“…what happens to your remembrance
will be of your own doing.”

ZNetwork.org presents An Asterisk, a poem written and performed by a Z Community member.
For Gaza. And for humanity.

A note from the author:
I haven’t written any poetry in quite a few years. But after seeing the canned recitation of talking points (so clearly absurd and morally bankrupt) coming from influential spectators/enablers so nonchalantly defending the indefensible, I felt compelled to respond. Not as an argument really, but more as a tactic. The piece is not meant to change their minds as much as it is to illuminate the wager they’re in the process of making, as well as to offer them an out. As heinous as their behavior has been thus far, they still have time to reverse course and use their name to help curtail the killing. Otherwise, they’ll just prove the poem right. This will not be forgotten. And neither will their support.
Why a poem? I felt the format offered more license than a song and more impact than an essay.
Why the approach? As I elude to in the beginning of the piece, I can’t argue with anyone who sees such a tactic as cynical or even shameful. Personally though, I see it like judo, using someone’s own aggression as their undoing. It’s not a threat of violence, but the threat of their place in history. And not knowing when the IDF might halt operations on its own volition only increases the urgency to act. It’s like a timer you can’t see, but you can hear counting down. That’s why I subtitled the piece a “temporary” poem. I hope readers will share it accordingly.
…………………

An Asterisk (a temporary poem – for those who had the power to make it necessary)

What else do we have

when all appeals to conscience 
have met with the same answer?

“October 7th happened. Hamas still exists.”

Is it cynical, vulgar even,
to add to our tactics
an appeal to vanity?

Is it betrayal
to dress such a tactic
in the concern 
for individual legacy
and an offer 
of rescue?

Perhaps.

But the killing continues.
So we cannot be above
trying.

Nor should we give up
asking.

Is there anything we can say
or do
that will bring you to speak aloud?
“This is too far. It must stop.”

Do you need worse 
anecdotes?
Worse than the stories 
of men, women, and children? Murdered?
Of the elderly? Murdered?
Of babies?
Murdered.

Do you need worse 
statistics?
Worse than the number of deaths? The percentage of civilians?
The number of injured? The percentage of civilians?
The number of displaced? The percentage of civilians? 
The homes destroyed? The livelihoods destroyed? The dreams destroyed? 
The infrastructure turned to dust and rubble, both civil and cultural?

Do you need worse 
descriptions?
Worse than what bombs do?
What bleeding out looks like?
What it means to be trapped 
under fallen metal and concrete?
What it means to not know 
where all your limbs are?
What it means to wait
to die?

Do you need worse 
photos? 
Worse than the school that used to be there? Worse than the clinic that used to be there?
Worse than the father running as fast as he can, carrying a limp body through the streets?
The mother, face drawn to the sky, screaming out the name she gave the little one in her arms, no longer here? 
Do you need worse photos than the emaciated ten-year-old
moments before his death? 
Do you need worse photos than infants 
decomposing?

Do you need worse 
videos?
Worse than civilians getting sniped? 
Worse than white flag-waving civilians getting sniped? 
Do you need worse videos than men stripped, lined up, and humiliated? 
Worse than the casual laughter of soldiers
upon executing a 72-year-old?

Do you need worse 
rhetoric? 
Worse than referring to Palestinians as “animals” and “beasts”? 
Worse than the declaration that there are no innocents within Gaza?
Worse than the invoking of Amalek?
Worse than – QUOTE  
“a Nakba that will overshadow the Nakba of ‘48”?
Worse than – QUOTE
“destruction like what happened in Dresden and Hiroshima”?
Worse than – QUOTE 
“no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed”?
Worse than – QUOTE 
“we will eliminate everything”?
Worse than – QUOTE 
“Gaza should be left as a monument, like Sodom”?
Worse than – QUOTE 
“Erase Gaza”?

Are there any words from any leader, out loud in the open, 
that you would deem acceptable
as evidence
for a trial?

Are there any examples?
Any?
If so, how bad do they need to be? 
And how many more 
do you require?

What about healthcare workers? 
Rescue workers? 
Aid workers? 
Journalists and their families? 
Do you really need more evidence?
Do you really need worse?

Worse than engineered famine?
A violation so stark
that even the United States
did not predict it.
A stage of barbarism so naked
that an ally already complicit
through the supply of weapons and official blessing
finds itself hatching schemes
to get in food aid.

I know. “Tragic.
But October 7th happened. And Hamas still exists.”

It doesn’t matter
that, under international law, 
there is no justification for crimes against humanity. 
That if October 7th had been one hundred times worse, 
two hundred times worse, 
it still would not justify
a single war crime. 

All that matters
is whether or not you cling
to the answer.
Whether or not you can stomach saying the words
one more time.
“October 7th happened. Hamas still exists.”

Ahmed Alnaouq lost 21 members of his family.
“October 7th happened. Hamas still exists.”

Khitam Attaallah Elian lost 42 members of her family. 
“October 7th happened. Hamas still exists.”

Hind Rajab was six years old, 
trapped in a car with her cousin family, 
who were all killed in front of her. 
She was killed later, 
as she waited to be rescued. 
The charred remains of the two men
and the ambulance sent to rescue her 
were found just within sight 
of the bullet riddled car.

I know. “Tragic.
“But October 7th happened. And Hamas still exists.”

I get it.
You don’t need worse.
You just need the words.
“October 7th happened. Hamas still exists.”
“October 7th happened. Hamas still exists.”
All accountability. All responsibility. All guilt. All shame.  
It’s all washed away.

Even the desire for justice. 
Washed away.

For, in all the citing of October 7th I have heard, 
not one has called for an independent criminal investigation
into the events of that day. 
To thoroughly fact find and document 
each and all cases of terrorism, 
so the perpetrators of that terrorism, 
as well as those who gave the orders, 
may be tried and brought to justice. 

