WEBVTT 00:00:09.266 --> 00:00:13.518 I'll start with this poem, I wrote this poem when the bombs were dropping on Gaza. 00:00:13.518 --> 00:00:17.863 And I was the media spokesperson for the coalition doing a lot of the organizing 00:00:17.863 --> 00:00:20.703 and we'd stayed up to about six o'clock in the morning, 00:00:20.703 --> 00:00:24.070 perfecting every sound bite and by the end 00:00:24.070 --> 00:00:26.762 If you're a Palestinian you know, most Palestinians get tired 00:00:26.762 --> 00:00:32.150 they start to spell 'p's as 'b's so we become Balestinians by the end of the day. 00:00:32.150 --> 00:00:35.623 So I was practicing my p's all night. 00:00:35.623 --> 00:00:39.106 And the next morning one of the journalists asked me: 00:00:39.106 --> 00:00:44.600 "Don't you think it would all be fine if you just stopped teaching your children to hate?" 00:00:44.600 --> 00:00:46.943 I did not insult the person, 00:00:46.943 --> 00:00:49.863 I was very polite but I wrote this poem 00:00:49.863 --> 00:00:55.699 as a response to these types of questions we Palestinians always get. 00:00:55.699 --> 00:00:59.624 Today, my body was a TV’d massacre. 00:00:59.624 --> 00:01:05.941 Today, my body was a TV’d massacre that had to fit into sound-bites and word limits. 00:01:05.941 --> 00:01:11.389 Today, my body was a TV’d massacre that had to fit into sound-bites 00:01:11.389 --> 00:01:16.903 and word limits filled enough with statistics to counter measured response. 00:01:16.903 --> 00:01:21.518 And I perfected my English and I learned my UN resolutions. 00:01:21.518 --> 00:01:26.223 But still, he asked me: "Ms. Ziadah, don’t you think everything would be resolved 00:01:26.223 --> 00:01:30.608 if you would just stop teaching so much hatred to your children?" 00:01:30.608 --> 00:01:32.223 Pause! 00:01:32.223 --> 00:01:35.187 I look inside of me for strength to be patient 00:01:35.187 --> 00:01:40.303 but patience is not at the tip of my tongue as the bombs drop over Gaza. 00:01:40.303 --> 00:01:42.780 Patience has just escaped me. 00:01:42.780 --> 00:01:44.223 Pause! 00:01:44.223 --> 00:01:45.103 Smile! 00:01:45.103 --> 00:01:46.511 We teach life, sir! 00:01:46.511 --> 00:01:47.981 Rafeef, remember to smile... 00:01:47.981 --> 00:01:49.276 Pause! 00:01:49.276 --> 00:01:50.604 We teach life, sir! 00:01:50.604 --> 00:01:55.623 We Palestinians teach life after they have occupied the last sky. 00:01:55.623 --> 00:02:00.519 We teach life after they have built their settlements and apartheid walls, 00:02:00.519 --> 00:02:02.622 after the last skies. 00:02:02.622 --> 00:02:05.143 We teach life, sir! 00:02:05.143 --> 00:02:06.272 But today, 00:02:06.272 --> 00:02:11.956 my body was a TV’d massacre made to fit into sound-bites and word limits. 00:02:11.956 --> 00:02:14.903 And "just give us a story, a human story. 00:02:14.903 --> 00:02:16.630 You see, this is not political. 00:02:16.630 --> 00:02:19.021 We just want to tell people about you and your people, 00:02:19.021 --> 00:02:20.911 so give us a human story. 00:02:20.911 --> 00:02:23.517 Don’t mention that word “apartheid” and “occupation”. 00:02:23.517 --> 00:02:24.903 This is not political! 00:02:24.903 --> 00:02:29.102 You have to help me as a journalist to help you tell your story 00:02:29.102 --> 00:02:31.179 which is not a political story." 00:02:31.179 --> 00:02:33.870 Today, my body was a TV’d massacre. 00:02:33.870 --> 00:02:37.349 How about, you give us a story of a woman in Gaza who needs medication? 00:02:37.349 --> 00:02:38.703 How about you? 00:02:38.703 --> 00:02:42.990 Do you have enough bone-broken limbs to cover the sun? 00:02:42.990 --> 00:02:45.271 Hand me over your dead 00:02:45.271 --> 00:02:50.277 and give me the list of their names in 1200 word limits. 00:02:50.277 --> 00:02:51.421 Today, 00:02:51.421 --> 00:02:56.423 my body was a TV’d massacre made to fit into sound-bites and word limits 00:02:56.423 --> 00:03:01.543 and move those that are desensitized to terrorist blood. 00:03:01.543 --> 00:03:02.863 But they felt sorry. 00:03:02.863 --> 00:03:05.784 They felt sorry for the cattle over Gaza. 00:03:05.784 --> 00:03:09.303 So, I give them UN resolutions and statistics 00:03:09.303 --> 00:03:10.263 and we condemn 00:03:10.263 --> 00:03:11.107 and we deplore 00:03:11.107 --> 00:03:11.903 and we reject! 00:03:11.903 --> 00:03:16.234 And these are not two equal sides: occupier and occupied. 00:03:16.234 --> 00:03:17.340 And a hundred dead, 00:03:17.340 --> 00:03:18.186 two hundred dead, 00:03:18.186 --> 00:03:19.939 and a thousand dead. 00:03:19.939 --> 00:03:23.503 And between that war crime and massacre, 00:03:23.503 --> 00:03:26.390 I vent out words and smile "not exotic", 00:03:26.390 --> 00:03:29.105 smile "not terrorist". 00:03:29.105 --> 00:03:34.848 And I recount, I recount a hundred dead, two hundred dead, a thousand dead! 00:03:34.848 --> 00:03:36.224 Is anyone out there? 00:03:36.224 --> 00:03:38.028 Will anyone listen? 00:03:38.028 --> 00:03:40.864 I wish I could wail over their bodies. 00:03:40.864 --> 00:03:44.220 I wish I could just run barefoot in every refugee camp, 00:03:44.220 --> 00:03:45.710 and hold every child, 00:03:45.710 --> 00:03:46.942 cover their ears 00:03:46.942 --> 00:03:49.116 so they wouldn’t have to hear the sound of bombing 00:03:49.116 --> 00:03:51.522 for the rest of their life the way I do. 00:03:51.522 --> 00:03:54.540 Today, my body was a TV’d massacre. 00:03:54.540 --> 00:03:56.107 And let me just tell you, 00:03:56.107 --> 00:04:00.350 there’s nothing your UN resolutions have ever done about this. 00:04:00.350 --> 00:04:02.380 And no sound-bite, no sound-bite I come up with, 00:04:02.380 --> 00:04:05.140 no matter how good my English gets! 00:04:05.140 --> 00:04:07.300 No sound-bite... no sound-bite... no sound-bite... 00:04:07.300 --> 00:04:10.463 no sound-bite will bring them back to life! 00:04:10.463 --> 00:04:12.703 No sound-bite will fix this! 00:04:12.703 --> 00:04:13.909 We teach life, sir! 00:04:13.909 --> 00:04:15.688 We teach life, sir! 00:04:15.688 --> 00:04:31.780 We Palestinians wake up every morning to teach the rest of the world life, sir! 00:04:31.780 --> 00:04:32.701 Thank you!