JUST INSIDE THE DOOR
Jordan, June
JUST INSIDE THE DOOR June Jordan Intifada. U.S.A. The girl looks thin. She keeps her eyes on the ground. To either side, Israeli soldiers lounge, post-massacre. She is Palestinian. She cannot be...
...Several days before this photo appeared in the papers here, Israeli soldiers and armed Israeli "settlers" shot and killed twenty men...
...They had gathered to protest Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir's announcement of his government's (completely illegal) plan to build a new settlement (15,000 units) in Arab East Jerusalem...
...Israel refuses to abide by U.N...
...As documented by the one existing videotape of the entire episode, Israeli worshippers and soldiers, alike, had withdrawn absolutely from the danger-zone, the stone-throwing zone, for more than fifteen minutes before, suddenly, Israeli soldiers and "settlers" reappeared, guns blazing, and fatal...
...They were Palestinians...
...Israel refuses international inspection of its nuclear arsenal...
...Who is prepared to guarantee another week of her life...
...And these bonuses arrive on top of $4 billion annual U.S...
...At night, I go to bed afraid to close my eyes, or sleep: I ask my soul these questions aching on my conscience: What will happen to that little girl, that child of Palestine...
...Israel expands its illegal "settlements" inside Arab East Jersualem and the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights...
...The Bush Administration has guaranteed a $400 million loan for these purposes...
...Israel closes up Palestinian towns and universities and shuts down Palestinian newspapers, whenever Israel feels like it...
...Our American taxes give every single Israeli more money, day after day and year after year, more than every single American suffering from cancer or AIDS would ever hope to receive, week after week, from our Federal purse...
...We need to rise up...
...Her latest book, "Naming Our Destiny: New and Selected Poems," is available from Thunder's Mouth Press in New York City...
...It must be wonderful to live in Israel...
...Clearly, a barrel of oil is worth more than the safety of the 250,000 young African-American and Mexican-American and Latino and poor white men and women now sweltering on the Arabian desert while they await God-knows-what horrible and undue and untimely death...
...And why the hell not...
...aid may be provided to countries engaging in a consistent pattern of human-rights abuse...
...And then there are these bonuses, like $1 billion addiJune Jordan appears in this space every other month...
...We need to stand against the "standoff' in the Persian Gulf...
...How long will she stay alive...
...What is happening to you and me...
...Clearly, a barrel of oil is worth more than any number of Palestinian lives...
...Israel continues its military and commercial collaboration with South Africa...
...This American law stipulates that no U.S...
...We need an Intifada, U.S.A...
...This is not a new equation...
...The killers were Israelis...
...They had gathered to defy the announced intention of Israeli Temple Mount faithful fanatics "to lay a cornerstone" for a new Jewish Temple-in Arab East Jerusalem...
...No, no, no, no...
...Israel tortures Palestinians, and detains and incarcerates them without trial...
...resolutions, Palestinian territorial rights, and human decency...
...I say we need a rising up, an Intifada, U.S.A...
...Does Bush freeze all loans, aid, and accounts tied to Israel until and unless Israel complies with our Foreign Assistance Act of 1961...
...Just, for instance, how do you suppose Shamir will pay for the proposed, and completely illegal, new housing in Arab East Jerusalem...
...The Bush Administration, to my knowledge, has not guaranteed a $400 million anything for the homeless or low-income Americans who need shelter, here...
...tional for weapons (because George Bush was maybe going to sell $19 billion worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia) plus, of course, the very very recent $400 million housing deal...
...And so, what happens...
...The victims were, all of them, Palestinians...
...She cannot be more than nine years old...
...They had come out, several thousand unarmed men, to rebuke these latest Israeli violations of pertinent U.N...
...This is the killer plan fully financed, and otherwise tolerated, by you and me...
...aid to Israel, a country with barely 3.2 million inhabitants...
...I have been circulating a petition where I live and work, and I hope others will circulate their own and then sponsor rallies, teach-ins, strikes, boycotts, whatever it takes to stand against the Persian Gulf "standoff...
...resolutions that dictate an Israeli exit from the "Occupied Territories"/Pal-estinian land...
...Does George Bush rush 250,000 American troops into Jordan, threatening to invade Israel unless Israel relinquishes the "Occupied Territories" that amount to what's left of a homeland for the Palestinian people...
...This equation is not a tragedy...
...Israel deports Palestinian nationals...
...And, in case our handouts of money and missiles seem too paltry, Israel expects our unqualified enslavement to something summarily described as a "pro-Israel" position...
Vol. 54 • December 1990 • No. 12
