Tree on Palestine
9th March, 2016
Palestine conjures up images of bombed and ruined houses; stumped trees
countless figures of the dead; children and women in refugee camps
boys poised with stones to fling at Israeli tanks
road blocks and checkpoints
apartheid wall secured with barbed wires
and thousands of heartbreaking stories
The Marmara was part of a series of programmes organized by the Palestine Solidarity group comprising of students, activists/scholars, women and human rights organizations and concerned with the issue of Palestine.
Rajesh, Sangama welcomed the group gathered under the cool shade of the trees in Cubbon park. He said
“the Marmara was to express and extend our solidarity to the struggle of the Palestinian people for their homeland; a struggle that has continued for many generations against the Israeli Occupation and Apartheid.
We continue to call for peace.
Let’s together remember that we were carved out of a struggle.
Let’s question the silence of the world to oppression by the powerful
by songs, poems, stories, open letters of resistance, of protest, of justice, of compassion
In solidarity with Palestine Let’s ask - Why war? Why not peace? Why not justice?
Marmara offers us a way to pay attention to the murmurings as Rumi, the great Sufi poet wrote flowers opening across the sky, breathing peace, sudden flames catching!
Let us gather our spirits, renew our hopes, for a more just and humane world”
Umar, a young Palestine who has come to India to study orthopedics so that he could help his people back in Palestine who have lost their limbs in the war evoked for us the pain and pathos of a land and people occupied. He said “ it was the time of Ramadan; a time of piety but the bombs hailed mercilessly upon the Palestinian people, flattening the grass so that nothing may grow there again”.
And no one hears the grass scream.
And thereafter flowed poignant testimonies of the Palestinians; poetry on home and exile of poets from Malta, Haiti, Iran, Sri Lanka, Tibet, Palestine, Slovenia, India – all rendered in different languages - English, Urdu and Kannada; an open letter to the Jews in Palestine by Mahatma Gandhi written in 1938 but still relevant to our times.
The Marmara ended with Mohammed, speaking from his memories of the Israeli Occupation, lamenting upon the uncertain future of an entire people all the while reiterating Palestinians yearning for peace and with Corinne’s story of the Bazaar of dreams striking a hopeful note that the wish of the Palestinians for a homeland will come true.
These notes of hope were reaffirmed by the hesitant yet life affirming steps of the Dabka.
The testimonies were from the collection gathered by Rama Mani, an expert in international peace and security, a poet and performing artist who has, based on her experience of peace building developed a Theatre of Transformation as an innovative vehicle to address critical global challenges and catalyse positive change. They were read by Ahmed Jalal, Mohammed Jamal and Yusuf;
the poems of Ghassan Zaqtan, Antoine Cassar, Tenzin Tsundue, Marwan Makhol, Hafiz were threaded together by Mamta Sagar and rendered by Mamta, Mohammed, Sujata, Celine, Anna, Nisha, Rajesh Neelaiah, Saugar and Asha. Pushpa read a poem of her own.
Stories were narrated, retold and read by Corinne, Nausheen and Rajesh
Poems: the Tree on Palestine >>