A Room of My Own: Never Again Haiku

This Brave New World, CIV

written in response to both

UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell's plea for ceasefire remarks on October 30 at UN Security Council on humanitarian situation in Gaza:

...more than 420 children are being killed or injured in Gaza every day – a number which should shake each of us to our core... 

and the central text of Rabbinic Judaism, "Talmud,"  Sanhedrin 37a: Whoever saves a single life is considered by scripture to have saved the whole world.

grinding sound of tanks ...

Never Again, Never Again 

for everyone

FYI: This haiku is a sequel to the concluding tanka below of my tanka sequence, "Covering the War," which was first published in NeverEnding Story, October 20, 2023

Never Again

a promise, a slogan, 

a bumper sticker ...

now a rallying cry

for more chaos and carnage

And Haaretz, November 6: "No Winners in War:" 35 Israeli Jewish and Arab Rights Groups Call for Ceasefire, Hostage Deal, Political Solution to Conflict.

An open letter signed by the groups also called on Israel to curb the rampant settler violence in the West Bank and stop the persecution of Palestinian citizens of Israel and of those who express solidarity with the residents of Gaza and oppose the war

Added: This Brave New World, CV

dusty twilight

a boy limps

amid the rubble 

Added: This Brave New World, CVI

Haiku Version:

once surrounded 

by fences and checkpoints, streets now

pockmarked with craters

Tanka Version:

plumes of smoke

above rubble-lined streets

once a maze

of fences, checkpoints

and daily humiliation

FYI: CNN, November 7: Gaza becoming a ‘graveyard for children,’ UN chief warns as calls for ceasefire intensify

Gaza is “becoming a graveyard for children,” the United Nations chief warned on Monday as the death toll rises and calls grow around the world for a ceasefire, one month into Israel’s assault on Hamas - the militant group that runs the enclave.

“The nightmare in Gaza is more than a humanitarian crisis. It is a crisis of humanity,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres told reporters in New York, adding that the need for a ceasefire is becoming “more urgent with every passing hour.”

“The parties to the conflict – and, indeed, the international community – face an immediate and fundamental responsibility: to stop this inhuman collective suffering and dramatically expand humanitarian aid to Gaza,” he said.

And Der Spiegel, June 11, 2023: Interview with a Palestinian and an Israeli

"How Do You Take Revenge for a Dead Child? By Killing Other People’s Children?"

Palestinian Bassam Aramin and Israeli Rami Elhanan have each lost a daughter in the Middle East conflict. Instead of succumbing to bitterness, they have joined hands to work for peace. How did they manage to overcome hatred?

Added:

GOP debate ...

thank you for speaking nonsense

while I'm interrupting

FYI: USA Today, Nov.8: Third Republican debate was a dull stinker. Maybe a dragon would have helped?

Sadly, none of those important things happened and Americans were left watching four children (Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, Tim Scott, Chris Christie) and one adult (Nikki Haley) holler and flail about in a manner entirely suitable for people who will never, ever, ever be president.