[By Alison Pyle]
When international law is applied selectively
When Zionism is accepted by world leaders
Rather than denounced as Racism is
When leaders claim ‘You don’t have to be a Jew to be Zionist’
When all innocents are proclaimed responsible
When disproven lies are continually spouted
Rooted in a ‘self-defence’ rationality
To disguise the blatant, savage, barbaric revenge upon those innocents
To defend the expansion of the very occupation
That perpetuates the original crime of Nakba
When there are NO TWO SIDES in genocide
What faith do we have in a just solution?
What can the Day After look like?
With the declaration as an apartheid state
Promoting land theft across the West Bank
Distributing machine guns to illegal settlers
Sweeping up children, women, men to languish
As hostages in Administrative Detention
Threatening Palestinian Israelis with arrest
For offering condolences to those in Gaza
Exposing its own State as terrorist in nature
Can these fanatics be trusted
In the Day After?
Who has faith there will be justice?
What hope is there for accountability?
Where will hope come from?
When will peace return?
Why is the West so slow to act?
How can the world be so helpless?
What will The Day After look like?
With the goal of total depopulation in Gaza
With the targeting of hospitals, schools, churches, mosques, homes and journalists
The world is witnessing the destruction
While parents ordered to leave their children
With limbs amputated, worms infecting wounds
While medical staff are arrested
Tears of anguish and helplessness
The world is witnessing the agony
Who will be held to account
In the Day After?
Will the perpetrators face justice?
Will the US find its spine?
Will Britain find its integrity?
Will Europe unite in ‘Never Again’?
Will the dictators purchasing spyware act?
Will the autocrats buying their weapons act?
Will the Arab countries sacrifice trade?
Will the victims see a light at the end of the 75-year tunnel?
Will peace reign in the Middle East?
What will the Day After look like?
It’s wishful thinking
Why are the perpetrators above scrutiny?
Where will the cycle of violence spiral next?
How is futility not recognised?
Who will advocate for a lasting solution?
What must be sacrificed to this end?
When will eyes and hearts open to the reality?
The reality?
The victims of the worst genocide in the 20th Century
Will forever be known as the perpetrators of the worst genocide of the 21st Century!
And this reality will determine the Day After.