Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Current affairs I don't want to be one of those modern people who reads about Gazans being crushed wholesale. Entire blocks, extended families, invisible kitchens then Continues scrolling We will not delete you.
We would give you anything we have.
Your pain is not money.
Feel us from a far place, howling in darkness.
What are you supposed to no one should have to bear.
I love you so much. I can smell the garlic in your shirt, the dirt on your shoes, the smoke in your air.
[00:01:01] Speaker B: Right now I just want to welcome you both. And Naomi, thank you for the wonderful poem and Dr. Abalaash, may we begin with a brief introduction which should lead right into why we're here tonight.
[00:01:14] Speaker C: My name is Dean Abul Aish. I am a Palestinian Palestinian Canadian and when you hear the name Palestine Palestinian, who is the Palestinian? A Palestinian refugee who was born, raised and lived. And still my heart, my mind, my soul are still in Javelia camp where I was born. And my home was standing there until a few months ago when it was destroyed.
I am Azzedin Abu Laish, the father of Bisan, Mayar, Aya and Noor who were murdered 16th of January 2009 when the Israeli tank shelled my house.
Even their graves was destroyed.
I am the brother of Intisar Yusra, the uncle of many nephews and nieces, the cousin of many Palestinians from Abu Aish family who were murdered since what we call October 7th.
I am the son of descendants of survivors of the Nakba in 1948.
But at my life and the Palestinians life is a test. No nation has been tested as the Palestinian people. Every day we are tested.
In what way? The world to discriminate against us and not to take action.
But in spite of that, we live a life like a raging ocean.
But as Palestinians that I'm proud of, we will never allow all of these challenges to stop us from dreaming, to have our freedom, our dignity, our rights, our independence, our future and to achieve our dreams.
And that's what we are doing.
For me as a Palestinian, we believe nothing is impossible in life.
We succeeded as Palestinians to make life from death, to spread hope from pain and suffering. And I urge the world to hear from us, to see us, to know us, not to hear about us.
As a Palestinian who practiced medicine and achieved all of what I achieved in my life, from Javelia camp to Cairo University to London to Italy to Belgium, to be the first Palestinian doctor to practice medicine and in an Israeli hospital to Harvard University.
When I practice medicine in Israel, I practice it because I believe in it. I believe in the message of health care and medicine as a human profession.
When I delivered babies, I never discriminated between babies, whether a Palestinian is Za' Ili, Jordanian, Syrian, Lebanese, Saudis or American. The cry of the newborn baby is the cry of hope, cry of life. It's the only cry, which means hope.
But the Palestinians cries are not heard because of the starvation, of the pain, of the suffering, of the losses.
Even the Palestinians, when they cry, they cry blood. Even the blood dried, there is no tears because there is no water.
Medicine for me is a human equalizer, stabilizer, socializer and harmonizer.
And as long as they are born equal and free, with dignity, with rights, why, once they step outside the border of the hospitals, we start to discriminate between them.
It's time.
It's time to equalize inside, outside, anywhere, not based on name, ethnicity, religion or background. And we need to stand for the freedom of the Palestinians. How, I ask the people who are listening, how can they tolerate to see what is happening? They are impacted by it, whether directly or indirectly. So if they believe in humanity, they have all of the obligation to stand up and to speak out as they stand for others.
The others, for me, are not others. They are human. We need to stand for all. And that's what is happening. And that's what I urge the people, and I hope the people to stand up and not to relax and to put themselves in the position of the Palestinians.
If they were there, what would they like others to do for them, to stand for them?
I lost faith in humanity, as Naomi mentioned.
Modern people. What do we mean by modern?
Modern in what? By having a cell phone, computers? By practicing our human values and believing in it.
We are in a world we live in an era which is endemic with violence, with hatred, with anger, with discrimination, fear, fear mongering, and an era where the world is bankrupt morally, ethically, humanely and spiritually.
And if we believe in the human rights and the human values they test is in Gaza and in Palestine, if they believe in it, to endorse and to implement and to comply with these human values, the test is in Palestine. I hope the world to stand up and to resume a trust in the international community, in the international law.
