Centre watch, Empire/ Imperialism, Government, Identities, Left watch

Creeping Dictatorship: Concerns from Kerala

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Guest post by THUSHAR NIRMAL SARATHY

 Are we living in a democratic dictatorship? ‘Democratic dictatorship’ is a much debated concept in Kerala.  I am referring not to that here but to the dictatorship of the executive led by democratically-elected politicians. Recent incidents seem to indicate that this is now an ever-growing tendency in our democracy.

A few months back, a notice with the photos of well-known public figures, which identified them as Maoists, appeared in the Mananthavady police station at Wayanad.  These were pictures of senior, very well-known activists who have fought battles for democracy in Kerala.  Following widespread protests, the police was forced to remove the notice. On 28th July this year, Jonathan Baud, a Swiss citizen was arrested by Valappad police for attending a commemoration meeting of a Maoist leader, Sinoj, who died in an accidental explosion at the forested Kerala- Karnataka border. Mr Baud was in India on a tourist visa. His arrest was big news in the media which had happily swallowed policespeak, and so he was also projected as a Maoist. The reports claimed that he had come here with the express purpose of attending the meeting, and that he delivered a solidarity speech there. Later, when the Commemoration Committee made public its own version of events, the police sensationalism was refuted and had to be withdrawn. The charge against Mr Baud are apparently limited to violation of visa conditions and it was admitted that he had no Maoist links. Continue reading Creeping Dictatorship: Concerns from Kerala →

Culture, Debates, Education

September 5 as Teachers’ Day – The Dalit Critique: Abhay Kumar

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Guest post by ABHAY KUMAR

While the schools and educational institutions of the country have been observing September 5 as Teachers’ Day since 1962, on the birth anniversary of the first Vice-President and second President of independent India Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888-1975), a section of Dalits, mostly students, activists and intellectuals at public universities, are increasingly denouncing its observance. They contend that the birthday of Radhakrishnan, a Brahmin, should no longer be held as Teachers’ Day because he had made no contribution to the educational uplift of lower castes and classes. Instead they exhort people to observe National Teachers’ Day on January 3, the birth anniversary of the nineteenth century social reformer, and teacher from backward caste, Savitribai Phule (1831-1897).

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According to the biographer of Savitribai Phule, M. G. Mali (Krantijyoti Savitribai Phule, 2005), she was taught by her husband in a school run under the shade of a mango tree. Access to education enabled her to become aware about egalitarian movements at global level as she managed to read the biography of Thomas Clarkson (1760-1846), who fought for liberation of the Black. Later when she became a teacher, it was vehemently opposed by reactionary Brahmins who pelted stone and threw dung on her in order to “save” orthodox Hindu religion. When frustrated Brahmins were unable to deter the zeal of Phules about imparting education, they succeeded in reasoning with her father-in-law, Govinda Rao, to force them to leave home. She preferred eviction with her husband from home to giving up her mission on education. Despite the opposition, they continued to persuade parents to send their daughters to schools. As a result of their hard work, 18 schools were opened from 1848 to 1852. Her dedication to spread education, particularly among subalterns is self-evident from a few lines of her poem. ‘All gets lost without knowledge… We become animal without wisdom…So learn and break the chains of caste….Throw away the Brahman’s scriptures fast.’   Continue reading September 5 as Teachers’ Day – The Dalit Critique: Abhay Kumar →

Debates, Politics, Violence/Conflict

Why I am an anti-Zionist Jew: Ray Filar

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RAY FILAR on openDemocracy

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The Israeli government deliberately invokes terrorist attacks, rockets, and scary brown men in headscarfs to stoke the population’s fear, but I am scared of the racism Zionists use to justify the occupation.

The discussions in the comments that follow are equally instructive and interesting – do scroll down and follow those as well.

