Poetry

Reading the News in America

By Daniel Saikaly
PAJU (Palestinian & Jewish Unity)
Montreal
      

        "The death-toll has risen
        Over three hundred dead,
        Mostly Palestinian,"
        The netcast said.
         
        "Mostly Palestinian"
        Is a useful phrase
        To blur atrocity
        For American eyes.
         
        "The IDF denies...
        ".....the army must defend...
        But shows restraint and tries...."
        And the victims stand condemned.
         
        The helicopter gunships?
        The artillery campaign?
        The snipers? Tanks? The closure?
        There is nothing to explain.

        "All deaths are tragic, but..."
        But, to be realistic,
        These are not Israelis;
        Not people. Just statistics.

        So drive back the film crews
        Lest America cries
        For  child statistics
        Shot  before its eyes.

        Three hundred dead,
        This Is no problem when  
        'Almost  all of them
        Are Palestinian'.