Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, XI: "Holocaust"
written on International Holocaust Remembrance Day
in response to UN top court's/ICJ's genocide case against Israel ruling
and for Jewish Israelis
blot out Amalek ...
clutching his bible a rabbi
lost in thought
Holocaust Remembrance
Together We Will Win
[peace... peace only]
candlelight virgil
a tattooed survivor holds
a Stop the War sign
FYI: This haiku sequence is a sequel to the following sequences written for Critical Reflections on the Israel-Hamas War:
The "New" Old Normal
we don’t ask for the moon
but for the occupation to end ...
fireball after fireball
the blood moon
tangled in half-burnt trees
bits of clothing
smoky ruins ...
each day a new battle
for water and food
First Casualty
a time for peace
a time for war only...
a twist to PM's mouth
remember, remember
what Amalek did ...
fireballs burst skyward
night turned into orange day
a news host laments
the most feared word, context
police phalanx
Never Again, Never Again
for everyone
Genocide or not?
bounced back and forth between experts ...
peace candles flicker
(FYI: The title alludes to
The first casualty, when war comes, is truth.
Hiram Johnson (1866-1945), a Progressive Republican senator in California
Notes:
1 Anadolu Agency, Jan. 11: South Africa reminds ICJ of Netanyahu's Amalek rhetoric to invoke genocide against Palestinians: Lawyer Tembeka Ngcukaitobi also brought other incitement rhetoric by Israeli officials to commit crime of genocide against Palestinians
2 Haaretz, Analysis, Jan. 26: ICJ Fires Warning Shot at Israel Over Genocide Case at World Court.
3 BBC News, Jan. 26: ICJ genocide hearing against Israel ruling [by 17 judges] HIGHLIGHTS:
1. 15-2 The state of Israel shall take all measures to prevent the commission of genocide to Gaza
2. 15-2 The state of Israel shall ensure that the military not commit any acts of genocide
3. 16-1 Israel shall take all measures to punish all public solicitations to genocide
4. 16-1 Israel shall take immediate and effective measures to address adverse conditions to life in the Gaza Strip
5. 15-2 Israel shall take effective measures to preserve evidence of actions impacting the Genocide convention
6. 15-2 Israel shall submit to the court a report all measures taken to follow the orders of this court within one month.
Haaretz, Jan. 28: Israeli ICJ Judge Aharon Barak Is the Last Liberal Fig Leaf Masking Israel's Anti-liberal Reality,
Aharon Barak supported the World Court's majority position in two of the provisional measures: one instructing Israel to allow essential services and humanitarian aid to the residents of the Gaza Strip and one instructing it to take all available measures to prevent and punish incitement to genocide.
Haaretz, Jan.28:Israel's Mainstream Brought Us to The Hague, Not Its Lunatic Fringes
Isaac Herzog, Yoav Gallant, Israel Katz: Israel's president, defense minister and foreign minister. The president of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Joan Donoghue, chose to cite all three of them as evidence of suspicion of incitement to genocide in Israel.
The judges in The Hague diagnosed perfectly what we here refuse to admit: Israel's problem is its mainstream, not its lunatic fringes. It is the mainstream that brought us to The Hague, it is the mainstream that incited to genocide, after Israel convinced itself with unbelievable ease that after October 7 everything is permitted. Fortunately, in The Hague they seem to think differently, very differently.
Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, XII: "tattooed number"
white hot silence
pries open the fault lines
among protesters ...
an old man rolls up his sleeve
to show a tattooed number
FYI: Holocaust Encyclopedia, Tattoos and Numbers: During the Holocaust, concentration camp prisoners received tattoos only at one location, the Auschwitz concentration camp complex.
And there are 245,000 Jewish survivors still living across 90 countries.
Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, XIII: "Gaza's hospitals"
a cacophony
of sirens, shouting and screams ...
a girl curls up
next to the wheels of a stretcher
that holds her bloodied siblings
FYI: CNN, Analysis, Jan. 25:CNN Investigates How The Israel-Hamas War Is Debilitating Gaza’s Hospitals
Relentless bombardment, power outages and shortages have pushed nearly every hospital in the beleaguered northern Gaza Strip out of service, with evidence of repeated attacks on and in the vicinity of medical facilities despite the presence of doctors, patients and civilians inside, a CNN analysis led by CNN Investigative Producer Katie Polglase has found
Democracy Now, Jan.30: Israeli Forces Storm West Bank Hospital Disguised as Civilians, Kill 3 Palestinians
In the occupied West Bank, Israeli soldiers raided Jenin’s Ibn Sina Hospital earlier today disguised as civilian women and medical staff and killed three Palestinians. Shocking hospital surveillance footage shows the Israeli forces storming the hospital with guns raised as they searched for the three militants they said were using the facility as a hideout. Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed more than 370 Palestinians in the West Bank since October 7, while more than 6,300 people have been arrested.
Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, XIV: "winter rain"
smell of winter
amid garbage and debris
bombed-out dollhouse
Al Jazeera, Jan. 27: Cold, rainy weather making war-wracked Gaza ‘completely uninhabitable’
The UN’s human rights office warns about the impact of continued Israeli bombardment and worsening weather on civilians in Gaza.
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