Because the most important, the only thing that is remaining to keep the relationship between people is the human rights, the respect, the dignity for all. And we need to advocate for this. Not to advocate, to say for peace, to advocate for dignity, for justice, for equality, for freedom, for rights for all. Then peace will be a consequence of that.
And that's What I would like the people to know, to learn, to act, to zoom in and to have faith in their values. But most important, to take action.
[00:08:39] Speaker A: Dr. Isildeen, you did not even mention that you are also a great writer and we appreciate your. Your book so much. I am an old friend of Deborah Sugarman, who made the film and New Bisan, your daughter, and featured her in her film, both of her films, Dear Mr. President and Broken.
And I have known about Bisan for a long time through my friend Deborah, who grew up here in Texas in a Jewish family and has been an advocate for justice all of her life.
I appreciate your words, every one of them, so much, with all my heart.
And as a writer, I'm simply a poet. A daughter of a refugee from the time of the Nakba, my father, Aziz Shihab, left Jerusalem, his home, where, when he was 22 years old, came to the United States as a student. I lived there with my family as a high school student, and I witnessed what the Arab population, my own family, was going through all the time on a regular basis.
And these were before days like now, where every minute is a crisis because everyone is suffering so greatly. And one thing I would like to say as a poet is that we believe that every voice is important in the world and every voice represents humanity, a human story.
And because of the modern tactics of social media and news sources of all kinds, we're able to hear the stories of what is going on. My grandmother, my Siti, who lived to be 106 years old, used to say that the Israeli soldiers would never be mean to her if they knew her story.
But I used to argue with her. I would be so mad at what was happening to her. Her being tear gassed in her own living room, her grandchildren being beaten up by soldiers for nothing. She would say, don't be mad. They just don't know our stories. But now everybody knows everybody's stories because as you say, we're human beings in a technological world. And if we can't imagine how another human being with a voice, with a story feels and fears and is experiencing this overwhelming tragedy of sorrow and so much loss, then something is wrong with us. Something is seriously wrong with us. And this needs to be examined. Now. One thing that frustrates me as a writer is, is I feel as if the world is filled with voices on a daily basis saying, stop this madness. From Bernie Sanders to people in the streets in Norway, in Belgium, in Northern Ireland. All you have to do is scroll through Instagram and you'll see all These demonstrations, I have been part of so many myself, living in Texas and in other states. Also, I have friends in New York City who have been on the streets demonstrating every single day against what Israel is doing. And yet, even though we're talking about two so called democracies plus all these other democracies in the world, it's as if our voices are not being listened to by anyone in power, by anyone with weapons.
And people say to me, well, you don't understand the military industrial complex. No, I don't. That's not my world. I don't like it, I don't want to understand it. But obviously the money involved with it has more power than all the human voices. Because every human voice that is speaking out loud about this that I hear, and I realize there are other voices too who are constantly filled with greed and a belief that their homes are other people's homes.
We're not being heard or no one is responding to the cries.
So for me, that is a secondary layer of frustration right now that all of this advocacy in the world is not creating a change in what Israel is doing or what the United States is willing to support.
So this is terrible. And this means we're not in a democracy.
If the industrial military complex is the only thing that is listened to, then why is this a democracy? I question that. I was friends with the great journalist from Texas, Molly Ivins, years ago, and she said, on the brink of the US Invasion in Iraq, she said, why are we not all out in the streets banging kitchen pans? Every person should be banging their pans, saying, no, no, no, this is wrong. I don't want my children to die in Iraq by killing innocent people.
I don't want us to spend our tax dollars invading another country where we have no right to invade.
And look what happened there. Again, not listened to.
So right Now, Joel and Dr. Isildean, I feel we are at a complicated moment of trying to figure out how to be heard, how to be listened to.
And I don't know what to do because I write about it all the time, I talk about it all the time. I organize events where other people are all talking about it. And who's listening. We're listening. And we agree that this should stop and that Gaza people are as full of a right to exist in their own homes, in their own, and to have this massacre against them cease. Who is listening?
