Mohja Kahf writes from Arkansas, USA.
The image is of an olive tree on the Jericho Mountains in Palestine, via Wikimedia Commons.
What I Need to Tell My Neighbors in Arkansas
By Mohja Kahf
I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. Genesis 12:3
Honey, sit yourself on my porch:
it’s about land, not ancient Abraham,
that Iraqi who was neither Jew nor Arab but grandfathered both
It’s not about ancient Sarah or Hagar
It’s about humans living on this soil watering olive trees,
not any ancient sons of Ishmael or Isaac
not their descendants either, our bloodlines diffused
across the world and mixed together:
It’s not been going on for hundreds of years, just seventy-five,
and it’s not about religion:
it’s about human rights.
Oh honey, it’s not about the ancient kingdom of Israel:
hon, that was not the same Israel
as this current state of Israel
built by European colonizers who stormed in 1948
killed the farmers on the land who were living together
Muslims and Jews and Christians and Druze and zindiqs
growing oranges hiving bees watering trees hundreds of years in peace
Colonizers stole their homes changed the locks
drove them into cages and camps
It’s not the same Israel, honey
It just took the name of Israel, trying to steal its ancient blessing
Seized the good name of Jewish folk and Judaism
Sit yourself on my porch, neighbor, and bring your good Book—
it’s not about religion, but you seem to think it is.
Let me feed you these olives and tell you how they were grown
glistening golden on a land farmed by human beings who deserve human rights
water soil home honey come sit with human beings who are
Palestinian.
God won’t curse you for loving us
Also read: ‘What Do We Do During Genocide’: A Poem by Mohja Kahf
Mohja Kahf is Syrian. One Arab is not interchangeable with another, so if you daily read a poem by a Palestinian—and you should—you must still find a Palestinian poet to read, such as Mosab Abu Toha, Lisa Suhair Majaj, George Abraham, Summer Farah. Mohja Kahf has published a novel and three books of poetry, the latest being My Lover Feeds Me Grapefruit. Some of her writing is available in Urdu, Portuguese, Turkish, Japanese, Italian, German, and French translations. She is a founding member of the Radius of Arab American Writers and winner of a Pushcart Prize. Kahf has been a professor of comparative literature and Middle Eastern studies at the University of Arkansas since 1995.