Yemen by Haithem Al-Ezzi

At one time, peace and calm prevailed throughout my city, and everyone was sleeping in tranquility. Suddenly, without any previous alarm, there were horrible and unspeakable voices everywhere. We saw people being killed, body parts flying, ground burning, houses being destroyed, children screaming. Everyone was crying, the sky was lighting up, and everyone was wondering and asking one another, ”What is that? Is it the day of resurrection?” But it was the voices of aggression attacking my homeland without mercy killing children who had done nothing wrong, and burning out all the beautiful things without paying attention to anything. My homeland is going into the dark abyss without returning. My homeland is absolutely dying.

كُنّا نائمين بسلام

في ذات ليلةٍ كان الهدوءُ والسلامُ يعمُّ أرجاء مدينتي، وكانَ الجميعُ نائمينَ بسلامٍ وطمأنينة.

وفجأةً وبدونِ سابقِ إنذارٍ تهبُّ علينا أصواتٌ مفزعةٌ من كل جهة. فنرى أشخاصًا تُقتَل، وأشلاءً تتطايرُ، وأرضًا تشتعلُ، وبيوتًا تُهدمُ، وأطفالًا تصرخُ. الجميعُ يبكون، والسماءُ تضيء والكل يتساءلُ..

ماهذا؟! هل هي القيامة؟! فإذا هي أصواتٌ العدوان تقصف وطني دون رحمةٍ، تقتلُ أطفالهُ وابناءه دون أي ذنبٍ، وتحرقُ كل الأشياءِ الجميلةِ دونَ أن تكترثَ لشيء. حينها علمتُ أنَّ وطني ذاهبٌ إلى الهاويةِ دون عودة.. وطني


Children’s Celebration. Birth of the Prophet Muhammad. Sana’a, Yemen. المولد النبوي














Addendum: today, January 19, 2020, Facebook has just censored a photo I posted last May during Ramadan that had been sent to me by my student, Haithem. I will include it here along with what I wrote on Facebook at that time.


May 18, 2019

This is what American subsidized bombs, Saudi driven, are doing, as we speak in Sana’a, Yemen. An old student of mine was in the next building asleep. He thought he was going to die, and has been having, like many others there, stomach and intestinal problems. Not much food, hardly a doctor, roving gangs at night, not much government, chaos. Do you want your passport stamped to get out? Good luck. Do you see any enemy? This photo may be censored. It’s happened on my student’s timeline. “They,” the robot control at Facebook, don’t want us to see what American tax dollars are doing during Ramadan in Yemen.


Photographs by Haithem Al—Ezzi


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