During my recent journey to Israel and the West Bank I encountered many Palestinians. I asked the Palestinians what it was they wanted to tell the American People, not the government, and the following is a collection of their thoughts and words put together with the special help of Ahmad Abu Sway, a Palestinian writer and poet who lives in East Jerusalem.
To The American People
America, you are the mother of this world today. The peace in your heart has made a beautiful home, and this beautiful home has made a good generation. True peace arises from the bottom of your heart…so I ask, how can we better understand each other? Our world is upside down today and we have become lost, like a family without a mother. How we yearn for your freedom, like an eagle that soars above the clouds.
We are the Arab Race, and we live throughout the land here, we are well educated, and we are both Christian and Muslim. God has made us all and this has always been my home that God chose for me. I love you America, but this love in my heart I don’t feel you could understand. Your justice is so fair, but not in my land. What we need is your support and a helping hand.
You ask us to stand up and change, to fight for what is right, yet we don’t have this power or control. The East is without a sunrise, and the West refuses my eyes. We find ourselves alone like a bee without a hive. What you ask is the impossible because this power is not in our hands, but in yours.
The pain and the suffering comes season after season, and there is no rest insight. We have all become lost and are searching, like a father for his lost daughter. I feel nothing in my life is right any more and my feelings are becoming dry, like a river with no water.
One by one you see us, on national TV. With no job or home, no girlfriend or family, with no hope and broken dreams, you see us, one by one. Our families destroyed, our homes are demolished, our cities are under siege and now many lay in ruins. So many are crippled, so many are dead, many are arrested or exiled to another land. So many have lost everything and have no more will to live, so we continue to see them come, one by one. You see them as killers, terrorists, or murders. These souls who have lost all hope, they have even lost God. But no one takes the time to stop and ask, “Why?” So they continue to come, one by one. The pain in their hearts and the suffering in their souls, their lives are unlivable, and their life is now their endless hell. Childhood robbed from them and death a way of life, younger and younger we see them, one by one. Their mother or father, maybe sister or brother, who ever may be left, they go behind closed doors to grieve the loss of their loved one.
Our children are our future, our hopes and our dreams. What will it take for the West to hear the cries of the children’s hearts? Help us bring happiness and erase this sorrow, because what I am afraid of is for our children…that there will be no tomorrow.
You have the power that can bring us the hope, the peace and the justice that our hearts long for. America, we ask you hear our cries and listen for our prayers, and look within your hearts for the justice that has made you so great.
With Love,
The Palestinian People