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Ceasefire?

Writer's picture: Lara FlanaganLara Flanagan
Poems for Palestine

Ceasefire?


The talk of a ceasefire is everywhere. The ceasefire reminds me of an ignorant conversation I had many moons ago in a different lifetime. I was in Berlin for work and talking to a former East Berliner. She had just told me that the East German Mark was so useless that they used it as wallpaper to try to cover up the cracks in the walls during winter. This woman was telling me of incredible hardships. Yet with all the privilege I didn’t know I had as a white Western woman, I asked her if the day the Berlin Wall came down was ‘brilliant?’ I was no doubt perky enough to roll my r’s and to look starry-eyed at the romance of it all. She was very kind and didn’t say anything scathing, she just said that it was one of the most terrifying moments of her life. That she sat in her bedroom holding her husband’s hands as they prayed to a god they no longer believed in, that whatever came next was not worse than what had been. It was such a humbling experience for me that taught me a lesson that has stayed with me forever.

 

I imagine that that is what the Palestinians must feel now. There must be a dread about what comes next that most of us can’t begin to imagine. A ceasefire means just that, a ceasefire. It doesn’t mean an end to genocidal intentions or a brutal occupation. Will Israel honour the deal and leave Gaza? Or will they stay where they are? Will the illegal settlers who are already camped on the other side of the illegal apartheid wall (you know the one that is impossible to cross except mysteriously on the 7th of October) waiting to create illegal settlements in Gaza disappear or will they continue their plans for settlement just like they do in the West Bank?

 

Will UNRWA be reinstated and refunded? Will aid be distributed so that it can get to all those who are desperately in need? Will hospitals be rebuilt? Will Israel as an occupying entity honour its obligations according to international law? Will the siege of Gaza be lifted or will Gaza just be reduced in size? So many questions and it must be beyond terrifying. It has been at least 80 years of hell for the Palestinians with endless deals across tables that have never turned out well for them. What they want, to live in their homeland without fear and with self-determination still seems so far away.

 

I just hope this ‘ceasefire deal’ at least gets aid into the area and allows entry by foreign press so the horrors of the last 15 months can be fully exposed.

 

Ceasefire?

 

Ceasefire?

No more occupation?

No more bombs?

No more drones?

Ceasefire?

One more time

for the Palestinians

to weep for what is gone.

Ceasefire?

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©2023 My Notes From by Lara Flanagan
Tenterfield, NSW, Australia

 

I ​would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of Tenterfield, the place where I call home, the Kamilaroi, Jukembal, and Ngarabal people.

I acknowledge the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia and recognise the continuing connection to lands, waters, and communities.

I pay my respects to Elders past and present. 

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