[00:15:30] Speaker B: You know, I know in Quran and in Torah there's a shared teaching. It's essentially the same thing. And it's whoever saves One life. It's as though they saved the entire world. In looking in our common humanity and our common shared humanity, which when we look at whether we call it Muslim or Jew, I mean really what are we talking? We're talking about a way that people express themselves. But what we are is intrinsically not just same, but obligation toward one another. My obligation is for everyone. For you, Naomi, and you, Dr. Abalasha, you are me in a different form. Like I must recognize that how I express myself and how I open my heart to you, that's my obligation to fully do that. And so I don't know, one of the things that I think I wanted to open or interject this thought of is that just the sharedness of our humanity which the similarities of our Abrahamic faith, the sharedness in our culture and community. I'm just wondering what that stirs up for both of you.
[00:16:38] Speaker C: Thank you so much.
Why I didn't mention I am an author and the ocean of the suffering in Palestine, I don't think of myself.
The author is to write something which is important, which is needed to speak out and to send a message. And that's what we need in our life, to have a mission, a sense of purpose. Why we are here, what do you want to do? And as you mentioned, you know, I don't see you, Joel, as a Jew or I see you as my human fellow, whether you are a practicing Jew or non practicing. Because in Quran, all mankind, you were created from Adam and Eve and became nations and tribes for what? To know each other. And the term knowing, to know is not to know the name or the faith. To show compassion, passion, empathy. When I know you and I know you know me. And if you come, if there is anything immediate, I read it in your eyes, in your face, I feel you. It's the hearts, the connections, and that's what we need. And as you said, as I said, a person is a person, is a few through other person. A human is a human through other human. How can we see that? The connectivity, not the divide. And that's important.
So that's why you know these issues of being an author or others in this time, in this situation, where there is a genocide committed life, ethnic cleansing and someone who wants to buy Gaza. Gaza is not for sale. Gaza is not for sale. I am surprised how some people to dare to say this for me. I have been asked this question, what would you hope? I hope one day to go to Gaza, to go to Gaza, the first thing, to smell the rubble, because this rubble is Not a rubble to go to visit the graves of my daughters because, and even I don't know, how can I dare to walk in the streets. Because it's a sacred, it's a holy soil which has been mixed with the blood, with the flesh, with bones of the people who are buried in the streets. Gaza Strip became a graveyard for children, for innocent people. And that's the war. That's what we need to speak about it. And it's not war. What do we mean by war? War is a soldier fighting against a soldier. Yeah, and that's why a war is about. Is it a war when we speak about innocent human being who are killed, murdered women and children and deprived. And that's what we see it when collect punishment is a practice there deprived of a humanitarian need, a humanitarian. The first commandment in the Torah, don't kill.
And killing is not to kill with a bullet.
Killing. You can kill someone by depriving them, by intimidating them, by humiliating them.
And that's what we need. Not to kill, don't steal others rights, stealing not materialized, emotional, moral, ethical. And that's what we need to practice and to live by these commandments. We live in the time you see it. Everything has been weaponized against the Palestinians.
Everything has been used as a weapon.
Everything has been militarized and most important, politicized and normalized.
The people, they see it and they pass it.
And that's the most painful. I can't comprehend, fathom or understand the silence of the world.
Silence in times of injustice is injustice even complicit in what is happening. It's complicity. And they are not doing a favor to the Palestinians, believe me, they are doing. They have to stand up for the Palestinians and the Israelis, because what is happening is destructive to the Israelis.
[00:21:04] Speaker B: Both lose. Both lose.
