This is a very touching Palestinian poem addressing the American people written by Gihad Ali. I just found it and just had to share it with you guys here.
Eye to Eye
by: Gihad Ali
Look into my eyes
And tell me what you see.
You don’t see a damn thing,
’cause you can’t possibly relate to me.
You’re blinded by our differences.
My life makes no sense to you.
I’m the persecuted Palestinian.
You’re the American red, white and blue.
Each day you wake in tranquility,
No fears to cross your eyes.
Each day I wake in gratitude,
Thanking God He let me rise.
You worry about your education
And the bills you have to pay.
I worry about my vulnerable life
And if I’ll survive another day.
Your biggest fear is getting ticketed
As you cruise your Cadillac.
My fear is that the tank that just left
Will turn around and come back.
American, do you realize,
That the taxes that you pay
Feed the forces that traumatize
My every living day?
The bulldozers and the tanks,
The gases and the guns,
The bombs that fall outside my door,
All due to American funds.
Yet do you know the truth
Of where your money goes?
Do you let your media deceive your mind?
Is this a truth that no one knows?
You blame me for defending myself
Against the ways of Zionists.
I’m terrorized in my own land
And I’m the terrorist?
You think you know all about terrorism
But you don’t know it the way I do,
So let me define the term for you,
And teach you what you thought you knew.
I’ve known terrorism for quite some time,
Fifty-five years and more.
It’s the fruitless garden uprooted in my yard.
It’s the bulldozer in front of my door.
Terrorism breathes the air I breathe.
It’s the checkpoint on my way to school.
It’s the curfew that jails me in my own home,
And the penalties of breaking that curfew rule.
Terrorism is the robbery of my land,
And the torture of my mother,
The imprisonment of my innocent father,
The bullet in my baby brother.
So American, don’t tell me you know about
The things I feel and see.
I’m terrorized in my own land
And the blame is put on me.
But I will not rest, I shall never settle
For the injustice my people endure.
Palestine is our land and there we’ll remain
Until the day our homeland is secure.
And if that time shall never come,
Then we will never see a day of peace.
I will not be thrown from my own home,
Nor will my fight for justice cease.
And if I am killed, it will be in Falasteen.
It’s written on my every breath.
So in your own patriotic words,
Give me liberty or give me death.
Indescribable… God Bless Palestine!
LONG LIVE PALESTINE!
Thanks for posting this poem. I just linked to it here: http://velveteenrabbi.blogs.com/blog/2004/07/political_poetr.html
Whoa…. It gave me shivers!
AM FALASTIN CHAI
I’m an American. I’m listening and I hear you.
I can’t imagine your pain, but I think about you every day and I pray for these injustices to be overturned and I know that God is aware of all that you suffer.
This is beautiful!
How true this is!
I am from France.
Many of my family members put bombs under German trucks, derailed trains, sent grenades through German barracks, setup booby-traps, etc… They were not called terrorists, they were called heroes! The invaders called them terrorists, as the invaders of Palestine call the native people terrorists. The Palestinian invaders are armed and funded by the USA. According to their own law, the USA leaders should be sent to the International Court in The Hague for crimes against humanity, genocide and ethnic cleansing!
I admire the courage of all Palestinians and hope that the World will get together one day to put an end to the invasion and return the land to the Palestinians.
“May The Force Be With You!”
I posted this poem on my blog (don’t worry, I gave credit where credit was due). I thought that since this poem was to the American people, I should do my part to pass it on to as many Americans as I can. It’s a very touching and beautiful poem.
Palestine, you are in our hearts and our thoughts…you are our home and our own whatever they say!!
I look at this poem, and some of the comments here… and I see it from an American point of veiw.
“Look into my eyes…
And tell me what you see.”
I look into the words, and see nothing but pain and anger. Most Americans hate that their people suffer! While some have been poisoned to believe them terrorists, the writer also has been poisoned to believe that all Americans are stupid dupps who’ll believe anything, and all of us are not losing anything… We’re not losing as much as them, but, we are losing. And we fund because we HAVE to fund. So…. so many countries look on us now and say “You’re all so cruel and horrible and mean and dumb!” and it’s sort of… mean within itself. I think the whole war should just… stop. America would no longer be in debt, and the Palestinians would no longer suffer.
