{"id":282999,"date":"2024-12-23T12:00:55","date_gmt":"2024-12-23T12:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=282999"},"modified":"2024-12-19T06:19:37","modified_gmt":"2024-12-19T06:19:37","slug":"from-bethlehem-palestine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2024\/12\/from-bethlehem-palestine\/","title":{"rendered":"From Bethlehem, Palestine"},"content":{"rendered":"

18 Dec 2024<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

All souls wondering
\nfind peace in the place of birthing
\nI, a lost soul, find it here in Bethlehem
\nA holy place cursed now by mayhem
\nPalestine where the first humans out of Africa ventured<\/p>\n

Settling a land of beauty and bounty, Canaan they called
\nOur fore fathers and mothers first domesticated animals and plants
\nand prospered in peace and harmony respecting the Gods and even the ants
\nWhere the Shepherds heard angels sing
\nAnd in a manger was born a savior king
\nWhere a prophet told us this is the last vanguard
\none who ascended to heaven and told us to be on guard
\nWhere ancestors invented laws and the alphabet
\nand a fertile crescent they created with their sweat
\nWhere they managed to transcend adversity
\nand respected biological and human diversity
\nCultural and natural heritage were well guarded
\nthey dwelled under one God (Al-Ela) regarded<\/p>\n

But a dark storm came with strangers
\nwhose quest for \u201cmanifest destiny\u201d endangers
\nwho said the land belonged not to first nation
\nbut to a chosen people from Europe by dictation
\nCrusaderism
\nZionism
\nMillions do suffer
\nwhile the rich get richer<\/p>\n

We can\u2019t sleep thinking of Khalid Nabhan, a most gentle kindred
\none year after Reem & Tareq (grandchildren) were martyred
\nSoul of my soul he repeatedly stated
\nNow they are eternally united<\/p>\n

We get paralyzed thinking of friends sacrificed
\nZionists aided by blackmailed politicians make people de-huanized
\nvillified
\nterrified<\/p>\n

Might is right they declare
\nOf a higher power they are not aware<\/p>\n

Living under apartheid we wonder
\nWhen our turn to be killed or injured and ponder
\nWhether we lived with enough grace and dignity?
\nWhether we made the right choices & fostered unity?<\/p>\n

Did we spend enough time with good people, family, friends, activists?
\nDid we waste some time trying to convince racists or hanging with pessimists?
\nMistakes made (we all do)- but have from our lessons, learned?
\negos subdued, sometimes, and only then is respect earned!<\/p>\n

How do we learn not to look away from suffering?
\nto offer a kind word, food, shelter to those enduring\u2026.
\na genocide, ecocide, educide, medicide, and omnicide
\nand massacres of the truth \u2013 a veriticide.<\/p>\n

We reread the beginning\u2026ethnic cleansing
\nand today\u2019s millions of candles shining
\nFor human rights we strive
\nand we keep hope alive
\nIn every street, in every corner, and in every heart
\nPeople united for a freedom, a road they chart
\nIn our thousands in our millions
\nwe are all Palestinians<\/p>\n

They will never break the spirits
\nof 15 million Palestinians
\nlet alone billions who stand together tall
\nFor a better future for ALL<\/p>\n

May 2025 be the year of peace<\/p>\n

____________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Mazin Qumsiyeh, associate professor of genetics and director of cytogenetic services at Yale University School of Medicine, is founder and president of the Holy Land Conservation Foundation and ex-president of the Middle East Genetics Association. He won the Raymond Jallow Activism Award from the national Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee in 1998. He is co-founder and national treasurer of Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, and has written extensively about the Middle East. Qumsiyeh is a member of the<\/em> TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment<\/a>, author of <\/em>Sharing the Land of Canaan and <\/em>Popular Resistance in Palestine, a professor at Bethlehem University and director of the Palestine Museum of Natural History in Bethlehem.<\/em> http:\/\/palestinenature.org<\/a><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 popular-resistance.blogspot.com<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Join the BDS-BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT, SANCTIONS campaign<\/em><\/strong><\/span> to protest the Israeli barbaric siege of Gaza, illegal occupation of the Palestine nation\u2019s territory, the apartheid wall, its inhuman and degrading treatment of the Palestinian people, and the more than 7,000 Palestinian men, women, elderly and children arbitrarily locked up in Israeli prisons.<\/p>\n

DON’T BUY<\/strong> PRODUCTS WHOSE<\/strong> BARCODE STARTS WITH<\/strong> 729<\/strong><\/span>, which indicates that it is produced in Israel. DO YOUR PART! MAKE A DIFFERENCE!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

7 2 9: BOYCOTT FOR JUSTICE!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All souls wondering
\nfind peace in the place of birthing
\nI, a lost soul, find it here in Bethlehem
\nA holy place cursed now by mayhem<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":115817,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[237,3287,2272,87,865,88,767,427,868,1025],"class_list":["post-282999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry-format","tag-africa","tag-anti-zionism","tag-bethlehem","tag-gaza","tag-genocide","tag-israel","tag-middle-east","tag-palestine","tag-poetry","tag-west-bank"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282999"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":283000,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282999\/revisions\/283000"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}