Today is the international day for solidarity with the Palestinian people, These are a people who have experienced expulsion and ethnic cleansing for 75 years now. They have been living in what even former U.S. president Jimmy Carter called an “apartheid state”. Diasporic Palestinians are in many countries across the globe and provide cheaper labour in places like Jordan and Qatar, among other places. Below I include art and poetry by Palestinian artists and writers. I share too, a poem by Bertolt Brecht, German poet, playwright and dramaturge. I am sure he would have lent his voice to cry for a cease fire now. Equally I share a painting by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, symbolizing the joy of life. It is not without irony that the watermelon has been a symbol of Palestinian defiance and life inspite of the best efforts of the Israeli state to destroy them.

The critical attitude

Strikes many people as unfruitful

That is because they find the state

Impervious to their criticism

But what in this case is an unfruitful attitude

Is merely a feeble attitude. Give criticism arms

And states can be demolished by it.

Canalising a river

Grafting a fruit tree

Educating a person

Transforming a state

These are instances of fruitful criticism

And at the same time instances of art.

Bertolt Brecht