Amplifying Palestinian Voices
- C.J
- Feb 5, 2024
- 3 min read
Disclaimer: I am aware that WIX, the site I use to host and build my website, is Iraeali-owned, and therefore use of it supports Israeli infrastructure which all adds up to harming the existence of Palestine and Palestinians. Unfortunately, due to my current financial situation as well as several other personal reasons, I am unable to swap website providers. As soon as this becomes a viable option for me I will be making the switch. In the meantime, I will continue to spread awareness through posts like this, as well as by sharing information across social media.
For my first blog post this month I won't be sharing a new poem. Instead, below you will find links to various Palestinian poems and stories that need to be heard - some told by people who have since tragically lost their lives.
We Are Not Numbers is an amazing site I came across recently. It is a "youth-led Palestinian nonprofit project in the Gaza Strip. It tells the stories behind the numbers of Palestinians in the news and advocates for their human rights." I won't lie to you, the site itself can be difficult to navigate - pictures won't always load, and the navigation bar itself is tricky to use - but it is so worth it to put some humanity to the numbers we see in the news. Poetry, indeed creative writing as a whole, is such an important tool for learning and understanding history, and as we live through something that is sure to make the history books it is more important than ever to hear the voices on the frontlines. Some pieces on WANN that I found particularly moving include:
This poem hits you right in the heart within just the first few opening lines: "Migrant, refugee, displaced / my ID bears brutal chapters / I did not choose to write". For me, this poem reflects the poems of World War One that first inspired me to write my own poetry. It is deep, harrowing, insightful, and full of emotion. A must-read.
This piece was written in January 2023, months before the current genocide happening in Gaza at the hands of the Israeli government. Despite already knowing that the occupation of Palestine has been happening for decades, this piece really made that fact sink in for me. It becomes even more poignant when you learn that the author - Yousef Maher Dawas - was killed by an Israeli missile strike on 14th October 2023.
A piece that really drives home the fact that the things we see on our screens can happen, and are happening, to very real people every day. To us, in the Western world, war, conflict, and genocide are distant thoughts. We witness atrocities played out in fiction, often forgetting that these things really happen. The people of Gaza, as well as countless other places across the world, do not have that luxury. That fiction is their reality.
To put it simply: the final stanza of this poem made me burst into tears.
Some other poems I've come across on various websites:
'A Poem for Gaza, a Poem for Palestine' by Ahmad Almallah, 2023
'Palestine' by Navakanta Barua, 2007
'Not Just Passing' by Hiba Abu Nada
'My Son Throws a Blanket Over My Daughter' by Mosab Abu Toha, 2023
'Fuck Your Lecture on Craft, My People are Dying' by Noor Hindi, 2020
Articles about Palestinian writing, poetry, and poets:
'How Poetry Became a Tool of Resistance for Palestinians', Armani Syed, TIME, 2024
'These are the poets and writers who have been killed in Gaza', Dan Sheehan, Lit Hub, 2023
'Palestinian Poems With and For The Now', ArabLit, 2023
'Everyone Should be Reading Palestinian Poetry', Andrew Calis, 2023
In the conclusion of that last article listed, Andrew Callis says, "Poetry at its best can stun readers into silence, but also give the silenced a voice and a way to share that voice." I find that those words sum up this post nicely. I leave you with this: contact your governments, have hard conversations with your loved ones, do not stand for hate in any form (Zionism, Antisemitism, etc.), and call for a ceasefire and a free Palestine.
I am writing this on 21/01/2024, and scheduling to post it on the first Monday in February. I hope that by the time you are reading this, I will have edited the above paragraph to say that a ceasefire has been achieved, but even if it has there has been irreversible damage to the people of Palestine. Whole bloodlines have been wiped out, hospitals and universities leveled. Do not let their voices, their history, disappear to time, no matter the outcome. Amplify, always.
~ C
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