[00:21:06] Speaker C: Yes. And as I said, it's destructive to the Israeli community, to the Israeli people, to the Jewish, to the world. The world, you see it, it's divided, it's fragmented, it's discordant world. You see the demonstrations here, there. And we are fighting because of what political leader who is a Warwick criminal and fighting not for human cause, for his own limited political cause to remain in power. And his people are paying the price to humanize, not to politicize and to stand up for the Palestinians and the Israelis. And why I say that because Palestinians have freedom is from the Israeli freedom, from the works of freedom, the Israeli safety, security, freedom, justice, dignity is linked, inseparable, it's the same dependent, intertwined, interconnected to the Palestinian Safety, security, freedom, justice, dignity and equality. So it's time for us to do that and to resume trust in the international community. We, we need accountability. All of us, we are accountable to every action we do. So accountability is essential, crucial to our dignity, to our humanity, to our freedom in this world. And that's what we need in this world and to resume trust in the international community.
Because the world now the people are afraid, uncertain about what will happen next, who will be next. They, the law is there to protect the weak, not the strong.
And peace that we are talking, it's not going to be by force, it should be by choice.
And it should never be just and good for one. It should be just and good for all.
The peace which equalizes, which harmonizes, which gives dignity to all.
And that's what we need in our world. Gaza Strip that we are talking about now.
Gaza Strip is a ghost now.
Childless, motherless, parentless, waterless, foodless, healthless, homeless, schoolless.
You see at everything, everything has been destroyed.
Where are we in this world?
And I think the people in this world and the Palestinians and to ask them be resilient, be tolerant.
That's the way we want the Palestinians to be resilient, tolerant and to force them to accept. No one can coexist with intimidation, with suffering, with oppression, with deprivation. Even the one who is deprived, when they or anyone who is hungry has the right to practice an illegal means to survive.
So that's what we need to stand up and to speak about it and to put to Brisha, when you ask Naomi, what can we do to speak out and not to stop, to bring people, to join organizations, to raise our voice in a good way, in a kind, determined, persistent way.
Because by the end, I fully believe the darkness will never be forever.
And we can't equalize between the right and the left and the wrong acts. The right is there and that's what is important, to speak about it. And these political leaders are not our destiny.
They come and they leave, but the people are the ones who are there.
And nothing can be eternal, only the people themselves, the future generation. What can we say to them, to think of, how can we heal the wounds? Because with this war and what is happening and this genocide, always I am thinking, what are we going to do with the orphans, with those disabled? Gaza Strip has the highest number percent of orphans, of disabled, of handicapped. What are we going to say to them? How can they love and care and not to avoid the hatred and the revenge and to ask them to heal? We need to change the context in which they live. And then we start the process of rehabilitation to help them.
And the same for the Israelis. We want to heal the wounds of all. By what? By equalizing between them. And we say always. Never again. Never again. But it has been repeated. And not to stand at one point to say, October 7th. October 7th. You know what is it? October 7th. For me, it opened the abscess and the wounded.
It opened the abscess. It has been there for many, many decades. And it's time to stop it and to say never again, forever.
[00:26:30] Speaker A: May I read a poem by Hiba Abu Nada, who died at the age of 31 or 32, killed.
It's called Not Just Passing.
And she was a nutritionist as well as a novelist and had just won a big prize, the Sharjah Novel Prize.
Yesterday a star said to the little light in my heart, we are not just transients passing, do not die.
Beneath this glow some wanderers go on walking.
You were first created out of love, so carry nothing but love. To those who are trembling one day. All gardens sprouted from our names, from what remained of heart's yearning.
This ancient language taught us how to heal others with our longing, how to be a heavenly scent to relax their tightening lungs, A welcome sigh, a gasp of oxygen.
Softly we pass over wounds like purposeful gauze, a hint of relief and aspirin.
Oh, little light in me, don't die. Even if all the galaxies of the world close in.
O little light in me say, enter my heart in peace.
All of you, come in.
That's Hiba Abu Nada.
[00:28:20] Speaker C: Where is Hibba now?
Yeah, and that's what we need to ask.
I heard sometimes yesterday, after they bombarded in Jabalya camp, someone appealing, crying to the people, calling them.
[00:28:38] Speaker A: Help me, help.
[00:28:40] Speaker C: Me stop this, stop and.
But it's a deaf, blind, mute world.
