Rwanda: The Israel of Africa
after Solmaz Sharif
Boosting Africa ties,
Israel opens first embassy in Rwanda
“both with histories largely defined by genocide”
Amid Deportation Deal, Israel Backs Rwanda’s UN Move
to Rename 1994 Genocide
“‘as people who suffered the atrocities of the Holocaust”
President Kagame holds a joint press conference
with Prime Minister Netanyahu
“‘Words matter. They have the power to kill.’”
Is Israel exchanging arms
for refugees with Rwanda?
“4,000 African refugees were sent to Rwanda
as part of a voluntary departure programme”
Rwanda’s Kagame is First African Leader
to Address AIPAC
“engaging productively with Israel has opened new
horizons”
Rwanda, Israel Partner
in Border Protection
“the expansion in many fields including women’s
empowerment”
Beit Lahm, Palestine, June 2015
Holocaust part two
the graffiti on the wall reads.
The ghettos of Warsaw reflect back
through the tower window.
The graffiti on the wall reads
like a voice crying out in the wilderness.
Through the tower window, the soldiers patrol
a tourist economy conceived from genocide.
Like an epistle scratched into a cell wall,
Christ’s birthplace inscribes freedom.
In a tourist economy conceived from expulsion,
souvenir shops boast apartheid memorabilia.
Christ’s birthplace fights for liberation.
A small wooden nativity with a removable wall embodies the inevitable.
Souvenir shops of apartheid memorabilia
subsist off the voyeurism of the tourist and the tower.
A small wooden nativity with a removable wall embodies the future.
The ghettos of Warsaw reflect back an end.
The tourist and the tower ancient history.
The holocaust overthrown.
***
Author photograph courtesy of Gabrielle Spear
The author’s proceeds for these poems are being donated to Good Shepherd Collective