Bad ideas, Debates, Genders, Government, Identities, Left watch, Politics

Don’t let the Magic Fade: Thoughts on Kudumbashree’s Sixteenth Anniversary

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I do not write on Kafila as frequently as I used to because I don’t want to be writing stories of impending doom all the time. These are times in which we appear doomed, but it does not help to get obsessed with it; in fact, the obsession may actually hasten the downfall.

But these days, we also hear stories which may be told either way. For example, I can tell the story of the mining going on at Mookunnimala in Trivandrum as yet another episode in the continuing story of the destruction of our natural environment and its impending collapse. But I can also tell it another way, foregrounding the resistance that has shaped up there despite the formation of a deadly nexus of Kerala’s political parties, bureaucracy, predatory capitalists and other criminals against local people. Or, I can tell the story of the ‘development’ of the government school at Attakkulangara in the heart of Trivandrum city as another incident that proves the unrelenting march of ‘urban development’ which is nothing but shorthand for the steady takeover of prime urban space by corrupt officials and venal politicians. But it is also a David-and-Goliath tale of how a few dedicated members of the school’s old students’ association, and nature-lovers and environmental activists who go by the name Tree Walk  managed to draw the attention of others, alert authorities, and arrest the steady pace of these forces. Continue reading Don’t let the Magic Fade: Thoughts on Kudumbashree’s Sixteenth Anniversary →

Bad ideas, Everyday Life, Government, Images, Violence/Conflict

Happy Independence Day India, Blessings from Kashmir: Onaiza Drabu

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Guest post by ONAIZA DRABU

??????????????????????????????????????Dear India,

As you celebrate yet another year of the glorious independence; the independence that was the beginning of an era of doom for most of us here, I must inform you that I was unable to get my morning bread. Sixty Eight is a big number and I’m sure the proceedings will be aplenty and that and you have plenty of ‘ache din’. Somehow, I have my doubts but then again, I’m sure our definitions of good differ greatly. However it may be, I have one tiny request.  Please let me eat my breakfast in peace.

It is still two days to go for the Independence Day Parade in Srinagar and I am one of the privileged few who live within a two-kilometer radius of the Bakshi Stadium, the place where the annual flag hoisting ceremony is held. Excess army is deployed all around and as in all such times, our local baker wasn’t allowed to open shop this morning.

As a child, I read your textbooks in school. I read about how Pinky and Shyam would go to their school for the flag hoisting on Independence Day and of course I’d wonder where this would happen. Independence day meant a crackdown or a curfew for all us kids here. Independence day meant that the morose army guy I hated to look at would stand at my gate, staring straight ahead with a blank, yet frightening constancy. Independence day meant my dedicated doctor of a mother had to walk to work for sometimes, they’d not even allow ambulances to ply.

The independence you celebrate to commemorate freedom has forever been associated with barbed wires on streets that restricted access to locations. It is ironical how roadblocks, surprise checks and general inconvenience is what I have forever associated with this independence. General inconvenience here also includes times where each one of the dozen, army-men on every street eyes you with contempt and suspicion. I snigger if you tell me we celebrate freedom on this day. To the many things that are already restricted here this day adds more. Continue reading Happy Independence Day India, Blessings from Kashmir: Onaiza Drabu →

Bad ideas, Culture, Debates, Everyday Life, Feminism, Genders, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

Rape and Rakhi – Patriarchal-Communal Narratives: Kavita Krishnan

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Guest Post by KAVITA KRISHNAN

Even as the communal cauldron in UP is kept on the boil, there is news that the RSS has launched a campaign to tie Rakhis to lakhs of Hindu men, asking them to pledge to protect their sisters from Muslim men and “love jehad.” The VHP has been running a helpline urging Hindus to approach them “if your daughter is being harassed by Muslim boys.” And a khap panchayat in Muzaffarnagar has imposed a ban on mobile phones and jeans for girls, claiming that these result in ‘eve-teasing’.

