The State of Israel is going

To general elections

But in the election campaigns

There is virtually no mention

Of the main, existential problem

Facing all who live in this country.

The West Bank is on fire,

As are the neighborhoods

Of East Jerusalem.

This is not “a wave of terrorism".

This is an uprising

Of young people

Making a simple

And self-evident demand:

To be a free people

In their country.

Armed with stones

And a few light arms,

Young Palestinians are facing

The strongest army

In the Middle East.

Many of them pay

With their lives -

And they are not deterred.

They continue their struggle.

Two soldiers were killed this week.

A young man and a young woman,

Israeli contemporaries of

The Palestinians they face.

These soldiers were not "murdered".

They were not "victims of terrorist attacks".

They fell in the battle to which

The State of Israel sent them.

They fell in an unjust war,

A war for maintaining

An oppressive occupation regime,

A war for the settlers

Who steal Palestinian lands.

A war which is not worth fighting

And certainly not worthy

Of sacrificing one’s life.

The real heroes

Of Israel 2022,

Are the refusers and

Conscientious objectors,

Held behind bars

At the Kfar Yona military prison.

The prison to which the army gave

The Orwellian name "Abode of Justice".

Young men who refuse to wear

The uniform of

An army of occupation and oppression

And prefer to go to prison.

Young women who reject with disgust

The distorted idea that for Israeli women

Taking part in the oppression of

Palestinian women and men

Is some sort of

"Women’s Empowerment".

They are the last remaining Israelis

In whom one can take pride.