[00:28:53] Speaker A: I. I cannot understand why other Arab countries don't step in and do something useful for suffering. Brothers and sisters, I feel deep grief about all of us who wish to be there helping. But for the people who are right at hand close by, for all the rich countries living in opulence, for the safer countries, I realize Jordan has had many burdens of its own. Egypt has had many burdens of its own. But they're the neighbors. And I. I wonder how the people of those countries can stand it if we're as distraught as we are farther away, how are they standing it right next door? And what could all of us do that's different?
Because somehow I don't feel like marching in Texas really changes anyone's mind. We can do it. We do do it.
But I don't feel like any leaders, even the leader of our own state is listening to us. So there's a frustration for me about inactivity on the part of.
Of close brothers and sisters as well.
I wish someone could explain it to me.
[00:30:23] Speaker C: Yeah. Thank you so much. Thank you. You have the right to ask this question about the Arab countries, the brothers and sisters.
The brothers and sisters is not about the biology about the humanity. We are brothers and sisters. I am brother of many people here. We are in this world as a human and that's what we need. It's not about the blood kinship. It's about the humanity that we need to promote. And that's the issue. And this is one of the challenges to start discriminating. The more we go down, the divide will increase. It's time to go up. As a human, this is one thing, but we have.
We blame the Arab countries, as we blame the Muslim countries, also the Muslim countries for being silent and complicit. But also these Arab countries that you are talking about.
Where is President Trump now?
[00:31:16] Speaker A: Yeah, I know, that's what I'm saying.
[00:31:18] Speaker C: No, no, but it's important. But he is the one who is controlling them. It's another way of colonization. These Arab countries and leaders, we should divide between the Arab people and the world people, the human being and the human kingdom and the political leadership kingdom who are there to control and to dominate under what we call democracy. It's not democracy. It's mediocrac and hypocrisy and it's controlled by power. That's what is going on. It's the decision, the decision of continuing this genocide and this murder and the mass destruction of Gaza Strip and ethnic cleansing. It's made in the United States, it's made in the White House before with President Biden and now with the President Trump. He is the only one which weapons are killing the Palestinians by which weapons or from where it comes.
[00:32:14] Speaker A: Yeah, I know.
[00:32:15] Speaker C: It's not to do palliative care. It's an American weapons. And this is the question that we need to ask. It's not to blame the victims. Even the Arab people there, they are victims of colonization. President Trump, he went there to bring money and to collect money to keep these agents, these leaders there in power to dominate and to control their people. And that's what is happening. So it's not about, as you mentioned, it's not modern, a human world. It's mediocracy it's hypocrisy and that's what we need. We need the United Nations. Why do we have the United nations in New York to endorse the international law?
What happened with it? It's impotent. It's impotent. It's into of its function and that's what we need. Yesterday, it's political. Yesterday, you know, a few months ago, Ahmad Shahra, the president of Syria, he was a terrorist. Today he is welcomed by President Etram and to shake hands, he became a great leader and to release the sanctions against Syria, which is a good step. So it's man made. I believe the decision is in the United States and in what we call the Western countries which are responsible, accountable, you know, in different ways and complicit in what is happening. They speak oh, and he wants, he doesn't want even President Trump when he said he is not going to allow the Palestinians in Gaza to be starved, to be starved. That's what is he willing to provide them with some food? Instead of saying that, he has to say, I want the safety, the security of the Palestinian people to be freedom side by side by Israel. And to endorse it, he can say to Netanyahu, you have to stop it. Because Netanyahu coexisting, his survival is dependent on the American support.
And this, as I said it, it's destructive to the Israelis by this arrogance, ignorance. And that's the question. And not to give up. As you said, what can we do? We have to put a pressure on these political leaders who are in the States. From where did they come? Who elected Trump, who elected Biden?
It's people, it's our choice.
So when we elect, we need to elect the right people who represent our values.
Don't blame others. These political leaders, they didn't come up with Barashota from the sky, from among us.
So you need to advocate for what is right at the right time and to take action and not to blame. And the first step in failure is to blame others. Instead of blaming others, we have to take responsibility.
