WEBVTT 00:00:09.051 --> 00:00:13.049 I'll start with this poem, I wrote this poem when the bombs were dropping on Gaza. 00:00:13.049 --> 00:00:18.039 And I was the media spokesperson for the coalition doing a lot of the organizing 00:00:18.039 --> 00:00:21.032 and we'd stayed up to about six o'clock in the morning, 00:00:21.032 --> 00:00:24.064 perfecting every sound bite and by the end 00:00:24.064 --> 00:00:27.039 if you're a Palestinian you know, most Palestinians get tired 00:00:27.039 --> 00:00:33.011 and start pronouncing our 'p's as 'b's so we become Balestinians by the end of the day. 00:00:33.011 --> 00:00:35.096 So I was practicing my p's all night. 00:00:35.096 --> 00:00:39.056 And the next morning one of the journalists asked me: 00:00:39.056 --> 00:00:44.080 "don't you think it would all be fine if you just stopped teaching your children to hate?" 00:00:44.096 --> 00:00:47.006 I did not insult the person, 00:00:47.006 --> 00:00:50.037 I was very polite but I wrote this poem 00:00:50.037 --> 00:00:54.073 as a response to these types of questions we Palestinians always get. 00:00:56.015 --> 00:01:00.023 Today, my body was a TV’d massacre. 00:01:00.023 --> 00:01:05.097 Today, my body was a TV’d massacre that had to fit into sound-bites and word limits. 00:01:05.097 --> 00:01:11.096 Today, my body was a TV’d massacre that had to fit into sound-bites 00:01:11.096 --> 00:01:17.011 and word limits filled enough with statistics to counter measured response. 00:01:17.011 --> 00:01:21.056 And I perfected my English and I learned my UN resolutions. 00:01:21.056 --> 00:01:26.071 But still, he asked me: "Ms. Ziadah, don’t you think everything would be resolved 00:01:26.071 --> 00:01:31.016 if you would just stop teaching so much hatred to your children?" 00:01:31.016 --> 00:01:32.019 Pause! 00:01:32.056 --> 00:01:36.015 I look inside of me for strength to be patient 00:01:36.015 --> 00:01:40.087 but patience is not at the tip of my tongue as the bombs drop over Gaza. 00:01:40.087 --> 00:01:43.012 Patience has just escaped me. 00:01:43.012 --> 00:01:44.017 Pause! 00:01:44.017 --> 00:01:45.015 Smile! 00:01:45.015 --> 00:01:47.007 We teach life, sir! 00:01:47.007 --> 00:01:48.056 Rafeef, remember to smile... 00:01:48.056 --> 00:01:49.050 Pause! 00:01:49.050 --> 00:01:51.012 We teach life, sir! 00:01:51.012 --> 00:01:56.029 We Palestinians teach life after they have occupied the last sky. 00:01:56.029 --> 00:02:00.088 We teach life after they have built their settlements and apartheid walls, 00:02:00.088 --> 00:02:03.030 after the last skies. 00:02:03.030 --> 00:02:05.027 We teach life, sir! 00:02:05.027 --> 00:02:06.060 But today, 00:02:06.060 --> 00:02:12.045 my body was a TV’d massacre made to fit into sound-bites and word limits. 00:02:12.045 --> 00:02:15.044 And "just give us a story, a human story. 00:02:15.044 --> 00:02:17.012 You see, this is not political. 00:02:17.012 --> 00:02:19.071 We just want to tell people about you and your people, 00:02:19.071 --> 00:02:21.055 so give us a human story. 00:02:21.055 --> 00:02:24.021 Don’t mention that word “apartheid” and “occupation”. 00:02:24.021 --> 00:02:25.052 This is not political! 00:02:25.052 --> 00:02:29.075 You have to help me as a journalist to help you tell your story 00:02:29.075 --> 00:02:31.075 which is not a political story". 00:02:31.075 --> 00:02:34.034 Today, my body was a TV’d massacre. 00:02:34.034 --> 00:02:37.095 "How about, you give us a story of a woman in Gaza who needs medication? 00:02:37.095 --> 00:02:39.029 How about you? 00:02:39.029 --> 00:02:43.047 Do you have enough bone-broken limbs to cover the sun? 00:02:43.047 --> 00:02:45.080 Hand me over your dead 00:02:45.080 --> 00:02:50.067 and give me the list of their names in one thousand two hundred word limits". 00:02:50.067 --> 00:02:51.068 Today, 00:02:51.068 --> 00:02:56.069 my body was a TV’d massacre made to fit into sound-bites and word limits 00:02:56.069 --> 00:03:01.048 and move those that are desensitized to terrorist blood. 00:03:01.048 --> 00:03:03.001 But they felt sorry. 00:03:03.001 --> 00:03:06.031 They felt sorry for the cattle over Gaza. 00:03:06.031 --> 00:03:09.046 So, I give them UN resolutions and statistics 00:03:09.046 --> 00:03:10.033 and we condemn 00:03:10.033 --> 00:03:11.040 and we deplore 00:03:11.040 --> 00:03:12.016 and we reject! 00:03:12.016 --> 00:03:16.059 And these are not two equal sides: occupier and occupied. 00:03:16.059 --> 00:03:17.063 And a hundred dead, 00:03:17.063 --> 00:03:18.084 two hundred dead, 00:03:18.084 --> 00:03:20.028 and a thousand dead. 00:03:20.028 --> 00:03:23.056 And between, that war crime and massacre, 00:03:23.056 --> 00:03:27.028 I vent out words and smile "not exotic", 00:03:27.028 --> 00:03:29.059 smile "not terrorist". 00:03:29.059 --> 00:03:35.024 And I recount, I recount a hundred dead, two hundred dead, a thousand dead! 00:03:35.024 --> 00:03:36.076 Is anyone out there? 00:03:36.076 --> 00:03:38.012 Will anyone listen? 00:03:38.012 --> 00:03:41.021 I wish I could wail over their bodies. 00:03:41.021 --> 00:03:44.060 I wish I could just run barefoot in every refugee camp, 00:03:44.060 --> 00:03:46.016 and hold every child, 00:03:46.016 --> 00:03:47.052 cover their ears 00:03:47.052 --> 00:03:49.091 so they wouldn’t have to hear the sound of bombing 00:03:49.091 --> 00:03:52.012 for the rest of their life the way I do. 00:03:52.012 --> 00:03:54.088 Today, my body was a TV’d massacre. 00:03:54.088 --> 00:03:56.008 And let me just tell you, 00:03:56.008 --> 00:04:00.011 there’s nothing your UN resolutions have ever done about this. 00:04:00.011 --> 00:04:03.028 And no sound-bite, no sound-bite I come up with, 00:04:03.028 --> 00:04:05.068 no matter how good my English gets! 00:04:05.068 --> 00:04:08.024 No sound-bite... no sound-bite... no sound-bite... 00:04:08.024 --> 00:04:10.091 no sound-bite will bring them back to life! 00:04:10.091 --> 00:04:12.080 No sound-bite will fix this! 00:04:12.080 --> 00:04:13.075 We teach life, sir! 00:04:14.001 --> 00:04:15.012 We teach life, sir! 00:04:15.012 --> 00:04:24.023 We Palestinians wake up every morning to teach the rest of the world life, sir! 00:04:31.075 --> 00:04:32.083 Thank you!