Tänään BAS:sta tulleessa viestissä näkyy miten vaikeaa on luottaa tulitauon kestämiseen.

Lopussa siteerattu teksti on niin pöyristyttävä, että guuglasin sen esiin. Lainaus löytyi israelilaisessa Ha'aretzissa julkaistusta Michael Handelzaltsin artikkelista Pen Ultimate / May the "force" be with them - or not. Kirjoittajaksi hän mainitsi israelilaisen runoilijan Ilan Sheinfeldin, joka runossaan mukailee Israelin kansallisrunoilijaa Haim Nahman Bialikia. Handelzaltsin mukaan Sheinfeldin versio on omistettu Libanonissa taisteleville sotilaille. Hän luonnehtii sitä yhdeksi verenhimoisimmista, barbaarisimmista teksteistä, joita on ikinä lukenut, ja toteaa, että hänen englanninkielinen käännöksensä ei tavoita alkuperäisen runon brutaalin raakaa vihaa.

Toisaalta löysin Ilan Sheinfeldin runon Night of war 5 (käännös Karen Alkalay-Gut), joka loppuu näin:

Actually it was a wonderful day.

I dared listen to a Mozart violin concert <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

instead of listening for the siren.  I ate, wrote.

Now I will close myself in for the night in my sealed room

with the ghost voices that come to visit

from the time we burned in Auschwitz.

Me paloimme Auschwitztissa. Me muutamme Libanonin ja Gazan autiomaaksi. Vuodatamme heidän verensä, muutamme heidän elämänsä helvetiksi.

Viesti Beit Atfal Assumoudista 16.8.

Cautious calmness spread its wings over Lebanon, no more war planes hovering over our heads, no more raids, no more dreadful missiles carrying death and destruction and seemingly all canons are silent…However, we still have doubts inside our hearts…can those peaceful moments stand the daily ravaging political stands and stormy statements? Let us pray that they can and that they would also bring a sustainable solution, just and fair. Nevertheless, life is difficult and will become more and more difficult when problems will start floating over the surface and we can realize the magnitude of the Nakba (catastrophe). The blockade over Beirut airport and harbor are still imposed which will certainly compound the problems of the humanitarian efforts to support the devastated people.

In spite of the people's determination to return to their villages the situation is dangerous due to the unexploded military ordnance in the conflict zones and areas targeted by the recent military campaigns. Already one child and 4 civilians were killed and 15 were wounded by ordnance that exploded as they returned to their homes. The National Steering Committee on Mine Risk Education, UNICEF, UNHCR and UNDP issued an urgent appeal concerning such dangers and advised civilians to exercise utmost caution when approaching zones of military activity and to refrain from touching any strange objects. These pieces of unexploded ordnance, cluster bombs or artillery can remain lying on the ground, but remain highly dangerous and a slightest movement can cause them to explode. From another side, UN aid convoys are heading to the south carrying necessary supplies to the people and besieged hospitals.

As much as we wish that fair peace would be reached for the whole region whose innocent people are bearing all the pain and suffering. Hate and pain can never solve any problem no matter how superior the Israeli side can feel. I will end this with part of horrible poem that I came across, it says:

"Demolish not only the roof, but the foundations as well, you have come far indeed, your toil has not been in vain / Storm on Lebanon and Gaza, and plow it and sow it with salt, raze it down, let no human being remain / Turn them into a desert, rubble, a valley of mess, unpopulated / As we did want peace, we did yearn for peace, and our own houses we had desecrated ... Save your nation and drop bombs / On villages and cities, their collapsing houses do shell / Kill them, shed their blood, turn their lives into living hell / Till they will never try again to destroy us, until we will hear mountains explode / Bulldozed by your heels, and their wails and shrieks, and their graves corrode."

An extraordinarily ugly picture of extreme hatred that can never build up any kind of understanding, which we certainly hope is not opinion of the majority.  

PSV toivoo myös, että Sheinfeldin kaltaisia olisi mahdollisimman vähän Lähi-idässä. Mielenosoituksessa eräs mies huusi: "Ketään ei saa tappaa!". Niinpä.

Kirsti Palonen