Paris: Demonstrations for Gaza
- Photo essay by photojournalist Carole Kerbage, January 2009.
Photo: Carole Kerbage. Thousands in the Barbès district Paris in solidarity with Gaza.
Protests have swept the globe in response to the current Israeli attack on Gaza and thousands have taken to the streets in France this past week, including multiple demonstrations in Paris. Thousands gathered in the Barbès district Paris for a demonstration, while a major protest was staged in downtown Paris to protest the visit of Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who was hosted by French President Nicolas Sarkozy last week.
During the visit Livni openly turned down E.U.-driven proposals for a ceasefire claiming that “there is no humanitarian crisis in the [Gaza] Strip, and therefore there is no need for a humanitarian truce,” despite widespread reports from human rights organizations outlining massive shortages of medical supplies, food stocks, while thousands have been injured and over 400 Palestinians killed under the latest Israeli bombardment unleashed on the Palestinian people of Gaza.
Photo: Carole Kerbage. Protest against Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.
Photo: Carole Kerbage. Protesters chanting in Paris in solidarity with Gaza.
Photo: Carole Kerbage. Crowds in Paris protest Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.
Photo: Carole Kerbage. Protesters at Place de l’Opera, Paris.
Photo: Carole Kerbage. Major night time protest in Paris in solidarity with Gaza.
- Photo: Carole Kerbage.Hezbollah flag on the streets of Paris.
Carole Kerbage is a political science student and activist in Lebanese civil society, trying to create political and social change. Currently, she is a freelancer journalist, publishing articles in different Lebanese and Egyptian newspapers and taking photographs to develop photography skills and to support her journalistic work.
Collective Punishment
The citizens praise
eagles from hell
shelling year-old-hungry children
siege war
not to enter the fort
but to ban fruit and grain
Children forgot
the scent of fruit
they smell
gunpowder-coated blood
Citizens clap
the iron grip
of a remorseless occupation
millions of prisoners
A ghetto for all
would make Hitler green
All are guilty
they wear Palestinian skin
with stolen dreams
Citizens cheer
the beasts of steel
ready to engage
a child’s nightmare
All are guilty
so punishment for all
Alive but not living
in the records
wounded or dead.
Awaiting departure
from a life of misery
and pain.
A true martyr
is but the innocent.
And children
with what sin
have they died
Alive but not living
in Gaza
or the west bank
beating against a wall
and roads
of apartheid
and oppression
Awaiting the beasts of steel
and their eagles from hell
pounding mosque
school and hospital
abolishing the terror within
Child Sniper
I am child of Palestinian Gaza
Comment by farzad babadi — January 6th, 2009 @ 1:36 AMI shall be gone soon
along with my mother, father
and maybe my brother
I’ve learned to throw stones
but not to draw a flower
I walk to school a child
fearing a sniper tower
My sister was born in jail
a terrorist-in-training
My mother longs to see me
maybe another life
surely not this hour
My father dies this morning
in the middle of prayer
A mosque was flattened in Gaza
and the school
I loved walking to
despite the sniper in the tower