palestine

To the poet of the olives
Mahmoud Darwish (1942 -2008)
and for the children of Palestine.

Killing or war!
said the wise owl,
while waking up from its millenary dreams.
Killing!! Said the hawk,
while showing its sinister claws ...
Killing is the slogan!
Cried the Coryphaeus of death.

While the owl,
settled on my eyes,
I could not open
my tightly closed eyelids
due to the gruesome scene
of the Palestine massacre.

Who can sleep
and keep silence,
if this unpunished killing
hurts the heart
of humanity?

In the labyrinth of infamy,
missiles and bombs
killing the children,
torture the life of dreams
and strangle the heart of the mothers

Such land in Gaza
my throat is tightened,
pain tores
my silence.

I shouted and shouted with solidarity courage:
Where is the humanity of the
United Nations?
Brother, sister!:
The children,
the olive trees and the winds of the desert have died!

I heard the voice of the poet of the olives:
The "Birds are dying in Galilee"
And the joy is "withered in the borders."

I am skin and heart of all colors.
My soul embraces the planet
with the song of the lark
and the subtle flight of the hummingbird.

I love humanity,
without holocausts:
Africa, Asia, Australia, Latin America,

Without the Nazi genocide against Jews and Gypsies,
without martyrdom in Palestine.

I love freedom:
freedom of the olives,
freedom without walls
freedom of the water.
Freedom of the stories
in "a thousand and one nights."

I Dream of the poet of the olive trees:
with no occupied territories,
without financial crisis and hunger
due to the business of weapons, or
oil wars;
due to gold and emeralds.

My dreams want to shake
the conscience of the people
and overcome with love and rebellion
the hunter of the planet.
I dream of the freedom of Palestine, and
Honduras, my occupied homeland.
A free Homeland!
Homeland for all mankind!

Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) joins its member organisation in Palestine and the Palestinian people to call on the Israeli government to immediately halt the attack on Gaza and the massacre of innocent people. As we write, over 390 Palestinians have been killed and close to 2000 have been wounded, including children and numerous civilians.

The attacks and destruction, which began on 27 December 2008 are an unacceptable humanitarian catastrophe.

These attacks have been indiscriminate and grossly disproportionate. Palestinian houses, universities, medical stores and mosques have been destroyed. The attacks have equally destroyed electricity and water supplies and have crippled other essential services already brought to there knees during the last two years, during which Palestinians in Gaza have been living under siege with food and fuel supplies being blocked and the healthcare system starved of basic medicine and equipment.

Friends of the Earth International denounces in strong terms all violent action and calls for an immediate ceasefire. We also demand the dismantling of the apartheid walls built across Palestinian territories as these have created major social, environmental and human rights abuses – making life extremely hazardous for the Palestinians and others.

We call for an immediate halt to this Israeli aggression against civilians in Gaza and an end to all violence against civilians on both sides. We also call for access to medical and food supplies in Gaza.

The ongoing destruction is a deep scar on the conscience of the world and cannot be allowed to continue.

Take action

Join us in calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza - and for peace to be achieved between Israel and Palestine in 2009. Sign the petition on the campaigning website AVAAZ.org

Find out more about Friends of the Earth Palestine's work