Today marks the first Friday of protest after the 10th anniversary of the begining of the second intifada. All over the West Bank peaceful protest over the occupation of the Palestinian Territories was met with violence from the Israeli military.Although the Palestinian cause has not always been free from their own acts of violence, the current trend is towards non-violent measures, indicated by the Popular Committees in villages such as Bi’lin, Ni’lin and An Nabi Saleh near Ramallah, and al-Ma’sara near Bethlehem, and the work of intellectuals and community leaders, such as Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh.
Sadly, this movement has been met with hardship, such as the death of Bi’lin’s Bassem Abu Rahma in April 2009, amongst others, and the imprisonment of a great many individuals.
Despite this, these non-violent activists struggle on.
The Revolution Will Not Be Online
You will not be able to stay home, brother & sisters.
You will not be able to plug in, log on and cop out.
You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and,
Skip out for beer during downloads,
Because the revolution will not be online.
The revolution will not be online.
The revolution will not be brought to you by Intel
In 4 parts on youtube.
The revolution will not show you pictures of Bibi’s
Falsehood of peace and sanctioning murder by Man-
delblit, Ashkenazi and Lieberman, eating
Oranges stolen from a Jaffa grove.
The revolution will not be online.
The revolution will not be brought to you by Good
Morning America and will not star Natalie
Portman, Steve Carrell or SpongeBob and Patrick.
The revolution are not secrets under sea level.
The revolution is not just any …
The revolution will not ‘take a brake’ just to
consume, because the revolution will not be online, Brother.
There will be pictures of you and Abbas Suan
strolling the coastline from Haifa to Akko,
in a land now living in peace.
Fox News will not be able cover up 1948
or report from Samaria or Judea.
The revolution will not be online.
There will be no pictures of them gassing pregnant
mothers in the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of them abusing
children in the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of al-Ghawis being
run out of Sheikh Jarrah in chains of the occupier.
There will be no slow motion or still life of Haneen
Zoabi strolling through Silwan in a Red, White, Black and
Green liberation jillayeh that she had been saving
For just the proper occasion.
Bon Temps, The Biggest Loser, and Celebrity Big
Brother will no longer be so damned relevant, and
no-one will care about Tiger Woods’ bedroom mis-
takes and ‘high profile’ divorce because Palestinians
will be in the street looking for a brighter day.
The revolution will not be online.
There will be no highlights on Mabat News’ live
feed and no pictures of heavily armed
settlers and Alan Dershowitz stroking his crotch.
The theme song will not be written by Elton John,
Leonard Cohen, nor sung by Madonna, Rih-
anna, the Black Eyed Peas, or anyone on Time Warner.
The revolution will not be online.
The revolution will not be interrupted by pop-ups
about Taglit Birthright, City of David, or Israeli lies.
You will not have to worry about a dove on their wall,
the tigers in their tanks, or the settlers burning your olives.
The revolution will not go better with Coke.
The revolution is not natural, pure & balanced.
The revolution will not be the “vanguard of culture” .
The revolution will not be online, will not be online,
will not be online, will not be online.
The revolution will be no download brothers & sisters;
The revolution will be live.
The preceding was a re-working of Gil Scott-Heron’s poem “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”.
Mr. Scott-Heron is in no way affiliated with the International Middle East Media Center, but we thank him for his cancellation of his performance in Tel Aviv earlier this year.