Woven into the above events is an old, familiar theme – that of patriarchal restrictions packaged as ‘protection’. In the wake of the anti-rape movement that followed December 16 2012, the streets of Delhi and many other parts of India had resounded with the voices of women declaring ‘Don’t take away our freedoms in the name of ‘protection’ – protect our right to fearless, fullest freedom instead’. Those women had raised their voice demanding freedom from sexual violence – and also freedom from rape culture that advices women to dress decently to avoid rape; and freedom from the khap panchayats, freedom even from the restrictions imposed by one’s own fathers and brothers.

Continue reading Rape and Rakhi – Patriarchal-Communal Narratives: Kavita Krishnan →

Bad ideas, Empire/ Imperialism, Language, Right watch, Scams, Violence/Conflict

Delhi Protests Gaza Bombing: 9 August 2014

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Let it not be said that nobody cried when the news came. Let it not be remembered by the children that India “stood with” Israel through the Gaza bombings of August 2014 (God, let it not continue beyond August 2014). Let no-one assume that all 1.3 billion of us continued – as the bombs fell on fields and courtyards and washing hung up to dry in Gaza – that we in India defined our ethical positions purely within the unholy triad of family, community, nation. Let there be a tiny record of protest. A tiny record of a tiny protest, given the monstrosity of the crime. But we are in the business of remembering, since they are profiting from our forgetting. They profit from our forgetting language, since we can’t name what is going on in Gaza as war. They profit from our not being able to remember our mythologies, because this is a war in which one side is David and the other Goliath, but Goliath is winning, because the world has been told he is David. In a nation without language, without myths, without memory, without ethics, jealously holding a tattered banner, with a single word on it – ‘development’ – some Indians protested.

Global Day of Rage against Gaza, Jantar Mantar, New Delhi August 2014:

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Continue reading Delhi Protests Gaza Bombing: 9 August 2014 →

Culture

स्तब्धता और खामोशी

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स्तब्धता क्या हमेशा भाषा के लोप या उसकी असमर्थता की अवस्था है? ऐसे अवसर होते हैं जब स्तब्धता अपने आप में भाषिक प्रतिकार या भर्त्सना बन जाती है.अगर चीखना एक छोर है भाषा-व्यवहार का, तो खामोश हो जाना दूसरा छोर. यह भी होता है चीख इतनी तेज़ हो और इतनी तीव्र कि साधारण श्रवण-क्षमता के बाहर हो जाए.

जिसे चुप्पी कहा जाता है, वह कुछ मौकों पर एकतरफा और कई बार दोतरफा फैसले का नतीजा होती है. खामोशी,मौन या स्तब्धता प्रायः इस बात का सूचक होती है कि भाषा के लिए जिस सामाजिक पर्यावरण की व्याप्तता को सहज माना जाता है,वह छिन्न-भिन्न हो गया है.यह नहीं कि बोलने को कुछ नहीं है, लेकिन बोलने वाला जान चुका होता है उसका बोलना व्यर्थ है क्योंकि उसे सुनने की पात्रता सामने का पक्ष खो बैठा है. Continue reading स्तब्धता और खामोशी →

Politics, Violence/Conflict

African Solidarity with Palestine: African scholars and scholars of Africa

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We, the undersigned African scholars and scholars of Africa, hold that silence about the latest humanitarian catastrophe caused by Israel’s new military assault on the Gaza Strip—the third and most devastating in six years—constitutes complicity. Member state of NATO which mounted an air war on Libya ostensibly to protect civilians in Benghazi have been by and large quiet about the fate of civilians in Gaza. World governments and mainstream media do not hold Israel accountable for its violations of international law. We, however, as a community of scholars have a moral responsibility to do so.

Neither the violation of international law nor the destruction of Palestinian life in Gaza, however, began or will end with the current war[1]. The suffering of Palestinians is not limited to Gaza: the occupation and dispossession in East Jerusalem, the Naqab (Negev), and the West Bank; the construction of walls and fences around the Palestinian population, the curtailment of Palestinian freedom of movement and education, and the house demolitions, all have long histories that will have to be addressed. 