[00:35:11] Speaker B: Can you share with us really on the ground of what you've heard what is happening in Gaza and West Bank?
[00:35:19] Speaker C: Just I want the people to understand it and to take it from 2000 until now what is happening, not before, within the last 25 years.
Palestinian people. The majority of the Palestinians in Gaza strip are refugees.
70% of the population in the Gaza Strip are refugees who were expelled from their homeland in 1948 and they are scattered in the camps in the Gaza Strip. Gaza Strip has one of the highest literacy rate in the world.
We as Palestinians, we value education in spite of all the difficulties.
We value education because we know education.
No one can take it from us. Anyone can kill, can occupy, can oppress, can intimidate, but no one can prevent us from dreaming and getting the education. The Palestinian people, they cut from their food to educate their children. There is competition among the Palestinians who will be educated more, to have more degrees.
But in spite of this, from 2006 until now, a continuous, cumulative, persistent siege against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip or from air, from the ground or from the sea. Even the fishermen can't go to beyond a certain distance to fish, which is, you know, a wealth to feed their people. They can't do that from air. And that's the propaganda, that's the myth. When you hear someone to say, in 2004, 5, we withdraw from Gaza. You withdraw from Gaza, but I left you locked inside your house. And that's what happened. They threw the key. It's the largest open air prison in the world. From air, from water, from the ground. And that's what is happening for 2000, for now, for about, from 2006 until now, about 18 years. How many wars they experience, how many raids they experience? 2008, 2012, 14, 18, 21, 22, and now for more than a year and a half, the people, for them, every minute, every minute, it means a lot. You don't know if they will be above the ground or below the ground. And the mass and the collective punishment. Deprived of food, cut electricity, cut food, cut water, health care, the hospitals, the schools, the roads, even. Imagine yourself when you are in need of food and you can't feed your children, you can't feed them and they are dying in front of you. And the neonatal intensive care, the hospitals who have been murdered, children have been burned.
Intense. They have been burned. The explosive. Do you know what is the size of the rubble in the Gaza Strip? About 80 million tons of rubble, about 80,000 tons of explosives.
Each Palestinian in Gaza Strip, his part is about 40 kilograms of explosives. It's four times the explosives. And even now it's much stronger than those explosives. The atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. What are we talking about?
How can we deal with the long, protracted, cumulative, persistent, continuous intergenerational and transgenerational trauma of the Palestinians in the Gaza Step.
It's painful when we speak about it.
Homeless. When we speak about homeless, the people who built their homes home is not just the four walls. It's the memories. I remember it.
In 2014, when the war started, I went back to Gaza just to bring some of the memories of my daughters.
Where our memories, where our homes, where our life, where our people that we know.
And that's what is happening. The children, what are you going? When you ask a Palestinian child, if you ask an American child, when you meet with the children, so if you ask any child in the street, what do you want to be in the future? He will say to you, I want to be a teacher, a doctor, engineer. You ask the Palestinian child, what do you want to be? He will say, we are not allowed to grow up, to reach our dreams and to achieve our dreams.
We are taken from life at an early age.
I asked my brothers the other day, what do you do? How do you sleep?
Sid we go to sleep. We don't know if we will wake up after one minute, one second.
What we call it, we testify, the two witnesses, where we say, ashadu Allah ilaha illallahu ashadu Ana Muhammad as a Muslim that I surrender to God.
And that's what is happening in the Gaza Strip.
They are waiting in line for the unknown. And mostly and even the people who are there, they are jealousy of those who were murdered to say they know they don't need to suffer. Nothing is more painful than living under fear, under uncertainty. They are killed thousands of times every second.
And the world most important, what kills them, that their voices are not heard, that what kills.
And then to speak to them, be.
[00:41:22] Speaker A: Human and they are not respected as equal in their beauty, in their possibility.
It. Everything you say is so heartbreaking and absolutely true.
[00:41:39] Speaker B: And I could not agree more. I could not agree more.
[00:41:44] Speaker A: It is a story that I have heard my entire life.
