photo caption: unknown dead boy Gaza
I thought of my mother when I read this new poem by distinguished South African poet Rassool Snyman. I wondered, is her Jesus big enough to embrace the Jesus in Gaza?
Jesus in Gaza
By Rassool Jibraeel Snyman
I met Jesus in Gaza last night
Nailed to a concrete wall
Impaled by shrapnel
Through hands and feet
Wearing a crown of barbed wire
And a countenance of sorrow
At his feet
A bloodied child
Frozen
Still
Cold
Tattered were her clothes
Ugly were her wounds
I wept for her
He wept for us
Soldiers with blues stars
And white apparel
Stared stonily
Coldly
With no emotion on their faces
And death in their souls
Moonlight reflected on their guns
And their dead eyes
I met Jesus in Gaza last night
I’ve aged a thousand years
And died a thousand times
I met Jesus in Gaza last night
Life will never be the same
(South Africa – January 29, 2009; "Tales of Extreme Sanity")
A message from Father Manuel Musallam, the Pastor of the Catholic Church of God in Gaza:
"The world has to find a solution for the Palestinian people and not simply revert to the position they were in before it began. The borders with Israel must be redrawn and the occupation, which began 60 years ago, has to end.
The status of Palestinian refugees must be resolved pursuant to the Right of Return, and East Jerusalem must be the Palestinian state capital. We must tear down the Apartheid Wall, open the border crossings, free Palestinian detainees and remove Israeli settlements so the land can be returned to its original Palestinian owners.
Peace is only possible if it embraces justice. If the world grants the Palestinian people their human rights there will surely be peace in the Middle East.
From all the people of Gaza we thank you, our friends everywhere, for your constant prayers and particularly for the support which we urgently need and we hope will reach us soon. We thank His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI for his stance in calling for peace in the Middle East and for his generous support to the poor of Gaza. And we thank all bishops, priests, pastors, monks and nuns across the world for remembering us in their prayers.
On behalf of every Gazan, we share your prayers and say to the world: “From now on, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen.” (Galatians 6: 17-18)"
Gaza City church. from Kennysideshow blog
3 comments:
Dear Taina...
Sometimes I simply cannot bear to read anymore about what the Israeli terrorists with US support are doing to the people and land of Palestine. But I keep coming back to your blog, no matter how difficult it is to face reality we must - we must.
Thank you for keeping us aware.
Gerry Henkel
Another beautiful and very moving poem... As Gerry Henkel says, I also thank you for keeping up writing about the Palestinian tragedy. I also wrote a post in my blog on the judge and the law-suit (it's translated). Hugs, M.
Yes, it is difficult to read and to see the images; I don't imagine the images and atrocities get any easier to think about with time. The other day I was watching a documentary on Link tv on the chemical mass murder of the 1000s of Kurds in 1987 and '88 by Saddam Hussein--this was when he was a "friend" of the US. Then, the US had nothing to say of the genocide. The images of the dead Kurds, women, children, men, were very troubling to watch on my tv screen 20 years later.
I think that if Jesus were alive today He would be murdered. The windows of His church would be broken and the people there slaughtered. Only the romanticized myth of a Jesus lives it seems, at least in the hearts of the powerful who have the means of death at their fingertips. Of course, there are incredibly wonderful Christians who are working against injustice in all its guises, from racism to dispossession and oppression. But this Jesus of justice and peace seems crucified to the God of War.
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