Gaza in the Sea - Gaza dans la Mer

Gaza in the Sea

What would you like to see?Gaza sinking in the sea?

So you can jump, sing and dance
And for each hill and colony announce
What a triumph against terrorism?
We manage to kill a potential nuisance
And world close your eyes, dearest egoism
Don't dare to look, Watch but lose your sense
Those people are no humans, Let's debate!
They are not like us… they are full of hate
Their blood is blue like our noblesse
Their shit is white, like our faces
Their screams are melodies we play on holidays
How joyful to hear them crying loud, he says
They see like owls, and illuminate in the dark,
Cut out electricity, kill the trees in each park

They breath nothingness, so keep them in emptiness
Let's make their nights days in flame
And make their silence explode in joy
That keeps the world entertained and stays humane
And send messages of protest to every deaf and blind
On this planet earth and the lands of braves so kind
Let's stay hopeful that we remain insane

Let's send a shipment of food and milkWould they prefer fabric or silk?
Maybe chocolate on biscuit bars
French Chocolate or Belgian, or that's of Uncle Sam?
Let's feel pity because we can do nothing
Let's make a prayer and go and bring
A big new camera to film our tears
And say high and loud we have practiced our humanity
In feeling with the poor and the needy

But at the end of the story,What is happening with this tireless oppressor?
Who continues to violate every right, every law?
Every life, every hope, every dream and every faith
What a change would be hoped for if life is worthless
If right and wrong are continuously married in a vampire ceremony
And what make of the humanity what it is
Is nothing but pure heresy and old history?

Look my son, and feel the pain
This is wrong, this is inhumane
Continue to write, to speak to resist
Injustice, occupation whatever is the risk
Israel is the occupier and it commits war crimes
And this entire silent world is complicit

Don’t humiliate us with charity, or humanitarian aid
Be respectful and support justice, dignity and humanity
Do they think we care when we die
To have our stomach full or empty?

My tears are innocent to my eyes
They refuse to fall on my dry cheeks

------

Gaza dans la mer

Qu’aimeriez-vous voir ?
Gaza submergé dans la mer ?
Ainsi vous pouvez sauter, chanter et danser
et pour chaque colline et colonie annoncez :

Quel triomphe contre le terrorisme ?
Nous parvenons à tuer un ennui potentiel
et toi monde, ferme tes yeux, mon plus cher égoïsme
n'osez pas regarder, observe mais perdre votre sens

Ces gens là ne sont pas humains, qu’on en discute !
Ils ne sont pas comme nous… Ils sont pleins de la haine
Leur sang est bleu comme notre noblesse
Leur merde est blanche, comme nos visages
Leurs cris perçants sont des mélodies que nous jouons en vacances

Comme c’est joyeux les entendre pleurer fort, il dit
Ils voient comme des hiboux, et illuminent dans l'obscurité,
Coupez l'électricité, mettez à mort les arbres de forêts
Ils respirent le néant, gardez-les dans le vide
Faisons de leurs jours des nuits en flamme
Faisons que leur silence s’éclate de la joie,
Qui maintient le monde amusé et humanitaire

Et envoyons des messages de protestation à chaque aveugle et sourd
Sur la planète Terre et les terres de braves et gentils
Restons plein d'espoir que nous restons fous
Envoyons une expédition de nourriture et de lait

Préféreraient-ils le tissu ou la soie ?Peut-être le chocolat ou le biscuit
Du chocolat Français ou Belge, ou celui de l'oncle SAM ?
Qu’on ait pitié- parce que nous ne pouvons rien faire
Faisons une prière et aller apporter
Un nouveau grand caméra pour filmer nos larmes
Et dire haut et fort que nous avons pratiqué notre humanité
En sentant avec les indigents et le nécessiteux

Mais à la fin de l'histoire, Que se passe-t-il avec cet oppresseur inlassable ?'
Qui continue à violer chaque droite, chaque loi ?
Chaque vie, chaque espoir, chaque rêve et chaque foi
Quel changement serait espéré si la vie est sans valeur
Si le droit et le faux sont mariés sans interruption dans une cérémonie de vampires
Et Qu’est-ce qui fait de l'humanité ce qu’elle estn’est rien qu’hérésie pure et une histoire de passé ?

