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Each time we reach out our hand they cut off one of our fingers
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TODAY THE SUPREME COURT
sent Aryeh Deri to jail
for Bribery.
The first Moroccan-born politician
capable of being prime minister
will go to jail
the day after 9 Av, date
of the temple destruction
A land of prophets
a land of prophet killers
He talked of love and got hate
from a supreme court that knows
the meaning of discrimination
All the members being ashkenazim
with one Arab and one Sephardi
to cover their shame with laurels
The president of Israel left just yesterday
his post, he received bribes, he will
have to go to his 2m$ villa in Ceasaria
to rest from his difficult job
he admitted to receiving half million $
but he will not go to jail
A law for the rich and a law for the poor
a law for sephardim and a law for ashkenazim
And still I know that Aryeh Deri is free
because his soul is free
because he said what he thought
and the judge is in jail
because he caries his ghetto
wherever he goes
And still I know no justice has been done
and Aryeh Deri committed no crime
except being a Sephardi
who will not play by the rules
of creating a Sephardi party
now 15% of the parliament
of being the only party to speak for the poor
the dispossessed, for people who have been amputated
not only from their possessions, but from their memory
from their pride from their freedom and from their will
And
I am Aryeh Deri
twenty years old after publishing
two poems in the most prestigious literary magazine
sitting in front of the editor
telling me that there is not a chance
that I'll write a great poem like the one she published
never again
I
am Aryeh Deri my manuscripts being
rejected by all the publishers and wondering
what was wrong with me
I am Aryeh Deri
doing a great translation of Edmond Jabes to Hebrew
and being told that it was not good enough
just after I was invited to the Hebrew university
to give a lecture on the translation
I was never good enough for them and just wondered
what I had to improve
but there was nothing to improve
I could never be part of them
I just didn't know it back them
I am Aryeh Deri
when people said I didn't look
like a Moroccan as if it were
some kind of compliment
I am Aryeh Deri and I am going to jail
free as he is
the freedom of never lying to yourself
the freedom the judges never dreamt about
and I am Aryeh Deri writing in English
because they will not publish my poems in Hebrew
especially not this poem
J'accuse J'accuse J'accuse
this is the land where law is not equal
this is a land where judges are full of prejudices
this is land where being Moroccan and talented
is a threat
J'accuse J'accuse the supreme court
of being a court of discrimination
and of being a court that defends
the interests of mediocre people
and I am Aryeh Deri arriving to Israel
at the age of twelve and refusing to forget
and refusing to adapt to the common lies
of coming from a culturally-deprived country
I am Aryeh Deri
and today I know how come 3/4 of our prisons
are inhabited by sephardim
I am half of these prisoners
unjustly incarcerated
and I am Aryeh Deri tonight with his family
with his children and their tears
and I am Aryeh Deri this is the
saddest day of my life
I am Aryeh Deri for I know
he talked of love and each time he
reached out his hand for peace they cut
off one of his fingers
and all I have left is my middle finger.
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12.7.2000
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SOME EXPLANATIONS:
Sephardim are Jews from Arab countries, mostly from Morocco, Irak, Yemen, and the Maghreb. Ashkenazim are Jews from Europe, mostly Poland, Russia and Germany. The trial of Aryeh Deri started ten years ago when the journalists asked how did Mr. Deri buy a flat of 5 rooms in a very cheap district of Jerusalem, Har Nof. No one has ever asked how many other politicians or supreme court judges lived in Big Villas. Mr. Deri was the youngest minister ever in Israel at the age of 29. He always spoke of the discrimination of the sephardim and was the head of the Shass party, a religious-sephardic party that now has 17 posts in the parliament. This party is accused of all the illnesses in this country, in spite of the fact that their influence is more symbolic than real. The only real achievement is a chain of schools in the most deprived zones of the country where 40,000 children learn.