0:00:09.051,0:00:13.049
I'll start with this poem, I wrote this poem when the bombs were dropping on Gaza.

0:00:13.049,0:00:18.039
And I was the media spokesperson for the coalition doing a lot of the organizing

0:00:18.039,0:00:21.032
and we'd stayed up to about six o'clock in the morning,

0:00:21.032,0:00:24.064
perfecting every sound bite and by the end

0:00:24.064,0:00:27.039
if you're a Palestinian you know, most Palestinians get tired

0:00:27.039,0:00:33.011
and start pronouncing our 'p's as 'b's so we become Balestinians by the end of the day.

0:00:33.011,0:00:35.096
So I was practicing my p's all night.

0:00:35.096,0:00:39.056
And the next morning one of the journalists asked me:

0:00:39.056,0:00:44.080
"don't you think it would all be fine if you just stopped teaching your children to hate?"

0:00:44.096,0:00:47.006
I did not insult the person,

0:00:47.006,0:00:50.037
I was very polite but I wrote this poem

0:00:50.037,0:00:54.073
as a response to these types of questions we Palestinians always get.

0:00:56.015,0:01:00.023
Today, my body was a TV’d massacre.

0:01:00.023,0:01:05.097
Today, my body was a TV’d massacre that had to fit into sound-bites and word limits.

0:01:05.097,0:01:11.096
Today, my body was a TV’d massacre that had to fit into sound-bites

0:01:11.096,0:01:17.011
and word limits filled enough with statistics to counter measured response.

0:01:17.011,0:01:21.056
And I perfected my English and I learned my UN resolutions.

0:01:21.056,0:01:26.071
But still, he asked me: "Ms. Ziadah, don’t you think everything would be resolved

0:01:26.071,0:01:31.016
if you would just stop teaching so much hatred to your children?"

0:01:31.016,0:01:32.019
Pause!

0:01:32.056,0:01:36.015
I look inside of me for strength to be patient

0:01:36.015,0:01:40.087
but patience is not at the tip of my tongue as the bombs drop over Gaza.

0:01:40.087,0:01:43.012
Patience has just escaped me.

0:01:43.012,0:01:44.017
Pause!

0:01:44.017,0:01:45.015
Smile!

0:01:45.015,0:01:47.007
We teach life, sir!

0:01:47.007,0:01:48.056
Rafeef, remember to smile...

0:01:48.056,0:01:49.050
Pause!

0:01:49.050,0:01:51.012
We teach life, sir!

0:01:51.012,0:01:56.029
We Palestinians teach life after they have occupied the last sky.

0:01:56.029,0:02:00.088
We teach life after they have built their settlements and apartheid walls,

0:02:00.088,0:02:03.030
after the last skies.

0:02:03.030,0:02:05.027
We teach life, sir!

0:02:05.027,0:02:06.060
But today,

0:02:06.060,0:02:12.045
my body was a TV’d massacre made to fit into sound-bites and word limits.

0:02:12.045,0:02:15.044
And "just give us a story, a human story.

0:02:15.044,0:02:17.012
You see, this is not political.

0:02:17.012,0:02:19.071
We just want to tell people about you and your people,

0:02:19.071,0:02:21.055
so give us a human story.

0:02:21.055,0:02:24.021
Don’t mention that word “apartheid” and “occupation”.

0:02:24.021,0:02:25.052
This is not political!

0:02:25.052,0:02:29.075
You have to help me as a journalist to help you tell your story

0:02:29.075,0:02:31.075
which is not a political story".

0:02:31.075,0:02:34.034
Today, my body was a TV’d massacre.

0:02:34.034,0:02:37.095
"How about, you give us a story of a woman in Gaza who needs medication?

0:02:37.095,0:02:39.029
How about you?

0:02:39.029,0:02:43.047
Do you have enough bone-broken limbs to cover the sun?

0:02:43.047,0:02:45.080
Hand me over your dead

0:02:45.080,0:02:50.067
and give me the list of their names in one thousand two hundred word limits".

0:02:50.067,0:02:51.068
Today,

0:02:51.068,0:02:56.069
my body was a TV’d massacre made to fit into sound-bites and word limits

0:02:56.069,0:03:01.048
and move those that are desensitized to terrorist blood.

0:03:01.048,0:03:03.001
But they felt sorry.

0:03:03.001,0:03:06.031
They felt sorry for the cattle over Gaza.

0:03:06.031,0:03:09.046
So, I give them UN resolutions and statistics

0:03:09.046,0:03:10.033
and we condemn

0:03:10.033,0:03:11.040
and we deplore

0:03:11.040,0:03:12.016
and we reject!

0:03:12.016,0:03:16.059
And these are not two equal sides: occupier and occupied.

0:03:16.059,0:03:17.063
And a hundred dead,

0:03:17.063,0:03:18.084
two hundred dead,

0:03:18.084,0:03:20.028
and a thousand dead.

0:03:20.028,0:03:23.056
And between, that war crime and massacre,

0:03:23.056,0:03:27.028
I vent out words and smile "not exotic",

0:03:27.028,0:03:29.059
smile "not terrorist".

0:03:29.059,0:03:35.024
And I recount, I recount a hundred dead, two hundred dead, a thousand dead!

0:03:35.024,0:03:36.076
Is anyone out there?

0:03:36.076,0:03:38.012
Will anyone listen?

0:03:38.012,0:03:41.021
I wish I could wail over their bodies.

0:03:41.021,0:03:44.060
I wish I could just run barefoot in every refugee camp,

0:03:44.060,0:03:46.016
and hold every child,

0:03:46.016,0:03:47.052
cover their ears

0:03:47.052,0:03:49.091
so they wouldn’t have to hear the sound of bombing

0:03:49.091,0:03:52.012
for the rest of their life the way I do.

0:03:52.012,0:03:54.088
Today, my body was a TV’d massacre.

0:03:54.088,0:03:56.008
And let me just tell you,

0:03:56.008,0:04:00.011
there’s nothing your UN resolutions have ever done about this.

0:04:00.011,0:04:03.028
And no sound-bite, no sound-bite I come up with,

0:04:03.028,0:04:05.068
no matter how good my English gets!

0:04:05.068,0:04:08.024
No sound-bite... no sound-bite... no sound-bite...

0:04:08.024,0:04:10.091
no sound-bite will bring them back to life!

0:04:10.091,0:04:12.080
No sound-bite will fix this!

0:04:12.080,0:04:13.075
We teach life, sir!

0:04:14.001,0:04:15.012
We teach life, sir!

0:04:15.012,0:04:24.023
We Palestinians wake up every morning to teach the rest of the world life, sir!

0:04:31.075,0:04:32.083
Thank you!