Continue reading African Solidarity with Palestine: African scholars and scholars of Africa →

Bad ideas

The Aryan Connection: Satya Sagar

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SATYA SAGAR on Countercurrents

Over two centuries after the myth of the ‘noble, superior’ Aryan Race was first postulated, the political, historical processes it set forth in motion are still with us in a variety of ways. Though thoroughly discredited by modern scholarship as well as the horrific experiences of the Second World War, the Aryan Connection is still very much alive and killing in countries like India, Sri Lanka and in a perverse, inverted way in Zionist Israel.

Read Satya Sagar on The Aryan Connection here.

Centre watch, Frontiers, Government, Violence/Conflict

The Anatomy of a Massacre: The Mass Killings at Sailan, August 1998

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This was sent to us by Shrimoyee Nandini Ghosh

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On the night of 3-4 August 1998, 19 people including 11 children ranging in age from about 4 to 15 years old, and 5 women (including one woman in an advanced state of pregnancy) were shot at point blank range in their homes in Sailan, in the highly militarized ‘border district’ of Poonch, which is divided by the Line of Control between Pakistani and Indian Administered Kashmir. The bodies were thereafter mutilated with axes and sharp instruments. A total of thirteen female and six male members of three closely related families were killed by personnel of 9 Paratroopers, Indian army, and ‘SPOs’ (Special Police Officers) armed state back local operatives recruited to the police and affiliated to the 9 Para Army Camp. The police establishment was involved with attempting to bury the dead clandestinely, registration of a fabricated FIR, destruction of evidence, and the criminal cover up of the case. The Anatomy of a Massacre recounts the dismembered and silenced history of the Sailan Massacre through voices of family members, eye witnesses, local residents and the analysis of court, police and Right to Information documents. The legal and oral histories of Sailan illustrate how the Indian occupation of Jammu and Kashmir is made real, not just through the control of physical territory, but by deep social penetration, acts of spectacular violence and collective terrorisation, and the active collaboration of all state institutions in the illusion of legal procedures and rule of law. The Report is part of the struggle of all victims of human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir, to articulate their demands for truth and justice in their own words, when the very language to speak of the truth has been rendered anti-national, and therefore unspeakable. It commemorates the lives lost in the massacre at Sailan, and is dedicated to them, on the anniversary of their untimely deaths.

Read the statement about the release of the report in Srinagar, by JKCCS and the Survivors of the Sailan Massacres as well as the full text of the report here.

Bad ideas

Gaza Calls! Day of Rage August 9th, Jantar Mantar, Delhi

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The Apartheid Wall with which Israel has annexed almost half of the already Occupied West Bank

The Indian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (InCACBI) calls on all Indians to join the Day of Rage on August 9, called by the International BDS Movement.

Join us at Jantar Mantar between 4 – 8 PM. 

InCACBI and the Palestine Solidarity Committee in India join the world in condemning Israel’s war on Gaza.

We also condemn the Indian government’s continuing military, trade, educational and cultural ties with Israel.

The war Israel is currently waging against the Palestinian civilians in Gaza is a continuation of its occupation and blockade of Gaza over many years; its violation of international laws; its apartheid policies and day-to-day violence against people in Gaza. It has become a truism that Gaza has for long been “an open air prison” for its men, women and children, making it impossible for them to live normal lives, leave alone move forward on the road to self determination.

The international community has responded to the mounting civilian death toll in Gaza with millions of people on the streets to demand that Israel stop its one-sided war.  In Berlin and other places, including Israel, Jewish people have joined protests. Palestinian protesters across France have defied a ban on demonstrations. The African National Congress has called on the Israeli ambassador to leave immediately. Latin American countries Brazil, Chile, Ecuador Peru and El Salvador have recalled ambassadors from Tel Aviv. Bolivian president Evo Morales has called Israel a “terrorist state” and revoked their visa exemption agreement. 21,000 noted individuals in London have demanded an immediate arms embargo on Israel. A major shift in international public opinion against Israel is taking place.

