Dear Khader,
Dear Khader,
Khader Adnan, I salute you. Your decision to take this ultimate route of protest cries out to the whole world against the injustices that have separated you from your loved ones and your whole life.
I can only try to imagine the silent place you have chosen to visit in your human spirit on your journey to protest the evil you see around you.
I read a poem today - I hope it is not misinterpreted as inappropriate at this moment of terrible crisis. In a way that perhaps only poetry can, it has helped me try to understand a little more fully the courage of your decision. It helps me respect you more clearly and to express my admiration and awe your courage in being prepared to go as deep as life itself in your defence of what is true and authentic as against the superficial and banality of evil that oppresses you and your people. I presume humbly to attach it this greeting.
If I am to hear news of your death know we heard your cry of truthful farewell from a human spirit that enriches your family, your people and the whole world.
Thank you
Nicholas Postlethwaite
Inside
I am my own
geology, strata on strata
of the imagination, tufa
dreams, the limestone mind
honeycombed by the running away
of too much thought. Examine
me, tap with your words'
hammer, awaken memories
of fire. It is so long
since I cooled. Inside me,
stalectite and stalagmite,
ideas have formed and become
rigid. To the crowd
I am all outside.
To the pot-holing few there is a way
in along passages that become
narrower and narrower,
that lead to the chamber
too low to stand up in,
where the breath condenses
to the cold and locationless
cloud we call truth. It
is where I think.
R S Thomas
Dear Khader,
Everyday i wake up hoping you are alive and Israel has freed you. 62 days have passed and 62 times I've thought that what you are doing i wouldn't have done it in a million years, 62 times I've cried praying to Allah to make your struggle easy on you.
Even as i write this to you i cry not knowing the outcome of your struggle, hoping for the best, fearing the worst. Words escape as i try to encapsulate the impact your struggle has made.
I pray that you live a 100 years,
I pray that your struggle is not in vain,
I pray that Allah gives strength and courage to your family to pass these testing times,
I pray for the fulfillment of your struggle,
I pray for millions of Palestinians under Israeli opression,
Most of all i pray for the freedom of your homeland.
I pray that if you are martyred may Allah grant you a place in Jannat ul Firdous.
Usama Khan
There's an inner thing in every man,
Do you know this thing my friend?
It has withstood the blows of a million years,
And will do so to the end.
It was born when time did not exist,
And it grew up out of life,
It cut down evil's strangling vines,
Like a slashing searing knife.
It lit fires when fires were not,
And burnt the mind of man,
Tempering leandened hearts to steel,
From the time that time began.
It wept by the waters of Babylon,
And when all men were a loss,
It screeched in writhing agony,
And it hung bleeding from the Cross.
It died in Rome by lion and sword,
And in defiant cruel array,
When the deathly word was 'Spartacus'
Along the Appian Way.
It marched with Wat the Tyler's poor,
And frightened lord and king,
And it was emblazoned in their deathly stare,
As e'er a living thing.
It smiled in holy innocence,
Before conquistadors of old,
So meek and tame and unaware,
Of the deathly power of gold.
It burst forth through pitiful Paris streets,
And stormed the old Bastille,
And marched upon the serpent's head,
And crushed it 'neath its heel.
It died in blood on Buffalo Plains,
And starved by moons of rain,
Its heart was buried at Wounded Knee,
But it will come to rise again.
It screamed aloud by Kerry lakes,
As it was knelt upon the ground,
And it died in great defiance,
As they coldly shot it down.
It is found in every light of hope,
It knows no bounds nor space
It has risen in red and black and white,
It is there in every race.
It lies in the hearts of heroes dead,
It screams in tyrants' eyes,
It has reached the peak of mountains high,
It comes searing 'cross the skies.
It lights the dark of this prison cell,
It thunders forth its might,
It is 'the undauntable thought', my friend,
The thought that says 'I'm right!'
Our thoughts and prayers are with you.
I have written to the BBC today about their reporting on Palestine.
Dr Joseph O' Neill, Chair, Dialogue Project
Promoting dialogue between people from Christian Jewish and Muslim backgrounds, about Palestine, Human Rights, and the Holy Land
Stanlaw Abbey, Cheshire CH65 9BF
Dear Khader and family,
I honor and respect your decision, Khader, to continue your hunger strike until the authorities allow you your rights. Yet, I can’t tell you how much I want you to live, to be a father to your children, a husband, to live a decent and happy life.
Although I am an Israeli Jew, I am first and foremost a human being, as are you. Therefore your justified distress at how Israel treats you is very painful for me, as is the occupation and injustice to Palestinians. I still hope with all my heart that the people responsible for you will free you, will allow you at the least to have a decent and honest trial. Even though I know that this is not likely to occur, I still hope, and continue to do what I can to change the minds of those responsible for your condition.
With much love and respect,
Dorothy
Dear Mr Hague,
This is quite appalling. There has been no trial for Khader Adnan. He is in prison under ‘administrative detention’ – his eighth period of such captivity, totalling 6 years of such imprisonment.
This by the State which so many of our MPs, including yourself, are beguiled into calling their ‘Friend’. Where is the condemnation of this and much else of illegal and obscene behaviour by Israel
Yours in sorrow,
Ted Clement-Evans
L17 0EL