The victims of October 7th
certainly deserve this. 
However, those who defend the slaughter in Gaza 
and do so in those victims’ names, 
in the hostages’ names,
do not call for such independent criminal investigations. 
Because they know 
they can neither acknowledge nor endorse 
any semblance of process. 
Any semblance of transparency. 

For anything even resembling impartial process, 
anything that could be held up for the world to see, 
could then be demanded 
for the crimes committed 
in October 7th’s aftermath. 

That’s why it is important to not only say 
“October 7th happened.” 
But to follow with 
“Hamas still exists.”

By designating Hamas’ destruction as the goal, 
any violence in the service of that mission 
is recognized to be both necessary
and committed with the purest of intentions, 
thereby pardoned before 
the act of violence itself is even taken. 

Forever!…
or as long as 
“Hamas still exists.”

“October 7th happened. 
Hamas still exists.”
Our side is justified. 
Our side has the purest of intentions. 

It really is that easy. 
Just say the words
and you too
can smugly feign ignorance
of this most elementary truth.
That in a moment like this
there can be no defense,
none whatsoever,
based upon intention. 

Claiming good intentions 
is too convenient. 
Even the most vile of character can avail of it.

When weapons of war are put to their use, 
there are no intentions to consider. 
There are only anticipated consequences.

For example, 
to make hospitals inoperable 
and to then drop bombs on nearby residential areas, 
is to guarantee that children will be brought in 
in need of surgeries and amputations. 
Surgeries and amputations that will have to be done 
without anesthesia. 
Such an operation, without anesthesia, 
can only be described as torture. 
More specifically, 
medical torture.

Can you imagine a six-year-old girl 
having to endure this? 
Can you close your eyes
and imagine it? 
If you cannot, there are videos 
you can watch. 

These things, these horrible things, 
are anticipated consequences. 
They are easily foreseeable.

Are they
not enough? 
Is this example, on its own, 
not enough?
Is setting the table for the medical torture of children 
not enough? 

When actions like this are taken 
and then so casually dismissed,
it is hard for the mind not to drift
into the past. 

Should we go to that place?
Should we make those comparisons? 
Should we stack these comparisons? One after another. 

Isn’t that
what you were counting on?

For those who were waiting for me to get here,
for those who can hardly hide their smiles as they prepare
to howl antisemitism 
at even the hint of such a comparison, 
or the mere use of words like massacre or mass murder or genocide,
the irony 
is instructive.

Because you are correct. 
This is not Nazi Germany; this is not the Holocaust.

It is
its own
evil. 

And it warrants 
a name
 
all its own.

The term will be for the Palestinians to create,
the Palestinian poet
the Palestinian doctor
the Palestinian mother
the Palestinian orphan.

But always remember
it was you who commissioned it.
It was you who demanded

a separate word
be given to history.

A term 
that will attach itself

not only to those
inside of Israel
who gave the orders
who carried out the orders
who cheered on the orders
who came out to block aid
who laughed and mocked the dead
who knowingly spread the lies
who called for the siege and the slaughter 
to be intensified,

but also to those who pledged their voices
outside of Israel.
To learn a melody and sing
over the rhythm of bullets and bombs. 

From the propagandists
to the politicians.

From the mercenaries 
to the true believers.

Those who defended
undeterred
as the numbers went higher.
Those who debated
without wavering
as the accounts grew more horrific.

Those who knew
in their hearts
to not call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire
day after day 
week after week 
month after month
was to insist 
there must be more killing
and more
and more
and worse 
and more. 

The same enablers
rationing their influence
to the censuring and smearing 
of anyone daring to call the deaths
anything greater than “regrettable”,
you must know
it is your own name you sink
to the bottom. 

Your place waiting
in an exhibit
somewhere along the walls
of a museum
to be built from shattered bones and concrete
and the word
you made
inevitable. 

All because it wasn’t enough.
You needed worse.
You needed worse.
You needed
something worth more 
than the lives
of Palestinians.

And now 
you will have that.

You can tell yourself that 
every drop of blood is justified. 
No matter the scale, 
no matter how fiendish the killing gets.
You can dismiss every soul lost as nothing
less than necessary.

But you cannot dismiss 
what is coming.

A name is coming. 

A word
for the survivors, 
for the perished, 
for the perpetrators, 
for the accomplices, 
and for those who emphasize its special relevance 
with their denial.

But you know very well
there can be no denial.

There can only be
a disguise to wear 
hereafter.

How much time is left

before your obituary is eclipsed
by an asterisk?

Then again.
There are still lives to be saved. 

There is still time
for you

to speak aloud.
“This is too far. It must stop.” 

If protests and pressure and international outrage are but an annoyance,
if the accumulation of reporting elicits but a yawn,
if you will not bend for the sake of Palestinians,
if you will not act to save the lives of Palestinians,
will you not act
to save yourself?

Even if you do not mean it,
even if it pains you to utter it.
If you can pretend 
well enough,
if the weight of your name 
counts enough,
to help
in the preemption of what we can all see,
where all of this 
is leading.

Then.
Maybe.

But if you wait
and leave this moment’s end
to the whims of vengeance,
to the depths of the fog,
and all the little opportunities
that ethnic cleansing offers,

what happens to your remembrance
will be of your own doing.

The word is already
on the way.

Like Srebrenica. Like Rwanda. Like East Timor. Like Cambodia.
Like the Nakba.
When someone voices it
people will know.

And they will know
about you.

“October 7th happened. 
Hamas still exists.”
These statements are no less true
than when you started proclaiming them.

But how much time is left
for you 
to also proclaim?

“This is too far. 
It must stop.” 

For now
the word is Gaza. 

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