My Work - Poetry

The Freedom Flotilla
(Dedicated to the Turkish leader: Recep Tayyip Erdoğan)

A teacher asks in an Arab country:
What is the largest prison in the history of mankind?
A student raises his finger and says:
The Bastille of Paris
At the time of the sanguine revolution
For liberty, equality and fraternity.
The teacher asks:
How many inmates where there at the time?
No student lifts a finger.
The teacher says:
There were only seven! (*)
But do you know of a prison
Which has contained one and a half million people
For years
Guarded by the Zionist regime
Supported by American vetoes
And various Western countries
And the silence of Arab States?
All the students answered in one voice:
Gaza
The land of patience and pride.
× × × ×

The Gaza Freedom Flotilla
Carrying freedom fighters with a cause
Free people with no common language, religion or nationality
But united by the rejection of injustice
And the hatred of inhumanity
And a conscience that upholds human values
People with different nationalities:
Turks,
Arabs,
European activists,
And..and..
And even Americans.
They came in a peaceful convoy
Carrying food and medical materials,
Building materials for reconstructing houses
Destroyed by Zionists using internationally prohibited Phosphorus bombs
And other mass-destruction weapons,
Since cement is not allowed into Gaza
And reinforcement bars are not allowed
Because the Zionist jailer
Classifies such materials as military materials
Same as rocket making materials!
In order to keep his prisoners in continuous distress
Surviving between the rubble and the elements ..
× × × ×

Vessels carrying children
.. Women
.. And men
But all heroes.
They were in international waters
When the Zionist army poured on them
Rubber bullets
And live bullets
Bullets against unarmed people
They never cared who would be maimed
Or who would be killed.
And guiltless Turkish blood flowed
For the sake of Palestine
Nine brave martyrs fell
For the sake of freedom.
× × × ×

This legendary Zionist arrogance
Has shed the blood of innocent Arabs
For more than sixty years
The blood of Palestinians
In Sabra and Shatila
In Qana and Jenin
They bombarded Gaza with phosphorus bombs
And cluster bombs
And assassinated Arafat and Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Al-Mabhooh
And killed thousands of Palestinian martyrs
Yet we remain dreaming of a peaceful solution!
But today
The arrogant Zionists
In all stupidity and madness
Have gone to slaughter
Descendants of the Ottomans
Descendants of Muhammad Al-Fateh and Sulaiman the Magnificent! ..
Erdogan, Gul and Oglu will not tolerate such insolent crimes
For these men have behind them a proud democratic nation
Not afraid to speak ..

(*) The number of prisoners when the Bastille fell were only seven according to historical sources

Dubai, June 2010