Regarde mon fils, et sens la douleurCeci est mal, ceci est inhumaine
Continue à écrire, à parler et à résister
Contre l'injustice, l’occupation quelque soit le risque
Israël est l'occupant et il commet des crimes de guerre
Et ce monde silencieux est complice

Ne nous humiliez pas avec la charité, et vos aides humanitaires
Soyeux respectueux et soutenez la justice, la dignité et l’humanité
Pensez-vous qu’on s’en fou lorsqu’on meurt
Si on a le ventre vide ou plein

Mes larmes sont innocentes à mes yeux
Ils refusent de tomber sur mes joues sèches
================
Abdelfattah Abusrour, PhDAshoka Fellow
Director of Alrowwad Cultural and Theatre Training Center
January 23, 2008

Alrowwad in Austria, Linz in April 2009

Performances in Linz

http://www.linz09.at/en/projekt-2106333/zuendstoff.html

Theatre inflames, provokes, causes excitement. The spark leaps across, schools in the region and international youth groups catch it on the wind and fan it into flames.
Of all school projects, drama mobilises the most commitment and creates the greatest enthusiasm. Often it deals with today’s most relevant topics, truly explosive matter. This project, which has so far been confined exclusively to Upper Austrian school and youth drama groups, will look beyond our borders in Capital of Culture year. As a City of Peace, Linz will invite drama groups from regions that are marked by the harshness of their political, social or societal climate. Together with ten Upper Austrian troupes selected by an expert jury these children and teens will put on a varied and exciting programme over four days, which will be of interest not only to their peers but also to culturally inclined grown-ups. Workshops lasting for several days conducted by renowned international artists will supplement the festival’s programme and foster exchange between individual troupes. Two guest productions will make ZÜNDSTOFF a forum where young people from the most disparate backgrounds, cultures and traditions meet. For Linz this is an opportunity to make one more contribution to cultural and societal dialogue and to add to ist reputation as a City of Peace.

MARKET THEATRE: THURSDAY’S CHILD
Th ursday ’s Child is a play that deals with abuse, rape and prostitution. Maroleng has been abandoned by her mother. Left to her own devices she experiences all the horrors of life in the gutter. The production, with its student cast from Township Alexandra near Johannesburg, won the first prize out of more than forty entries at one of South Africa’s most important theatre festivals, the Zwakala.

CONCEPT / DIRECTOR //Ntshieng Mokgoro

ALROWWAD THEATRE AND DANCE GROUP:

1. WE ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE CAMP &

2. BLAME IT ON THE WOLF

Alrowwad Theatre and Dance group consists of 14 girls and boys aged between 10 and 18, with another four girls bringing up the chorus. The Palestinian youth theatre troupe will bring two productions to Linz.

WE ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE CAMP presents the Palestinian perspective on the historical background of their country’s occupation.

BLAME IT ON THE WOLF uses the material of classic fairy stories and deconstructs it to reveal a content that is radically different from the prima facie interpretation. What was considered as established fact suddenly turns out to have been false all along and other backdrops come into view. In other words, what is presented is an object lesson warning of the dangers of premature conclusions, which are liable to be misleading.
CONCEPT / DIRECTOR : Abdelfattah Abusrour
WHAT : School drama festival
WHEN : 15 – 18 April 09
WHERE : Hafenhalle09, Landestheater Linz, Theater des Kindes im Kuddelmuddel, Theater Phönix

Zündstoff, Linz 09, www.zuendstoff.at
In collaboration with Verein Zündstoff

Gaza ground zero 2009

Gaza ground zero 2009

One, two, ten, one hundred…. The rain falls and the news are loud… no space is safe… no shade to hide… Hell is all around.
Two hundred thirty, three hundred, three hundred and ninety… the race is going on… numbers are counted… houses, schools, mosques, industries, and human beings…
The beggars are begging… the needy are crying… practice your humanity people… shed some tears… have pity… donate a little or much for such a humanitarian cause…. Demonstrate in the streets… rise your voice… protest… practice your humanity and don’t be a complicit with injust and war crimes….
The eloquent speakers speak. The great or little politicians are on the microphones. The camera films and the cameramen are posted everywhere the bombs sing and the victims dance and fall in blood baths or under the ruins of their houses or in prayers or even in the schools. The writers have found moving themes to write about. The singers are more emotional than ever. The artists are more inspired than ever. The generous people are donating, and humanitarian aid is on the way.
The ugliness is uglier than ever. The shame is greater than ever. Helplessness is enveloping what remains of our humanity. Shamelessness is the only menu on the table of the UN, International politics and agendas. Complicity is the daily bread of international community and defenders of so-called human rights and international law… and “Israel has the right to defend itself” is the only slogan in international and Israeli rhetoric.

