Dahiya Doctrine

by Nick Moss

Bibi and Yoav banging on the table, demanding
Ashes, dust, blood.
The IDF playing moksha patam with groups of the displaced.
"Move south of Wadi Gaza";
So Khan Younis must be safe
Until it isnt.
Plenty of snakes. No ladders.
Bombs land on the square
At the same time you do.
Ashes, dust, blood.

A line of refugees walking through
A topography of ruin
Beit Hanoum razed
Jabalia razed
Gaza City razed
Khan Younis razed.
Al-Mawasi
Is "the humanitarian zone."
After that, the sea.
Let the human animals drown...
Ashes, dust, blood.

Outside the "humanitarian zone"
Is given over to inhumanity
The peculiar , debauched genius
That can turn a hospital or a school
Into a mass grave.
"We are now rolling out the Gaza Nakba."
Revenant families caper in the wreckage
Of the Dar al-Shifa death zone
Ashes, dust, blood

Article 51(5)(b) of 1977 Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions
(and the Statute of the International Criminal Court )
Ashes, dust, blood
“intentionally launching an attack in the knowledge that such attack
Ashes, dust, blood
will cause incidental loss of life or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects … which would be clearly excessive in relation to the concrete and direct
Ashes, dust, blood
overall military advantage anticipated” constitutes a war crime in international armed conflicts
Ashes, dust, blood
Major-General Gadi Eizenkot: “What happened in the Dahiya quarter of Beirut in 2006 will happen in every village from which Israel is fired on"
Ashes, dust, blood
“We will apply disproportionate force on it and cause great damage and destruction there. ”
Ashes, dust, blood

A group of half-naked Palestinian men
Illuminated by the light of an IDF jeep
Single file, blindfolded, hands bound,
Linked together by flex.
Due process ceased long ago.
All of this land of ashes, dust and blood
Is a permanent black site.
Min an-nahr ʾilā l-baḥr

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

by Anne Irwin

Gather from the gutter
ye outsiders and ruffians
we’ll fatten you on ideologies
blood you for battle
prepare you for war.

Send you to hill tops, knolls and hillocks.
to stake out your promised domain
we’ll give you the land, subsidise your houses
with umbilical roads leading west to our homeland
we’ll make you powerful with assault rifles and guns .

Intimidate the land owners
by stalking their children
pointing guns at the four-year-olds going to school
growl obscenities at everyone passing by you
burn olive groves, ransack homes.

A phone call away there’s an army that’s ready
to help if landowners begin to react
that’s your call to action, the excuse is protection.
to justify ravaging homes,
killing families, children, neighbors
laying claim to this holy land so pure, so glorious
Remember it is yours by the right of your birth.

But be wary of international watchers and monitors
keep it low key to test the heat.
Don’t embarrass the US your godfather, your protector
they’re lining our pockets with billions a year
to annex the West Bank to our promised land.

Remember the US has their agenda.
Slow and steady wins the race.

Image above: Palestinians inspect the damage following an Israeli airstrike on the El-Remal aera in Gaza City.

To those who seek nemesis in my name

by Janet Sillett

you do not do this in my name
you do not use my name
you do not speak for me

my anger is mine
not yours
you do not use my name
to light up the dying sky with sulphurous stars
to bleed the ocean
to bury the past in shards

you do not cancel air and water in my name

you do not use my name
to dispossess the words of poets

spit your lies into someone else’s mouth