And also we cannot forget what is happening in the west bank right now because horrible things are happening in the villages, in people's homes, ancient homes being torched and cars burned and crops taken away and trees cut down. My own grandmother's village that she escaped to when she became a refugee in 1948 has been sabotaged by settlers from Brooklyn for the past few weeks. And this is a systematic anguish inflicted upon an entire population who deserves respect.
And I, I. I simply feel the pain and the truth of everything the doctor has said.
[00:42:39] Speaker B: I think the most poignant thing in my life experience that I can offer is witness and validation how vital your voice is, how horrific you're in your family and your community's experiences are. I don't know. I think when we talk about humanity and we Talk about return to humanity.
We will not recognize our collective humanity looking in another person. We must come to realize within our deepest self.
The answer of our humanity resides within our own connection to something greater than ourselves. Allah or Adonoi, whatever you want to call that it is the same thing. And so.
But by hearing your stories, I'm forced to look more deeply within myself to recognize the common thread, as Naomi has shared in poetry. The common thread in our shared experiences that are also disparate, different.
And is there hope? Where do we find hope? Where do we ignite hope? And where do you want to go?
Where do you want to see things go?
[00:43:52] Speaker C: Thank you so much.
It's not my story, it's everyone's story. It's a human story because the humanity brings us it's universal human story. And that's important of courage and hope. And what is happening in our world.
You know, while we are talking, I can't comprehend it.
I suffered the killing of my daughters. But I will never accept it to anyone on earth. And I have to advocate and to prevent it.
And it's not with revenge. Because the one who opts for revenge has to dig two graves. Revenge is not the way. And it's not me who said that. My daughter Bisan. At the age of 14, when I seem to be scammed, she said to meet violence with violence doesn't solve any problem. There is an alternative way, Negative. We need positive acts. When you speak about hope, of course I believe in hope. And I believe nothing is impossible in life. The only impossible thing in life I believe in is to bring my daughters back, my loved ones, back to life. But I am determined to keep them alive.
Not with bullets, with good deeds, with good actions and to inject. And that's what we all need to stand.
I feel guilty if their holy souls, noble blood, and these people who paid their price not to be futile and waste it, should be injected into a vein of hope, of life, of dignity, of a freedom of justice, equality and accountability in our world and in others life. So hope is not a word. Oh, let us hope. Hope is not a word. As long as we are alive, there is hope. It's up to us. Life is what we make. It always has been, always will be. Because what is happening is man made. And the hope is to unmade it by taking action. So it's time for all of us to stand up. Elders and the children, women and men from all aspects to stand up, to speak out about it by taking action, not just by lip service. And that's what I say. The patient who is there is not coming to talk to the patient. The patient is coming to give a prescription to heal the wounds. So it's a matter of action and taking action. So I say to people, life is dynamic.
Have faith, have confidence, have hope. But most important, it's useless without action.
[00:46:37] Speaker A: So powerful.
Joel, may I read a poem?
[00:46:41] Speaker B: Your poem feels like a wonderful way to close out a very heartfelt conversation. So please, go ahead.
[00:46:47] Speaker A: Naomi For Gaza the Children I want to create a world that is deserving of its children.
That's what I hope to do for the rest of my days, just try to make things better. And I loved what you said about good deeds. We have to keep attempting good deeds in whatever place we find ourselves.
The children are still singing. They need and want to sing. They are carrying cats to safe places, holding what they can hold.
Red hair, brown hair, yellow. They will wear the sweater someone threw away. They will hope for something tasty. You won't be able to own them.
Their spirits fly to safer worlds.
They planted seashells in the sand.
They never committed a crime.
A president pardons turkeys. He pardons his own son. He doesn't harden. Children.
The children are still singing.
[00:48:04] Speaker C: Thank you. Thank you. And they will continue to sing anywhere they are.
[00:48:08] Speaker A: They will. They must. Because they're wiser than we are. They're closer to the spirit of what has created us all.
[00:48:17] Speaker C: Thank you. Thank you so much.
