Palestinian Firecrackers and Zionist Bullets

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

I live atop the southern mountain of Nablus, and before me I can see many Palestinian villages and Zionist settlements. The sight and the sound are striking, especially at night.

I look at the Arab villages — Tell, Sarra, Yasid, Bazzariya, Deir Sharaf, Kafr Laqif — and I see firecrackers bursting out from them. It is clear there is a wedding or a graduation. Fireworks of every shape and color shoot up from these villages, along with the sound of blaring music and the voices of singers glorifying those present and the political leaders, and threatening enemies and rivals.

…the Palestinian singer who threatens them with dark days ahead. I have never once seen firecrackers burst out of a settlement, but I do see green land spreading around them, because they are busy reclaiming the bare hillsides.

This reminds me of 1967, when the Zionist Jews flooded into our cities in the West Bank to buy up whatever goods we had. The Zionist entity was, at that time, saving its money in order to build the state; its women did not wear silk, nor did they sleep on soft beds. Consumer luxuries were to be found among the defeated, not among the victors. They saved so that they could win; we spent so that we could be defeated.

Defeat has its roots, no matter how loudly the folk singer belts out songs of victory.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “المفرقعات الفلسطينية والرصاصات الصهيونية” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.