It's OK

a poem

Photo by boris misevic on Unsplash

Listen to an audio recording of It’s OK:

It’s OK 
to bomb residential buildings,
hospitals, schools, universities,
mosques, markets, farmland
to ash, dust and rubble.
But it’s not OK
to paint fighter planes red.

It’s OK
to make money
selling weapons that kill babies,
murder children, mothers and fathers,
and turn villages and towns
into toxic garbage dumps
and futureless wasteland.
But it’s not OK
to boycott or sanction Israel
or cut all diplomatic ties.

It’s OK
to call yourself 
God’s chosen people, 
and label your enemies 
human animals, Amalek and terrorists.
But it’s not OK
to refer to Israel
as an ethno-supremacist apartheid state.

It’s OK
to construct narratives
based on lies, fabrications and fantasies,
to censor social media 
and buy compliant influencers.
But it’s not OK
to report facts on the ground
and ask inconvenient questions.

It’s OK
to pass laws to combat
antisemitism and hate speech,
and shut down pro-Palestinian protest.
But it’s not OK
to arrest war criminals
and send them to the Hague.

It’s OK
to recognize a Palestinian state
and the right to self-determination.
But it’s not OK
to establish a sovereign nation 
on their historical homeland.

It’s OK
to believe everything
they tell you.
But it’s never OK
to think for yourself.

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