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I Want (I Don't Want)

I don’t want our kids to meet at encounter groups, to learn to empathise with the “other”

I don’t want them to hear of the Holocaust, to learn how our homelands became our graves

I don’t want them to talk about the Nakba, the right of return, and how long it takes

I don’t want to fear that in my nascent country, we risk annihilation again

I don’t want to fear that in my exile, we risk losing the chance for a homeland

 

I want our kids to play together and never conceive that they are the “other”

I want to meet over coffee, as your friend

I want the Nakba to be forgotten, and “never again” to be so obvious we never have to say it again

I want the memory of war to be banished from our hearts forever

 

Carole St. Laurent

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