by Amy Wolf
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| Last Thursday [December 14], on the eighth night of Hanukkah, JVP members shut down eight bridges and highways in eight cities across the U.S. to demand an end to the genocide of Palestinians. Thousands of Jews and allies protested in Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Chicago, Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, and San Diego — eight cities symbolizing the eight candles lit on the final night of Hanukkah, plus the shamash, or “helper” candle. JVP members blocked traffic for hours, singing, chanting, carrying giant menorahs, and holding signs reading “Jews says ceasefire now” and “Let Gaza live.” Hundreds were arrested. —Jewish Voice For Peace |
Let them drink water!
As you protest, and shut down bridges
As you congratulate each other on your solidarity
And stop traffic
They are dying of thirst, and of dysentery,
And a dozen water-borne diseases.
The bombs are killing far fewer
Than thirst, hunger, bacteria.
Don’t look away.
Rather than chanting prayers
With our street-borne menorahs,
Rather than snarling the evening commute,
Should we not be commandeering boats,
And airplanes
And jeeps
And our cousins and relatives in the Knesset,
In the State Department,
To bring water to the Gazans?
To give a cup of life to those who thirst,
The babies, the children, the adults alike?
And now food.
Do you know that over a million are starving?
That none know where their next meal is coming from?
In these circumstances, it is little more than a week
Before that next bomb will not matter.
I am tired of marching.
I do not believe the merchants of Pike Place Market
Control the foreign policy here
Let alone the War Cabinet of Eretz Yisrael.
Principled Jews the world over have prayed and demonstrated,
Occupied, chanted and sung.
Not a morsel of food have we been able to bring over that border,
Not a cup of water.
"Nation shall not lift sword against nation;
Neither shall they study war anymore"
Gave me such hope, in the beginning, as my relatives sang it
In Grand Central Station, in Capitol Buildings, in the street, in Hebrew.
It's an important prayer, straight out of liturgy, out of Torah.
I grew up singing it.
Surely this would work!
Surely when the President and the Congress saw
Surely when the President and the Congress saw
That Jews ourselves condemned this indiscriminate massacre,
They would prevail on Israel to stop.
Catch the murderers, catch the rapists, execute them,
But leave the population alone.
Their answer, an unqualified, inelegant, "We can't."
Mixed in with a mind-bending, gas-lighting, "We are!"
Pretending to be cautious of non-combatant deaths
While leveling whole city blocks on top of the heads of babes,
In full view of the whole world.
Those blinded by the narrative say, "But the images coming out of Gaza
Are only what Hamas wants you to see. I don't believe them."
True, to the extent that the images don't show us weapons amassed in tunnels,
Soldiers in uniform plotting their next strike, or hoarding supplies,
Untrue in that those buildings are truly flattened, those babies dead,
Filmed by iPhone and uploaded by stunned and defeated citizens.
I am tired of marching.
Where are the convoys of boats full of Americans,
Heading to the Gaza coast with water and food?
Where are the airdrops of sustenance from private planes,
Where are the means by which we might feed the starving?
In Sudan as well, in Syria, in other lesser-known conflicts,
I look at us out in the street, closing bridges and highways,
And see a feel-good exercise.
Show me one person who has changed their mind on the urgency
Or right of an issue, because they were stuck in traffic one extra hour,
While their little ones and spouse waited at home.
I'll show you two who were run over while protesting,
One dead in her twenties, the other badly hurt.
Sign me up for the convoy, the jeeps, boats, and planes
Flying an American flag, daring the Israeli army to stop us
From bringing food and water.
Oh wait. Rachel Corrie.
This experiment has been run before.
They would not hesitate to fire on us either.
They rolled a bulldozer over her young body
As she stood between it and a Palestinian house
They were intent on demolishing.
24 years old, from Olympia, Washington.
Dead in 2003.
This is why we close bridges and march against our own merchants.
Israel is too deadly a place to demonstrate.
Amy Wolf is an LMT and energy worker who resides in Seattle, WA, and is studying writing.