For the Right To Return

In The Market by Ismail Shammout

For the Right To Return

People died
for the right to return
died then... died now

Through the decades
year after year people-Palestinians- refugees
risked their lives
for the right to return

risked all for the right to remember Palestine
Historic Palestine...The right to remember
homes and land usurped...

People died for the right to be free
and equal- for the right to have a home
and family (and a garden) and a future
respected by the powers that be

The right to expect fair and just laws...

But our newspapers only talk of protest
no context- no clue... framing the story
to exclude the real reasons
for the Palestinian refugees.

Even our churches drop the ball
calling the Palestinian refugees right of return "controversial"

Why is it "controversial" to object to being constantly
discriminated against- and impoverished
pushed into forced exile- trapped by racist laws and walls
harassed, insulted & played by Zionists left right and center worldwide.

Why exactly is it controversial to want to return
to your own actual home & heritage
and the living loving memory of life
in the Holy Land.

Anne Selden Annab

poem copyright ©2011 Anne Selden Annab