I stood in an olive grove in Beita,
And witnessed a killing at close range.
I returned carrying that memory with me,
And nothing I’ve known has been quite the same.
So we sailed the boats to break the blockade of Gaza,
And they’re flying us back down to Australia again.
Goodbye to Thiago, Juliette and Saiff,
Adiós, my friends, Suyria and Sam.
You won’t hear our names when you ride the big airplane,
All Israelis will call us is deportees.
The Palestinian father, he waded the river,
They took all his land and condemned him in life.
His brothers and sisters came searching for freedom,
And carried their sorrow through struggle and strife.
All of us illegal and many unwanted,
Our work contracts out, and we have to move on.
Six hundred miles to the Lebanon border,
They chase us like outlaws, like bandits, like thieves.
We died in our hills, we died in the camps,
We died in our valleys and died all over our land
We died beneath olive trees, died in lemon groves,
Both sides of the river we died just the same.
The skyplanes dropped fire over Gaza and Dahieh,
A fireball of lightning that shook all our hills.
Who are these friends now scattered like dry leaves?
The radio says they are just Palestinians.
Is this the best way we can grow our orchards?
Is this the best way we can harvest the fruit?
To fall like dry leaves and rot on the topsoil,
And all we have to face are the lies they tell about us.
Helen, a social worker and deportee from Israel, is expected to arrive in Brisbane early tomorrow. Her arrival is likely to be met by supporters of the Global Sumud flotilla.
It is difficult for anyone to endure an ordeal such as witnessing a person being shot while standing beside them, and then 12 month later to be kidnapped on the high seas and subjected to brutal treatment by Israeli commandos.
Such experiences leave deep scars.
Yet despite that, it remains necessary to continue showing support for the Palestinian people, who have seen, heard and lived through so much more.
Who knows how the authorities and legacy media here will treat such a person?
🇵🇸 Bring your flags, your kufeyyeh, and your enthusiasm.
📍 Brisbane International Airport Arrivals
🗓 Monday, 25 May
⏰ 6:25 AM
From info supplied Helen will arrive at Brisbane International Airport on Emirates flight EK434 at 6.25 a.m. Monday 25 May.
This time is provisional as international flight arrival times can vary.
Please note that, other things being equal, it will take between 20 minutes to an hour for our friend to get through customs.
A big thank you to Woody Guthrie for writing Deportee
Full title: Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos canyon)
Words (lyrics): Woody Guthrie, written in 1948.
Music: Martin Hoffman, who later set Guthrie’s poem to melody.
Ian Curr, 24 May 2026