Israel has the right to defend itself! What does this mean? Erase a whole nation? Palestinians have no right to defend themselves? Palestinians don’t have the right to live, as free human beings, and to practice this freedom and humanity on their “Occupied” land. Israel continues occupying a whole Palestine, close cities, to forbid free movement for people, to decide who can live where, to decide when one can get married or not, with whom one can fall in love, and when one can pass a checkpoint and get out of his/her home. Israeli “care” is killing us.

“They have the right to defend their civilians” great news for a state composed of an army, where every civilian is a trained soldier (except for few hundreds of brave young people who dare to refuse to serve in such army of occupation). This so-called only democratic state in the middle state, has no defined borders, no defined map, no constitution, no respect to international law or human rights or Forth Geneva Convention, and wins the sympathy by a programmed media war… Europe is compensating her by awarding her with discussing upgrading relations and the US with more funding and sophisticated weapons and protection against any international punishment. Gaza and the West Bank is the big animal laboratory for every trial of new weapons.

“Enough is Enough” declares a monster in the shape of a woman, who tries to exceed in her terrorism all those who preceded her and compete with her to lead Israel from illegality to illegality, destruction to destruction, crimes against humanity to crimes against the so-called human rights and international law. Name any Israeli prime minister who ruled Israel and have no history in terrorism. Name any prime Minister who in order to win elections or please the national opinion do not express themselves except by killing us? Please do….

“Enough is Enough” she says. What should we say after 60 years of occupation and humiliation and programmed killing, stealing and destruction of Palestinian people, properties and infrastructures? Don’t we have that right as well to say “Enough is Enough”? Don’t we have the right to hold Israel and the Great Britain for responsible of all the crimes committed against us under the British Mandate and Israeli occupation?

I am bitter and enraged. I have such anger in me, as I guess in everyone who still has a bit of humanity and justice and respect to human values. One remains stuck in front of TV screens and sees the level of degradation humans can reach, and carelessness and complicity with injustice and infraction of every value that make of us human beings.

Tears are ashamed to fall down… Our wounds are blood red of humiliation... Are we looked at only as numbers? Should all those who are massacred remain only as figures without a name or a face? Don’t they deserve to be known, and their story to be told, and the crime they committed to deserve to be killed in such way?

We are Palestinians, and I can say that we are losing our creativity in facing death and Israeli criminal arrogance. We are losing our inventive methods in dealing with international complicity with injustice and continuous policies of conditioning us to accept realities on the ground. We have no more alternative ways to find justification to accept international and Israeli dictation of a code of behavior that only erase our humanity and identity, and transform us into faceless slaves. We find no possibility to accept justifications presented by the Palestinian authority for its incapacity to protect us, with all these endless negotiations and agreements and promises. May the president of this authority resolve this authority, at least the whole world can see that we are still under Israeli occupation. Our Palestinian authority has no authority on anything, except maybe running behind some kids who try to throw stones at the tours of Israeli snipers in their 24 or 30 feet high wall tours.


Since years, I ask myself: Why do you Israelis hate yourself so much that you force everyone who has a sense of justice to hate you? We were not born and we were not raised to hate, to destroy and to kill. We do not want this hate. Spare us your lies and crimes and threats and your lessons of wisdom. Spare us your hatred, your terrorism, and your massacres. Take your hatred with you and leave. Take your terror with you and leave. Take your walls with you and leave.

Spare us your generosity in allowing some humanitarian aid to filter in Gaza. We do not want your pity and you charity. We do not want anyone’s pity or charity. We do not want you to have a justification to continue your crimes. Spare us your tears and your charity actions, and leave us to die in dignity… Do you think we care when you bombard us and while we are dying whether we die the stomach full or empty?

Gaza is burning. Gaza is in fire. The Israeli war is not against Palestinian people but against Hamas they say. The Israeli bombardments are surgical and precise they say. They are so precise that they kill school boys in UNRWA schools, and kill entire families and 4 months old babies… Spare us your precision please. Name please one international law that can give you this right of collective punishments and massacres?

People all over the world are filling the streets demonstrating with slogans of protest, and accusations to the international silence everywhere. They express their humanity and emotions of refusal to the degradation of human values. They express their solidarity with the tortured spirits. But for those who remain silent, those who do not care, I hope you will look tonight in the mirror, and look deep and ask yourself: If your child came to you tonight or tomorrow or in ten or twenty years and asked you: what did you do to make a change?
The year closes its doors, and the New Year opens new gate…. What will be our first steps?
May your tomorrow be better than our today… may your children and all those you care about find the peace they deserve as human beings… We remain despite the jungle we are forced to live in human beings who defend their humanity even in such conditions…
May you live in peace…. With a capital P, like Palestine….