فلسطين

In a billion years or possibly trillions
did you ever think there could be such things as
plastic Palestinians?

The type whose grandparents were survivors of The Catastrophe
and part of the generations that suffered unknown hardship and strife after displacement by force

The kind who have
Jordanian
German
or even U.S. passports

but even though they could
they have never set foot in
Al-Quds
Al-Khalil
or Gaza Port

the type who have no blood relatives left in the land they claim to be from and to which they are bound
who can report to them regularly about what is happening minute by minute
on the ground

The sort who never boycott
The kind who never resort
to acts of protest
who don’t organise or meaningfully resist

Is it out of pure ease
privilege and comfort?
Turning a blind eye
some might say
to the torture their brethren experience every day?

Am I committing the ultimate act of lack of understanding
to even entertain the idea that there could be such a thing as
those who dance dabke
and wear a kufiya at weddings
and sing
Anna dammi falastini
while those they call their siblings
maybe only a handful of borderlines and more than a few checkpoints away
are born into hell
living in ghettos and cages under a regime of apartheid and tyranny

The type who wrap their kids’ butts in Pampers
and swig bottles and cans of Coke
while their people living under occupation are in a permanent
chokehold

Who the hell do they think they are if they do indeed exist?
I am vexed
and perplexed
by the very hint of a notion of these
between and betwixt
diasporal descendants of those in whose shoes they can only dream of ever walking a mile in
These grandchildren of the children of the Nakba who remain in a limbo of artificial exile?

Is their seeming passivity rooted in transgenerational trauma?
A coping mechanism that keeps them in cocoon of social coma?
An intentional numbing of their organism as a means of self-protection?
A hallmark of defeat in a world they feel will never change direction?

They must have their reasons
Who am I to judge or condemn
I am far from a seasoned expert
on their embodied experiences
or the processes that guide them

Is it indeed more than a tad too drastic
too apathetic a tactic
to refer to certain Palestinians as plastic?

Whilst humans on the other side of the planet – lifetimes and bloodlines away from these people’s self-professed homeland – with absolutely nothing to gain
but the sense of affirmation that they are doing something worthy
justified
and humane

Humans from far and wide with no direct or even indirect connections to the places from which these people’s ancestors came
put their bodies on the line and risk their lives in an attempt to dismantle Zionism’s reign
in an effort to finally put an end to
all Palestinian people’s pain