizrahi Jews, Africans, and others are second-class citizens. The IDF has committed acts of brutality and cruelty that go unmatched in modern states. Gaza is an open-air prison in which 2 million people suffer needlessly without water, healthcare, food, or basic human rights. Daily, Palestinian homes are bought and stolen, dispensed like candy to foreign settlers with no respect for the native people they displace.

I mourn for the Israeli civilians who were killed, as no human being deserves to have their life shattered by war.

But I mourn deeply, as I always have, the millions of human beings in Palestine who are crushed underfoot, without second thought, by a bloodthirsty war machine.

We have no right to that land. We have no right to raze its people and its homes.

I pray that in my lifetime, Palestine will be free.