This is a long awaited condemnation from the International Red Cross. One can only wonder at the reason for the delay – particularly given the overwhelming demographic advantage that native Palestine enjoys; the widely recognised record of the unlawful 1948 Nakba and Zionist Israel’s consistent refusal to permit this population, its enshrined Right of Peaceable Return home.
Know me: Through the images that linger on your mind
through the trusting eyes of infants and the best of human kind
For the growth that comes through sharing
through a mother’s power to give
and for the cure that is forgiveness.
With the joy it is, to live
Know me not for bitterness. For enmity. For war
For insanity of purpose and the settling of old score
Cast aside these evils. Let your hearts be free
as more through love than understanding, do you find me
Know too the olive groves; the pastures in the sun
and the dusty hills of Canaan where Jordan’s River runs
Home my notion, for compassion for the poor
source my inspiration for justice, peace and law
Where an arrogance of nation would defy my vision grand
My vision for the meek. Their Kingdom in all lands
as through beggars’ eyes and prison bars in rags my children see
tribes stranger to this mansion
That would deny this dignity