In their line of work smiling is rare
Uzis and tear gas the more common fare.
But from ten years ago there’s photos that show
Israeli goons smirking at the bravado
of a Palestinian girl, not even eight,
thrusting her fist in the face of their mate.
Ahed Tamimi, three feet of temerity,
a stripling they dismissed with hilarity.
Today their laughter is stilled and unheard.
A teenaged Ahed their malice has stirred
for raising her hand and delivering a smack
to a gun-wielding soldier leading a pack
that invaded her village, as often they had,
and cruelly shooting her cousin Mohammed.
A slap which though quiet rang out far and wide.
Now revenge is demanded to heal Zionist pride.
Rapacious settlers from before the Crusaders
have yearned to possess Palestine
but as others before them, these Zionist invaders
will shatter on those blue eyes sublime.
Her global esteem brings a torrent of lies
“What brand of Arab has blond hair and blue eyes?”
One Knesset demagogue calls it pure ruse –
the Tamimis are actors, just paid to confuse.
Arrest them all, specially her mother for filming it.
We’ll use Hollywood if propaganda’s seen fit,
to broadcast the tale that terrorism’s the frame
to distort the Palestinian people’s just claim.
Then a second esteemed legislator did curse
that his boot would put Ahed in hospital or worse.
“No one could stop me. I would kick in her face.”
His hatred for Arabs is so commonplace,
he voices what Zionists think but might shrink from,
howling that Palestinians are vile “dogs” and “scum.”
Oren Hazan could be seen as just cracked,
yet the Zionist state and its thugs have his back.
Rapacious settlers from before the Crusaders
have yearned to possess Palestine
but as others before them, these Zionist invaders
will shatter on those blue eyes sublime.
In the face of a brave Palestinian teen
what the Zionists plot is grimly obscene.
Jail without trial for sure in the near term.
But soldiers dismayed by her blue eyes firm
know that their prisons won’t break Ahed.
So they’ll fashion a plot to render her dead,
try to stifle the light and cast into the shade
those resolute eyes that remain unafraid.
Then will we look to our own precious girls
and not see their image in Ahed’s blond curls?
For they are at heart like their sister Ahed
with one crucial difference, which must be said,
that they, if they live in a principled state,
can hope that justice will govern their fate,
while Ahed Tamimi endures jail and courts death
when she smacks a thug from the IDF.
Rapacious settlers from before the Crusaders
have yearned to possess Palestine
but as others before them, these Zionist invaders
will shatter on those blue eyes sublime.
Victoria, BC
May 1, 2018