In India, citizens have protested against Israel’s actions, as well as the Indian government’s timid response to the ongoing carnage in Gaza. While citizens in Mumbai and other cities have called for a boycott of Israeli products, the Indian government is strengthening its relations with Israel, ignoring our call to stop military ties with Israel—one way in which India subsidises the occupation and violence in Gaza.

We ask you, as Indians of conscience, to

1. Demand that the Indian government respond to our call for a military embargo on Israel;

2. Boycott all direct and indirect collaborations with the Israeli state, and demand that the Indian government, Indian industry, media, educational and cultural institutions do the same;

3.  Build afresh our old association with Palestine, beginning with more education and cultural exchanges; and

4.  Share information with fellow Indians on the siege and destruction of Gaza.

End the Blockade/Siege on Gaza!

Tear down the Apartheid Walls in West Bank & Gaza!

End the Israeli collective punishment on the Palestinian people!

End the illegal Israeli Occupation of all of Palestine!

Right to Return to their homes and homeland for all Palestinians!

End all U.S. aid to Israel!

End India’s military ties with Israel!

Free Palestine!

The Indian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (InCACBI)

www.incacbi.in

The Palestine Solidarity Committee in India

https://www.facebook.com/PalSolComIndia

Politics, Violence/Conflict

Urgent Call: Bir Zeit University Institute of Women’s Studies, Palestine

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Statement from Bir Zeit University Institute of Women’s Studies, Palestine

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Gaza Under Attack

As we write this statement, 25 days after the brutal incursion on Gaza, over a thousand and four hundred of innocent civilian women, men and children have been butchered by Israel’s war machine and much more are threatened to be killed. The call for raping Palestinian women by the so-called “Bar-Illan University Arabic Literature Professor” teaches us, once again, that Israeli “scholars” and “academic institutions” are an organic and integral part of the Zionist colonial project. Also, the parliament member, who happens to be a woman, advocates the killing of all Palestinian women, a Rabbi calls for mass murder of Palestinians while taking their foreskins as trophies, in addition to the display of many rape references on banners and images (head covered woman from the top while indecent from the waist down with a very provocative statement below) in their neighborhoods that promotes a rape culture and misogyny at the least. Continue reading Urgent Call: Bir Zeit University Institute of Women’s Studies, Palestine →

Politics, Violence/Conflict

India’s solidarity with Palestine – from the pages of history

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Image from article by PRIYAMVADA GOPAL ‘India’s Forgotten Solidarity with Palestine’ on Aljazeera.

 

Movements, Politics, Violence/Conflict

Spring in Israel? Internal voices of dissent grow

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Over 150,000 social justice protesters took to the streets of 11 cities across Israel.These protests, which some are calling part of an “Israeli Spring”, began initially in response to the country’s housing crisis. But since as they began gaining momentum, they have spread to a host of social and economic complaints, including overlap with the struggling Israeli peace movement.

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Debates, Government, Politics

सीसैट के जरिये सरकारी नौकरियों में दाखिले के खिलाफ एक आवाज के खिलाफ एक और आवाज – रविकांत

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Guest post by RAVIKANT

‘निकम्‍मों व गये-गुजरों’ के लोक सेवा आयोग और सीसैट के जरिये सरकारी नौकरियों में दाखिले के खिलाफ एक आवाज के खिलाफ एक और आवाज

(टीप मेरी- इसका यह मतलब नहीं कि सीसैट के खिलाफ बोलने व आंदोलन करने वाले बेहतरीन के समर्थन में नहीं हैं. उन्‍हें बेहतरीन के साथ संवेदनशील के समर्थन में भी होना चाहिये.)

