If I must die, You must live
If I Must Die…. 🤍🖤
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« If I must die,
you must live
to tell my story
to sell my things
to buy a piece of cloth
and some strings,
(make it white with a long tail)
so that a child, somewhere in Gaza
while looking heaven in the eye
awaiting his dad who left in a blaze —
and bid no one farewell
not even to his flesh
not even to himself —
sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up above,
and thinks for a moment an angel is there
bringing back love.
If I must die
let it bring hope,
let it be a tale. »
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By Refaat Alareer, a poet & professor of English at the Islamic University of Gaza, killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza.
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Like many, I read your poem hundreds of times with other poems you also wrote. Words were your resistance and your resilience.
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I bow to you.
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We will tell your story Refaat.
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We will live, at least for a while.
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We will tell the tale of horrors.
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We will tell the story on how Humanity collapsed, in name of geopolitical and economical interests. Nothing new I know, but a wake up call for many.
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We will tell the story of the double standards and the violation of all international laws and conventions, in total impunity.
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We will tell the story on how human rights exist for some humans but not for others.
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We will tell the story of a UN SG, all heads of UN agencies and humanitarian community who unanimously kept screaming for a ceasefire to protect and provide assistance to the dying, injured, sick and hungry civilians in Gaza. We will honor them for their daily advocacy efforts to find solutions to rescue Life, no matter what, whatever « side ». We will honor them for their service to Humanity.
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We will challenge ignorance and partisans of a selective empathy. We will challenge all people who find justifications for wars & oppression in name of a God. Everywhere, in fact.
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We will tell the story of the millions of people around the world, from all races & religions, including Jewish, who stood up and screamed from the flame of their ❤️ to demand a ceasefire in the name of Life.
We will contextualise everything to explain how History is shaped. We will not accept intellectual shortcuts based on emotional ramifications and on Ghosts from the past. "People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them”, as James Baldwin wrote.
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We will reaffirm that being against expansionist policies or against a government does equal to being against to the citizens of that country. We will again reaffirm that antisemitism has no place nor islamophobia. By the way we will remind people that Palestinians are also semites.
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We will not shy away from evidence based intellectual integrity to face the dangerous and suitable propandas.
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We will tell the story of all the coexistence initiatives which offer other ways than persisting violence. We shall support them with all our ❤️ and resources. They are the HOPE. They are the tale we want to keep narrating.
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We will show that we can support peace and freedom for both Israelis and Palestinians and that they are not mutually exclusive. We are free when everyone is.
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We tell the love stories of the Land. We will tell the moments of solidarity in face of the visible and invisible darkness. We will honor everyone who stood for peace, equity and justice for all, no matter who they are. We will honor the courage.
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We will tell the story of people whose hearts got crashed feeling powerless seeing live on TV such tragedies. We will also tell the story of the same broken hearts which kept breaking open to only find more compassion and human solidarity over hate and more divisions. Yes, we will tell that story too.
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I want your words, Refaat, on be on my homepage to remember my own promise.
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If I must die, I want to know that I did show up, and I stood for Peace, Justice and Human Rights for ALL. Absolutely everyone.
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Lokah samastah sukhino bhavantu 🖤🤍