Gaza

One point eight million people surrounded on all sides
Refugees since ’48, since ’67, occupied
The only reason they’re not starving is down to the UN
Most have never left there, stuck in the lion’s den
The most crowded place on Earth, and there they’ll stay
They can’t visit cousins a half hour’s drive away
Drones overhead constantly
Who will die tomorrow, a daily mystery
In Gaza

The settlers moved out, fighter jets moved in
In Gaza there’s just no way you can win
You can’t take out a copter with an antiquated gun
You’re just a target sitting in the sun
Waiting for your death to come raining from the sky
Where the end really is nigh
You can hear a sonic boom and see a flashing light
Every hour of the day, every hour of the night
In Gaza

There are no shelters, nowhere you can hide
Life is nothing like it is on the other side
There’s nothing post about the traumatic stress
There’s never more, usually less
And still some people wonder, they insist on asking why
Anyone would be so mad as to reply
So mad as to think that it might make sense
To lob some missiles over the fence
From Gaza

Buy/share the album:

Sheet music:
Gaza

“Gaza” appeared on the 2014 Bandcamp album, When I’m Elected President, as well as on the 2014 CD (and Bandcamp album) Falasteen, Habibti (“Palestine, My Love”).

One of the things that most of the mainstream, English-language media that I pay attention to generally failed to do at the time of Israel’s summer 2014 demolition-from-air-land-and-sea of the Gaza Strip was to put the situation into any kind of historical or present-day context that makes sense. Nothing has ever started with “Hamas launched missiles” — not in reality. Hamas, and everything they have ever done, have been in response to Israeli atrocities. Take your pick which ones — they’re being committed daily. The embargo on Gaza is a war crime, and it is enforced daily. To say nothing of the frequent bombings, and hourly breaking of the sound barrier by jets above Gaza, causing fear and sleeplessness among the population — most of whom are children. To date, Israel has prevented the necessary supplies to be imported to allow for any meaningful degree of reconstruction. Another war crime.