Labouring the point - a colonial question

by Alexis Lykiard

The endless, questionable anti-Semitism fuss
Is media-stoked to fool the credulous and hoodwink us –
All those presuming to deplore, or even criticise,
The fact that stolen acres are annexed by Israel.

Much of the so-called Promised Land’s a living hell
For its original inhabitants the Palestinian folk,
A peaceful people, whom the Zionists coerced to dwell
Under their military rule, apartheid yoke.

The dispossessed and brutalised – here’s irony! – are forced
Through daily cruelty to heed that distant Holocaust
For which they’re blameless; elsewhere Gentiles must apologise
Sheepishly for European history, ad infinitum.

Politicians, flush with cash, close ranks to sneer and fight them –
Dissenters, any conscience-driven humans who resist
The shrillest imprecations of the Zionist.
And yet what Palestinian would accept this unjust fate,
Repressive occupation by a racist State?