Refaat Al Areer, Palestinian poet who wrote the poem "If I Must Die" addressed to his daughter Shaymaa:
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 loveIf I must die
let it bring hope
let it be a tale.
Well, Shaymaa was killed in an Israeli airstrike yesterday together with her husband and 2 month old child.
But yeah, it's all about eradicating Hamas.
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Beyond heartbreaking the way thousands of families have been ripped apart, lives destroyed. But for the fluke of birth that could be any of us.
There will be a whole generation of Palestinian kids ready to replace Hamas. Israel has made its own bed.
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Were they hamas?
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2 MONTH OLD CHILD?
YES THAT CHECKS OUT
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Netanyahu= all of Israel but Hamas =/= all of Palestine... Why?
I didn't think that poem was great tbh. Instagram cloying.
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No-one has suggested that Netanyahu = all of Israel though soz.
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Were it not the fact that he was killed in an Israeli airstrike in December, I’m sure that he would be disappointed to hear that Clergs
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So because he's dead his poetry isn't allowed to be criticised. Logic checks out.
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Is that what disappointed means?
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Liking your own posts tragic
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Hahaha - tell you what, in 1 min after I post this message, I’ll like the post for the first time so you’ll see the total increase to 2
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Also downvoted yours while I was at it.
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You're just showing us that you have more than one account dear.
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Anyway- moving on from RR’s playground accusations- Refaat Al Areer and his family paid the ultimate price for Israel’s so-called “war” against Hamas. Very much looking forward to the day Netanyahu is dragged in front of the ICC, when on earth will that be.
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Doesn't make his poetry any better Gorlami.
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He very poetically said that the Hamas attack in October was entirely congruent with the Warsaw ghetto uprising. Such is the intellectual leadership in Gaza.
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You almost sound pleased.
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I absolutely support the right to resist an occupier-state, yes. And yes that resistance should continue until there is a two state solution.
Resistance should however not include the killing and terrorising of innocent people- unfortunately Israel’s brutality will lead to many young Palestinians being radicalised, some of whom will be more than willing to mete out the same violence they and their families endured.
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Unfortunately
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Scep Tick - People are entitled to a non euro-centric perspective, however difficult that may be for you to stomach. Dehumanising a Palestinian for his views suggests you’re kinda ok with him being bombed to death?
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Are YWTF and RR the same posters? Because both have similar infantile commenting styles…
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Yeah RR are you me?
Class.
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RR of all people is trousering Gor and co here. You love to see it.
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YWTF, we are one schizophrenic dude.
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I think this thread exemplifies a schism about to kick off in the UK
I will remain on the same side
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Like me, myself and Irene. One scene I’m wearing blue and with my Mrs and the next I go red and like c0ck.
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Oh actually sorry RR I mixed you up with the other red, Davos. He likes chaps doesn’t he, but not sure about you. Spiffing either way (or both) obvs!
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I like chaps, but I don't like like them. Davos is the one you're thinking of. Football finance guru that lad.
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I think calling him a poet is akin to calling Lord Haw-Haw a reporter. It's an attempt to humanise and personalise the conflict using an empathetic example. But he's the wrong one.
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The poetry’s irrelevant frankly, albeit he could have been doing a more productive job
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If he is the ‘wrong one’ how about his daughter and 2 month old granddaughter? Any empathy for them? Or the thousands of other families in Gaza clinging to each other with hunger in their bellies waiting the missile that will wipe their entire family off the face of the earth?
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It's an attempt to humanise and personalise the conflict using an empathetic example.
You mean to say we shouldn’t be humanising Palestinians or personalising the conflict by being empathetic? RIP humanity.
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Leaving politics aside, I don’t ‘get’ poetry like this.
It’s basically a paragraph of writing, with a random AI machine deciding where each line should go. It certainly doesn’t scan.
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I don’t think the Bard needs to worry about his place in history.
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(((eradicating Hamas)))
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it’s fvcking bizarre that shakespeare is remembered by a poet. He was a shite poet. Most of it doesn’t even scan. Playwright is wot he woz.
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Corny trash poem.
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Laz even Carol Ann Duffy could do better than this shite.
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Errm I don't think whether the poem is any good is really the point here is it? The point is Palestinian families being completely wiped off the face of the earth in Gaza. Grandparents, parents, children. All gone. At least 30,000 and counting. Refugees, ordinary middle class people, high profile academics and their families, all slaughtered. With more than a million of them now, crammed into Rafah with nowhere else to go waiting to see if Israel will come for them there.
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No no Donny, let’s all continue to miss the big fat point by focusing on the poem.
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Well Gor posted the poem, not anybody else. If he didn’t want it discussed why use it? Just make a thread about the killings.
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YOU’RE TRYING TO MAKE IT SOUND LIKE THEY’RE HUMAN BUT YOU’RE LITTLE TRICK WON’T WORK: THE VERMIN NEED TO BE EXTERMINATED BY OUR ALLY ISRAEL!!
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Because, Cry, the poem (whether good, bad or average) was written by a man to his daughter about the anticipation that he will be a victim of Israel's genocidal killing spree in Gaza and that she should go on living and remember him. But now she is dead. And so is her 2 month old child.
Maybe he should have been a fortune teller since he appears to have had some skill in that area. His failing there though is that he was a little too optimistic in thinking that any of his descendants would survive for long enough to follow his instructions.
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I think the day we lose the sight of individual pain whether on Palestinian side or Israeli side, that day we lose the sight of resolution. It becomes then a war of no goal except revenge.
The same equation applies in other parts of the world too.
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Megatragisighheh @
‘I think this thread exemplifies a schism about to kick off in the UK’
Followed by
‘I will remain on the same side’
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The main problem with any culture war issue is th entrenched position of the partisan dickheads on both sides.
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2 MONTH OLD PALESTINIAN CHILD!!
IF YOU JUST SAY 2 MONTH OLD CHILD YOU KNOW PERFECTLY WELL YOU ARE DELIBERATELY HUMANISING IT!!
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Tragiheh at people criticising the poem because they just have try and meatshield somehow and criticising a dead bloke's poem to his now dead daughter and granddaughter
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That garbled my message for some reason:
Tragiheh at people criticising the poem because they just have to try and meatshield somehow, and criticising a dead bloke's poem to his now dead daughter and granddaughter is all they can manage.
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OH PLEASE!!
HIS NOW DEAD PALESTINIAN DAUGHTER AND PALESTINIAN GRANDDAUGHTER!!
IT REALLY IS DISGRACEFUL - AND MISLEADING!! - TO LEAVE OUT IMPORTANT DETAILS LIKE THIS!!
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BB’s satire bang on again
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I came to this thread for the poetry critique, quite annoyed to see it's been hijacked by some sort of political discussion.
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