FORM-Idea

A beautiful free spirit, sporting dreadlocks in her hair, travelling the world, in search of the magical music to which she would forever dance. On that day, that darkest of days, a human storm would engulf her and sweep her away.

Do they see I am Human?

Once the killing started there was little, wish to see the other side, just a rush to polarized positions. One side stalked by death, while on the other families divide, some missing love ones while others ostracized for their political stances and any call for peace is seen, as synonymous with surrender.

Do they see I am Human?

He was a young doctor, loved by his patients, someone who refused to run away. When asked why, he simply said, he had not studied for all those years to leave them behind when they needed him most. He hoped one day to open a specialist clinic, he made friends promise, to look after his family, should he…, there was no need to ask, since he would die beside them.

Do they see I am Human?

A soldier told to shoot all that moves and not ask questions. And yet, one day he does and can’t stop asking. Now he says he sees images in his head, images that won’t go away even though he is no longer there. Returning home there is no one who can help him.

Do they see I am Human?

Only fourteen, he loved the sheep he herded, even giving pet names to some. Being with his herd made him happy. He would stumble upon death one day, his killing would spark rage, another endless cycle of killing and revenge would begin, one without end. More blood, more grief, more mourning.

Do they see I am Human?

Thousands of miles away from the killing zone, there were three, the closest of friends, academically gifted, one even called a mathematical genius, proud of their heritage. They could not know that the keffiyehs they wore would make them targets. One now may never walk again.

Do they see I am Human?

A kindly woman who once spoke of peace, kidnapped and held in brutal conditions. Upon her release, she no longer speaks of peace since she cannot see past the present darkness. Another on the opposite side of this blood–drenched divide is shot, as she leaves a church on a moonlit night, where she had been hiding, her daughter rushes to her side only to be shot too by the same sniper. They lie dying together in the sands, while the earth like a thirsty vampire drinks their blood.

Do they see I am Human?

A sweet natured teenager born anywhere else might have had a brighter future, but here she writes daily about the bombing. And seeing the souls of the dead rise up from their bodies and ascend to the sky like shinning angels, she did not know that she too would soon join them.

Do they see I am Human?

Bombs now fly north in response to those which fly the other way, as the killing machine marches on. Families on both sides flee the escalating violence. With leaders (is that the right word to use?) on either side, seem oblivious to the carnage they cause.

Do they see I am human?

Ghosts from the present mingle with those from the past, they seem to wander and collide, wordlessly spurring the killing on with no end in sight. As they glide noiselessly across this sacred ground, they move out of the shadows of past horrors Masada, Banu Qurayza, Sabra and Shatila, Warsaw, Nakba and the one, the one.., that defies comprehension.

Do they see I am Human?

I speak to a kind and generous friend who worries about her son’s safety at uni, worried that the Star of David he wears, marks him out as a target. When I mentioned those who are now starving, her face turns to stone.
I speak to another friend about the escalation in the fighting, I say I worry that the hostages still alive will never now return home. Her face too becomes a frozen unknown.

Do they see I am Human?

I am haunted, by the faces of the parents of a hostage who spoke so eloquently recently about his captivity. Giving a human face to an unbearable tragedy, only to hear just a few weeks later that his body had been found.

Do they see I am Human?

In the Oresteia, a tale of a family locked in a never–ending cycle of revenge and death, it finally reaches a zenith of killing where even the gods can no longer turn away. Instead, they decide to intervene to stop it. Sadly, though, now even they seem to have grown bored with our present suffering and remain silent, leaving us to find our own way.

Do they see I am Human?

The beautiful girl’s face still haunts me, maybe because at another point, an earlier time, in my past life she could have been me. Curious about the future and prepared to roam. In a way, she is a symbol of what has been lost in this terrible contemporary Greek tragedy. But maybe if you look closely at a photo of her now you see something else, the hope in her eyes, maybe of a better dawn, where we are all dancing to the music she sought to find. Maybe that hope will be her legacy.

Do they see we are all human?