Do not say that all of America is doing this!
We are a nation of individuals. Faces in the crowd. Call us monsters and you will be the monster you speak of!
The world is full of hypocrits and fools…
But my heart is served to the individual. Not the nation. My nation is my protector, my fellow human beings shall be judged by their judgement.
hello
My Name is Reem, i am originaly palistinian and love Palestine soo very much. My ansestors have been thrown out from that holy PALESTINIAN land
and ive thought strongly about it ever since, when my friend bought that poem with her to school i got obsesed with the very true phrases and scentences…even though i would not be writing to the americans; but to the isreali’s i feel they are the savages ruining our land and taking it from us just because they have no land. and i think bieng through the same prosses and pain and misrable status with hitler they should no how it feels to be kicked out of your country…your home.
God Bless You
Long Live Falasteen
Dr Imran Hasan
I guess i’d have to say that i am sorry that this is happening to you in your own country, but you can not blame all of us americans. some of us have no say in the matter at all. none. you cannot blame someone who no control over the situation.
don’t get me wrong. i am very sorry about what’s going on, and i feel for you and your losses. but we as americans have losses do to what is going on as well. each day we loose our family members to one of your bullets just like you loose yours to ours. i would guess that both of our leaders think that what they are doing is right, and that they are doing it for the right reasons. i do not know if they are right to be fighting each other. and i would guess that you do not know either. you say it isn’t because it is against you in your own country. i say it isn’t cause my friends and family are getting killed. but we each have to defend ourselves, and that is what each side is doing.
Am from England i find this poem really offensive and am not even American. American and british citizens are now living in fear of suicde bombers. Muslim extremisits want to blow themselves up to kil inncocent people. your are not the only country being persecuted think of the Isrealies, americans and british who everyday are lving in fear to. our brave soldiers die evryday they have families and children who are hurt also. don’t tell us we don’t know wat terrorism is we have witnessed it in our country and it is radical muslims who are doing it. Britian is a christian country but we welcome other religions with open arms but not when they throw it back in your face. Muslims all over the world need to realsie that they themselves can stop what is going on by stopping the muslim exremists in thier countires they are the ones ruining it for the proper peaceful muslims.
First of all, this was posted over 2 years ago. But welcome to the website anyway.
I realize that you must be pretty damn freaked out over recent events, but there’s really no reason why you should be offended by this poem. It was not written by Al-Qaida, an extremist Muslim, or the Pakistanis who were arrested recently. Seriously, calm down. How the hell you can be offended by someone who also lives in fear is fucking beyond me. If anything, you should be able to relate and sympathize. Although, you (and I) live in a much safer place than any Palestinian in Palestine. You seriously do not have a clue, do you? By the way, Becci, do you know how many Palestinian are dying from terrorism a year? I doubt you do, otherwise you wouldn’t have written with such ignorance. I have zero tolerance for terrorism, but I’m afraid, this writer and the Palestinians are not your enemy.
You’re angry right now and reacting to a poem that was not meant to say that the US or the UK are the enemy. It’s only to give you a different perspective.
am entitled to me own opipion i wuldnt criticise your opinion it jus aint me luv av actually got the outlandish version of this peopm on my i pod an i sympathise completely with this poem but when the poem says america dnt realise what terrorism is but thousands of americans and other westerners witnesed 9/11 an act of terrorism am saying tht palestine are not the omly innocents in it all. we have lived in fear of terrorists for years with the ira we kno whats its like also.My point was that we do know wat terrorism is weve witnessed it to. i live in a democracy i have the right to say my opioion as do u therefore i will say what i feel to say. and dont call me ignorant as you dont kno me personally. This poem is against americans you cant say its not if they have the right to say there opioion on westerners then i have a right to say my opinion on tge conflicts in the east. end of because we both have different opinions
true meaning
i realy understand what palestine is feeling and i am very dis heartend by this when i say this to people they dont take what i say seriously beacause im only a 13 year old im from durban , south africa and every day i am dieing to help and volunteer my help and services to you the palestinian people you are always in my duaas and you will never be forgotten. you the palestinians are the only people i now that have so much faith and imaan in he help of allah . you are remembered in the whole worlds prayers and duas . especally here in south africa . to gihad ali your poem is being sptead all over the world . and i now that im only 13 but this is truly how i feel .
