EnGAZAgado?

Shabtai is a poetry voice against what is being done by Israelis in Gaza.
An anthology of works by prominent Israeli poets and artists opposing the current war in Gaza was published this week. Among the contributors to the publication are poets Aharon Shabtai, Shimon Adaf, Rami Saari, Tal Nitzan, Tawfiq Ziad. Shabtai goes:

"In the name of the beautiful books I read/
in the name of the kisses I kissed/
May the army be defeated."

Shabtai wrote about the cruelty of the "Israeli" war machine, the machine that had never harvested except the innocent and unarmed civilians in Lebanon. He sided with peace and the victim:

"In time of war/
I side with the villages/
with the mosques/
in this war/
I side with the Shiite family/
with Sour (Tyre)/
with the mother/
with the grandfather/
with the eight kids in the mini van/
with the white silken headscarf".


And more:

The mark of Cain won't sprout

from a soldier who shoots

at the head of a child

on a knoll by the fence

around a refugee camp-

-for beneath his helmet,

conceptually speaking,

his head is made of cardboard.

On the other hand,

the officer has read The Rebel;

his head is enlightened,

and so he does not believe

in the mark of Cain.

He's spent time in museums,

and when he aims his rifle at a boy

as an ambassador of Culture,

he updates and recycles

Goya's etchings

and Guernica.

This is Shabtai's letter to the Book Fair of Paris. Here he negatively responds to the invitation of the director of the book fair, dedicated, to Israel:

Dear Edna,
Thank you for your letter.
I do not believe that a State that maintains an occupation, committing on a daily basis crimes against civilians, deserves to be invited to any kind of cultural week. That is, it is anti-cultural; it is a barbarian act masked as culture in the most cynical way. It manifests support for Israel, and even to France that sustains the occupation. And I do not want to participate.
Kind regards,
Aharon Shabtai
7 December, 2007Culture - Aharon Shabtai

Another response letter:

Thank you for your invitation to participate in the international poetry festival in Jeruslaem in 2006 and the details. I would like to take my name out of the list of participants. I read these days on the barbarism in the Qalandia checkpoint. I oppose an international poetry
festival in a city in which the Arab inhabitants are oppressed systematically and cruelly imprisoned between walls, deprived of their rights and living spaces, humiliated in checkpoints and the international laws are violated. I think that even poets were not allowed in the past, and not in the present, to ignore persecutions and discriminations on a racial or national basis.

Yours,
Aharon Shabtai

So poetry and poets can be nakedly political. It is always supposed to be about fresh air. Shabtai, with other 500 Israelis, issued this declaration about what has happened in Gaza:

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As if the occupation was not enough, the brutal ongoing repression of the Palestinian population, the construction of settlements and the siege of Gaza - now comes the bombardment of the civilian population: men, women, old folks and children. Hundreds of dead, hundreds of injured, overwhelmed hospitals, and the central medicine depot of Gaza bombed. The ship Dignity of the Free Gaza movement which brought emergency medical supplies and a number of physicians was also attacked. Israel has returned to openly committing war crimes, worse than what we have seen in a long time.

Israeli media do not expose their viewers to the horrors and to the voices of severe criticism of these crimes. The story told is uniform. Israeli dissidents are denounced as traitors. Public opinion including that of the Zionist left supports the Israeli policy uncritically and without reservation.

Israel's destructive criminal policy will not cease without a massive intervention by the international community. However, except for some rather weak official condemnation, the international community is reluctant to intervene,. The United States openly supports the Israeli violence and Europe, although voicing some condemnation, is unwilling to seriously consider withdrawing the "gift" it handed Israel by upgrading its relations with the European Union.

In the past the world knew how to fight criminal policies. The boycott on South Africa was effective, but Israel is handled with kid gloves: its trade relations are flourishing, academic and cultural cooperation continue and intensify with diplomatic support.

This international backing must stop. That is the only way to stop the insatiable Israeli violence.

We are calling on the world to stop Israeli violence and not allow the continuation of the brutal occupation. We call on the world to Condemn and not become an accomplice in Israel's crimes.

In light of the above, we call on the world to implement the call by Palestinian human rights organizations which urges:

• "The UN Security Council to call an emergency session and adopt concrete measures, including the imposition of sanctions, in order to ensure Israel's fulfillment of its obligations under international humanitarian law.
• The High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions to fulfil their obligation under common Article 1 to ensure respect for the provisions of the Conventions, taking appropriate measures to compel Israel to abide by its obligations under international humanitarian law, in particular placing pivotal importance on the respect and protection of civilians from the effects of the hostilities.
• The High Contracting Parties to fulfil their legal obligation under Article 146 of the Fourth Geneva Convention to prosecute those responsible for grave breaches of the Convention.
• EU institutions and member states to make effective use of the European Union Guidelines on promoting compliance with international humanitarian law (2005/C 327/04) to ensure Israel complies with international humanitarian law under paragraph 16 (b), (c) and (d) of these guidelines, including the adoption of immediate restrictive measures and sanctions, as well as cessation of all upgrade dialogue with Israel. ">>

A poem by Shabtai:

"War"

I, too, have declared war:
You'll need to divert part of the force
deployed to wipe out the Arabs --
to drive them out of their homes
and expropriate their land --
and set it against me.
You've got tanks and planes,
and soldiers by the battalion;
you've got the rams' horns in your hands
with which to rouse the masses;
you've got men to interrogate and torture;
you've got cells for detention.
I have only this heart
with which I give shelter
to an Arab child.
Aim your weapon at it:
even if you blow it apart
it will always,
always mock you.