October 7th – a date seared into my memory since 2018 with the sudden death of my husband, Martin.
"My glass half empty
yours untouched these six long years
- one more harvest in"
And how glad I am now that he, a Jew, did not live to witness the peacetime massacres of Israelis and others by Hamas terrorists and their Palestinian operatives on 7.10.23. Atrocities of such proportions most of us cannot stomach the details yet these were not hidden but shared across social media by the perpetrators. In all 1200+ dead.
“Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Ashkelon; lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice,” 2 Samuel 1:20
And 250 hostages taken to Gaza, from babies to the elderly; some exchanged, some murdered, a few rescued and all cruelly mistreated. The fate of the remaining 100+ is still unknown.
“Under the Statute of the International Criminal Court, the “taking of hostages” constitutes a war crime in both international and non-international armed conflicts” Rule 96
Yet worldwide there are ongoing justifications, rejoicing or the silence of affirmation, from governments and institutions, political groups and individuals. So once again it is necessary to give voice to Zola’s challenging cry of 1898 – J’Accuse!
These words of Claude McKay’s poem “If we must die” reverberate around the events of this terrible anniversary and its aftermath, including these 101 hostages.
“If we must die, let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursèd lot.
If we must die, O let us nobly die,
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!
O kinsmen! we must meet the common foe!
Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!”
I miss my husband acutely each anniversary but can barely fathom the grief of all who have lost those they love, in the massacres, as hostages, in battle, by bombardment. Always I pray for the safety of my sister and family living in the Galilee and hope for a just end to this war, for to quote Alvaro Uribe: “in the name of peace there cannot be impunity.“
PoetryPix 