Silence

The day will come, when you will beg for my forgiveness.

I, the child blamed, the one innocent of your crimes,

I, the grandfather, farmer of a land stolen,

I, the grandmother, singer of ballads forgotten,

I, the father, carer of a family torn asunder,

I, the mother, nurturer of a home cowardly demolished,

I, the colonized, the oppressed, the evicted,

I, the persecuted, the starved, the forgotten,

I, the imprisoned, the tortured, the assassinated,

I, the Palestinian, will stand forever tall, and

We will never forgive your silence.

Lilas Taha is a novelist, winner of the 2017 International Book Awards in the Multicultural Fiction category and is the author of Shadows of Damascus and Bitter Almonds.