Writer/activist Miko Peled stood over the grave site of Irish Nationalist revolutionary hero and hunger-striker Bobby Sands at Milltown Cemetery in Belfast and read the finale of Samer Issawi’s ‘Hunger Speech’ to Israelis.
Peled: I’m going to read a few words by Samer Issawi, a Palestinian hero. A Palestinian hero hunger striker, and it sadly looks like he is going to be the next victim of the Israeli occupation…..
Do not listen to those generals and those dusty myths, for the defeated will not remain defeated, and the victor will not remain a victor. History isn’t only measured by battles, massacres and prisons, but by peace with the Other and the self.
This is being written and this is being said by a man who is willingly dying for freedom and unwilling to compromise his freedom and his independence. So let’s hope that he, by some miracle, survives and doesn’t have to join Bobby Sands and the others as another victim of this horrific horrific brutality.
Freedom, “Inspired by the genius of Banksy and the perpetual,
revolutionary words of Bobby Sands” by Jafar Alam
Issawi’s words about history being measured by “peace with the Other and the self” remind me of Sands’s iconic words: “Our revenge will be the laughter of our children.”
The stature of Sands has only grown since his death at 27 in 1981; for his martyrdom, and those of 9 other hunger strikers over the next seven months, (foolishly dubbed by Thatcher as “the IRA’s last card“) energized and impassioned Irish republicanism; recruits multiplied.
My heart warms to visit the Bobby Sands Trust and see a photo of Samer’s sister Shireen holding a poster of her brother accompanied by an article about Palestinian Hunger Strikers on the front page. And please check out the Sands Trust page, Laughter Of Our Children, and a 2010 post by Canadian blogger Jafar Alam where Sands famous words segue, both graphically and literally, into the companion struggle of our time.
‘“They will not criminalise us, rob us of our true identity, steal our individualism, depoliticise us, churn us out as systemised, institutionalised, decent law-abiding robots. We refuse to lie here in dishonor! We are not criminals, but Irishmen! This is the crime of which we stand accused. Never will they label our liberation struggle as criminal…Our revenge will be the laughter of our children” – Bobby Sands
‘We refuse to lie here in dishonor! We are not terrorists, but Palestinians. This is the crime of which we stand accused. Our crime remains that we were born Palestinian.’
During an Irish Palestinian solidarity event during the Israeli massacre in Gaza in 2008, an Irish protestor was recalling that during Bobby Sand’s hunger strike – the protestors back then received letters of support from Palestinian prisoners.
There’s been a common struggle between these two peoples against colonial oppression.
http://www.irishfriendsofpalestine.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/latuff-ireland-palestine.jpg
Christy Moore sings “I Wish I was Back Home in Derry” words by the great Bobby Sands,
http://youtu.be/1g1uY1GI20k
only posting because its you Annie, reading all the S Lavie i can find, she wrote the Poetics of Occupation i read it years ago my copy is in London i think, bleeding on borders seems to have become my life, damn I never remember authors names, i sat in a room with 6 others listening to her and i never would have remembered that it was her work if wasnt on her site, its a great book well worth the effort of finding a copy.
“Our revenge will be the laughter of our children” is such an impressive statement.
22 years after Bobby Sands died the first ever all Ireland football final between 2 teams from the 6 counties of Northern Ireland happened. Tyrone won for the first time. Cue a mass outpouring of joy .
Tyrone never won anything significant during the period 1969-1992.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE6WrIrvIDo
If/when Issawi dies and stands before his God he will be seen as a martyr and hero as Sands was.
The U.S. military admits that 43 of the 166 detainees at Guantanamo are on hunger strike. I have heard allegations on RT television that a majority of the detainees are now on hunger strike.