इस वक्‍त जब देश के एक हिस्‍से में कई युवा इस बात पर आंदोलनरत हैं कि लोकसेवा आयोग द्वारा आयोजित की परीक्षाओं में चुने जाने वाले व्‍यक्तियों की जांच भारतीय भाषाओं की जानी चाहिये, उस वक्‍त 27.07.14 के टाइम्‍स ऑफ इंडिया अखबार में श्रीवत्‍स कृष्‍णा का एक लेख छपा है, जो कि खुद भी प्रशासनिक सेवा के एक अधिकारी हैं. इस लेख का प्रमुख तर्क यह है कि भारत की एक राजभाषा अंग्रेजी को छोड़ कर तमाम भारतीय भाषायें (दूसरी राजभाषा हिंदी सहित), भारत में राजकाज चलाने वाले लोगों की क्षमताओं की जांच करने के लिहाज से नाकाबिल है. लिहाजा यह हक अंग्रेजी के पास ही रहना चाहिये.

लेख के नाम व उसके साथ दी गयी टीप का मतलब कुछ यों बनता है – ‘‘फालतू की बात के लिये इतना शोरशराबा- संघ लोक सेवा आयोग और सीसैट के जरिये निकम्‍मों व गये गुजरों का नहीं, बेहतरीन का चयन होना चाहिये.’’

लेख के शीर्षक में ही आंदोलन को फालतू का बता दिये जाने के बाद अगली ही पंक्ति में आंदोलनकारियों के लिये हिकारत की झलक मिलती है, जब लेखक यह संकेत देता है कि यह आंदोलन गये-गुजरों या निकम्‍मों की पैरवी कर रहा है. वैसे मुझे लगता है कि लेखक को लगता है कि यह शोरशराबा फालतू का नहीं है इसलिये उन्‍हें यह लेख लिखने की जरूरत पड़ी. अगर फालतू के शोर शराबे  के खिलाफ किसी को लेख लिखने की जहमत उठानी पड़े तो यकीनन वह इतना फालतू भी नहीं है कि उसकी सफाई देने की जरूरत आन पड़े. Continue reading सीसैट के जरिये सरकारी नौकरियों में दाखिले के खिलाफ एक आवाज के खिलाफ एक और आवाज – रविकांत →

Debates, Law, Right watch

The Chunduru Caste Atrocity – Discussing a Retrograde Judgment: Anonymous

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Guest post by An Anonymous Advocate from the AP High Court 

On 22nd April, 2014, two Judges of the Andhra Pradesh High Court held that there was no evidence in the Chunduru atrocity case. The court acquitted all the accused. Not just that. They blamed the Dalits for not being responsible enough in alerting the police immediately, and obliquely cast a doubt on their integrity.

The Chunduru atrocity has gained national importance as much for the atrocity itself as for its place in the Dalit movement. On 6th August 1991, eight dalits were hacked to death by the upper caste men of Chunduru village, located in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh. The political mobilization that was generated around this atrocity became the corner stone for the Dalit movement in Andhra Pradesh, and an inspiration for Dalit movements elsewhere in the country. On the legal side, it has been one of those long-drawn trials, resiliently overcoming one hurdle after another, be it the controversy around who the victims are (Dalits or Christians), or regarding the choice of the Special Public Prosecutor for the trial, or the venue of the trial. The case went back and forth between the High Court and the trial court, having been contested viciously by the Reddy accused, their lawyers and their ideologues.

Continue reading The Chunduru Caste Atrocity – Discussing a Retrograde Judgment: Anonymous →

Bad ideas, Centre watch, Media politics, Violence/Conflict

Need to re-enact Juvenile Justice Act – Myths and Realities: Kishore

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This is a guest post by KISHORE

In a significant move, the Ministry of Women and Child Development has decided to repeal and re-enact Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2000. Along with its claims to streamline adoption and foster care procedures, it also proposes that juveniles above 16 years of age involved in heinous crimes should be tried as adults under the Indian Penal Code.

