APRIL 2004

Deheisheh Refugee Camp

Ore and Rock

by Tamer.

I strolled in an imagined garden where I painted flowers, birds and plants in all the colors I knew… after a silence that was long and grave… I heard a sound from far away… a voice asking me to be the judge of what has come to pass… I lost all feeling except for the sensation in my legs that led me to the mysterious place…

I was aware of a deeply insightful voice… as if emerging from deep within the earth shattering the rocks… I was astonished… As I followed this voice in trepidation, horror and amazement… what was it? Rock that speaks… ore that protests and aches… How odd!

Rock: (addressing the Ore) why so miserable and hopeless? Your troubles seem to encompass the earth today.

Ore: Nay my friend, they have rather, reached the stars and are as aggressive as an eagle attacking his prey.

Rock: Tell me, what is this all about?

Ore: This is not all… my heart holds more in its depths… at the depth of the earth… far from all disputes.

Rock: tell me my friend… perhaps your ordeal will help me abide my own.

Ore: Hear me well my friend. My story tells how man failed and forsook the world. At the dawn of time when I was a child, nay an infant my father Ore and his next of kin were used by man to make weapons that championed good, justice and peace… We were used to make cages that imprisoned evil and tyranny.

Rock: This is beautiful my friend... Nay commendable. Your past is no cause for misery, grief or pain!

Ore: It has become but a painful memory in the countenance of time. Nowadays things are topsy-turvy… Man has changed.

Rock: What happened… How has he changed??!

Ore: We have been made to capitulate… to depart from justice and integrity… We have become bombs against truth, justice and peace… We have become cages to lock up the champion and the brave… It is the time when evil and tyranny go free to destroy the world of spirit and man… to plant an unimagined malice.

Rock: Stop my friend… No more. It is our time of which you speak… A time of survival of the strongest… In it goodness is interred… and human attributes slain.

Ore: Quiet… Quiet… It seems a creature is eavesdropping on our conversation… Perhaps a man… one that kills his fellow man… one that destroys glory and right.

It was then that Rock and Ore spotted me… Their voices faltered and fled… I was amazed… stunned, “Wait,” I said “Don’t go. I shall not touch you or kill you… I shall not even disagree… these are strange times devoid of security… Times when nature and trees have lost their rights… even human rights have been denied.  It is the time when safe haven is no more… and the dove of peace has been slain”…

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Tamer, 17 yrs, Lives in Deheisheh Refugee Camp, Palestine