Freedom of Speech

They denied me my freedom of speech
Words I didn’t even get the chance to speak
But I guess my Arab education.
Makes me a threat to national security.
So much for the only democracy
Functioning in the Middle East

State funded racism.
Another word for Zionism
But don’t you know it’s the same thing as anti-Semitism?
That both ideas both practices call for the complete separation.
The denial of integration.
The foundation of the Jewish nation

Those ghettos in Germany
Are now settlements in Jenin.
The power is separating them based on the Hebrew ethnicity
Our Jewish brothers and sisters are again separated from the rest of society

The refusal of co-existence.
The suppression of all resistance

I am not anti-Semitic nor am I a Zionist
I’m what we call a humanist
A person who believes that all people have the right to exist
I am the opposite of a separatist

These are the words that I wanted to speak
When they isolated, interrogated
When they detained me and denied me my entry
Telling me that they didn’t believe
Telling me I was constantly changing my story

And as they stamped and labeled me
A threat to national security
They told me they were sorry.

But it wasn’t a real apology.
These were the words they were trained to speak
What they’re taught to say while serving in the military
In the only democracy
Functioning in the Middle East.

Long live freedom of speech.