This is not first time that such an amendment has been advocated. One senior leader of ruling party had already gone to the Supreme Court last year with a petition for lowering the age under the law. However his petition was refused and the Supreme Court opined that there was no need for amendment as the present law (JJ act 2000) holds constitutional validity. Now this leader’s party is in power and they do not need to go to the judiciary for changes as they themselves can do it in Parliament. It is also believed that the government is not even waiting for the report of the expert committee appointed by the Law Commission of India to examine the issue. The proposal however, has always been contested by the premier child rights body NCPCR, which said there cannot be any “compromise” on the age of a child as defined by the UN and in other international conventions. We wonder if the governments’ desperation to change the law is based on popular “sentiments” and not on “facts”. Continue reading Need to re-enact Juvenile Justice Act – Myths and Realities: Kishore →

Debates, Empire/ Imperialism, Identities, Violence/Conflict

Gandhi, Palestine and Israel: Irfan Ahmad

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Guest post by IRFAN AHMAD

Amidst Israel’s recent deadly attacks on Gaza and what Venezuela’s President called ‘its policy of genocide’, many have invoked Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869–1948) on two counts. First, he opposed settler colonialism. One analyst in The Economic Times gave a quote, also shared on Facebook: ‘Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English and France to the French’. Second, implicit in invoking Gandhi is the idea that he stood for non-violence and thus the indicting advice to the terrorised Palestinians to ‘choose peace’.

Both these positions linked to Gandhi, when analysed historically, are misleading, even incorrect and wrong. In 1921, Gandhi did oppose the imposition of Jews over the Arab land. However, later he subtly endorsed settler colonialism. As for Gandhi’s official preaching of non-violence and civil disobedience (satyagraha), they were at best tactical, contextual and temporary. Contrary to his deified mythology as apostle of non-violence, Gandhi indeed justified killing, even felt proud of violence, and opposed civil disobedience when both suited his political and national interests. Continue reading Gandhi, Palestine and Israel: Irfan Ahmad →

Bad ideas

Running Orders: Lena Khalaf Tuffaha

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What happens before the Israeli military bombs your house? For many Gaza Strip residents, it’s a phone call. Sawsan Kawarea, a resident of Khan Younis, said she was in the house Tuesday when the phone rang. She answered, and on the other side was “David,” who claimed he was with the Israeli military.

“He asked for me by name. He said: ‘You have women and children in the house. Get out. You have five minutes before the rockets come,’ ” Kawarea said in an interview.

LENA KHALAF TUFFAHA writes a poem in response. (Received via Magid Shihade)

They call us now.
Before they drop the bombs.
The phone rings
and someone who knows my first name
calls and says in perfect Arabic
“This is David.”
And in my stupor of sonic booms and glass shattering symphonies
still smashing around in my head
I think “Do I know any Davids in Gaza?”
They call us now to say
You have 58 seconds from the end of this message.
Your house is next.
They think of it as some kind of
war time courtesy.
It doesn’t matter that
there is nowhere to run to.
It means nothing that the borders are closed
and your papers are worthless
and mark you only for a life sentence
in this prison by the sea
and the alleyways are narrow
and there are more human lives
packed one against the other
more than any other place on earth
Just run.
We aren’t trying to kill you.
It doesn’t matter that
you can’t call us back to tell us
the people we claim to want aren’t in your house
that there’s no one here
except you and your children
who were cheering for Argentina
sharing the last loaf of bread for this week
counting candles left in case the power goes out.
It doesn’t matter that you have children.
You live in the wrong place
and now is your chance to run
to nowhere.
It doesn’t matter
that 58 seconds isn’t long enough
to find your wedding album
or your son’s favorite blanket
or your daughter’s almost completed college application
or your shoes
or to gather everyone in the house.
It doesn’t matter what you had planned.
It doesn’t matter who you are
Prove you’re human.
Prove you stand on two legs.
Run.
Bad ideas, Feminism

Seen on a Bathroom Mirror

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