For five decades
From 1898 to 1948
By hook or crook
They vehemently schemed
To take possession
Of the land

To depopulate its people
Causing massive flight
And dispossession
By the force
Of their hand

Massacres and killings
House demolitions
Spreading mayhem and horror
By employing fear and terror
Wholesale robberies
Widespread pillages
Destroying towns and cities
Or razing old villages
In a deliberate scheme
That was meant
To reverse land ownership
From seven
To ninety-three percent

Hence, in the following
Five decades or more
They’ve created over
Five million stateless refugees
Living in limbo
In misery and unease
Holding tight to faint hopes
As well as to their
Rusting house keys

So for any Palestinian refugee
Who dared
To demand his rights
And be heard
The US Attorney
In the Middle District of Florida
Has weighed in and declared

With straight face
And measured tone
Said the US attorney
While invoking
No “politics” or “distortion”
The mighty US government
Is charging this Palestinian
And his fellow refugees
With the state crime:
“To drive out the Jews”*
The charge is extortion!

*Actual statement by the US government’s attorney on December 3, 2004 in front of a federal judge.