oh an becci im not being rude or anything but theres nothing for you to get offended by. the world needs to know how the people that are under attack are feeling . i mean , cumm on the americans just found out that iraq has alot of oil. they tried getting sadam hussein to cheepin the price but that wasnt going to happen . now because of that inocent people have to suffer . THATS NOT RIGHT . if that happend to you how would you feel ? You should think in other peoples prospective
i agree with jenn!
I thought this poem was about America’s funds that go to Israel.
“You blame me for defending myself
Against the ways of Zionists.
I’m terrorized in my own land
And I’m the terrorist?” yikes.
Pray for peace.
Becci.. you say you live in fear too, then i wonder how you would feel when there are literally bombs falling outside your door, when you dont have a shelter, when you know that people from your own country are dying everyday trying to protect themselves, when you watch your family members die and know that there is nothing you can do about it.. you don’t live in fear, you just worry yourself trying to make yourself believe that any minute now some suicide bomber is gonna kill himself in front of your house, you try to make yourself believe it but you KNOW its never gonna happen, so dont try pulling all that ‘i live in fear and so do americans’ shit on us, because if you really had sympathy for the americans and israelies, you would have sympathy for the palestinians as well because they are the ones TRULY suffering in this war.
And who are the victims? The children who grow up knowing nothing but terrorism and hatred and killing. I fear that as long as the world continues to pick ‘sides’ in this endless confrontation between Jews and Palestinians then we are allowing the suffering to continue while rich governments of many different countries use this war to serve their own purposes. ~~
The good citizens on both sides have become pawns and until they understand that revenge is a never-ending cycle, there will never be peace. As long as there are people willing to die, you will have governments willing to exploit that for their own purposes. Governments die much slower than people do, they can afford to keep wars going. ~~
Neither side will leave. They must be willing to stop dying & to start living. It can be done. The children deserve nothing less. The world is praying for all the people to put away their hatred and to embrace a new beginning.
LI_Mom, you’re shallow.. thats all I can see, you obviously have no idea what the real world is like. You’re just acting like we could tell everybody to back off and they would.. think about what you say before you make such empty comments
And the victims ARE the children who ‘grow up knowing nothing but terrorism, hatred, and killing’. Do You Blame Them????? They grow up with family dying, they live in fear everyday, and their people are attacked! Do you expect them to only think about love, flowers, and peace???? Yes, we need to take sides.. we need to show the attackers that what they are doing isnt encouraged, and the killing of innocent people is FROWNED UPON and not ignored.
really nothing can describe my feelings towards the words i’ve read. it shows nothing except the will and the courage to defend and fight for the land. no one has the right to occupy. no one has the right to kill. i have the right to fight for my country that’s where i will win. Excellent Work, Gihad!
becci, no offence ,we are talking about palestrine and how the fuck israel took our lands from us,but when what happend to u.s. that wasnt taking a land and we never said what happend was good because muslim poeple died too but why do poeple blame us arabs(palesteniens)and dont just blame al-qaida we palesteniens had never told al-qaida to bom the twin tours,and al-qaida just did it for one day not for years like what u.s. is doing to eraq,dont tell that they went for sadam if they went for sadam why dont they fucking get out of eraq, they are there because they whant to take petrol from us ,dont tell me that the inoccent poeple in eraq are happy no they are dieng, do u call this helping ,and guise what they call us terorrests, is diffending our land and our poeple terorr ya ya ya ,next time think before u fucking get a word out of ur mouth, relise ur mestake.
A beautiful poem from a beautiful person. I have the honor to meet this person. She is incredible, energetic and over all lovely person
http://www.panc2008.com