Have you thought about Palestine today?
Have you contacted your local politicians (US senator and representative/British MP/Canadian MP) to demand a ceasefire?
Have you reviewed the consumer boycotts organized by the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement?
Have you looked at the live tracker of casualties? When I last updated this, Israeli forces had killed at least 17,177 Palestinians in Gaza, including at least 7,112 children. How many more have died since then?
Have you kept up with today’s live updates of on-the-ground, political, and international developments? As I’m writing, the update page is subtitled “Israeli forces bomb Gaza from north to south”; a day later, “Six Palestinians killed in West Bank raids by Israel.” Under Israel’s hand, where is safe for Palestinians?
Have you heard what new terrors are unfolding in Gaza today? Since I started writing this post, Israeli forces captured groups of Palestinian men and boys—many civilians, some immediately recognizable by their friends, colleagues, and family members around the world—blindfolded and stripped them, and posed them on their knees in front of what appears to be a mass grave. (Since I first wrote this paragraph, some of the men have been released, after Israel leaked “degrading and humiliating pictures … to terrorise, humiliate and frighten the rest of the population,” according to Muhammed Shehada.)
Have you followed Palestinians reporting from Gaza and sharing their experiences? Journalists like Hind Khoudary, Motaz Azaiza, and Wael Dahdouh (whose family was murdered by Israeli airstrikes), filmmakers like Bisan Owda (whose home in Gaza City was bombed as I wrote this post), everyday residents and visitors like Afaf Ahmed, Muhammad Smiry, and Prince Kouta, people like you and me who want to be free.
Have you read a verse or a page or a chapter of Palestinian literature? I recommend some of my recent reads—Haifa Fragments by Khulud Khamis or Salt Houses by Hala Alyan.
Have you heard of Palestinian scholar and poet Refaat Alareer? As I wrote this, Israel murdered him, along with two of his siblings and four of his sister’s children, in a targeted airstrike. He was killed just over a month after writing “If I must die”. In harrowing lines—
so that a child, somewhere in Gaza
while looking heaven in the eye
awaiting his dad who left in a blaze—
and bid no one farewell
—Alareer predicted this ending, where his wife and children live on. Yet still he urges, “If I must die / let it bring hope / let it be a tale”.
Have you protested in solidarity with Palestinians? Every week, all over the world, people who stand for justice are organizing rallies, vigils, direct actions, teach-ins, marches, fundraisers, meetings, die-ins, countless ways to physically ally yourself with Palestinians and demonstrate to your government that it does not speak for you when it funds and enables genocide.
Have you mourned with the people of Palestine? For their dead; every hour, Israeli forces kill an average of fifteen Palestinians in Gaza, including six children. For their land; Israel has destroyed or damaged at least forty percent of housing in Gaza, destroyed ancient olive trees, and demolished the few parts of Gaza’s water infrastructure that remained after decades of Israel’s attacks on Gaza’s wells, water reservoirs, sewage plants, and water pipelines. For their historical and cultural institutions; since October 7, Israeli forces have attacked more than one hundred heritage sites in Gaza, demolished the Gaza municipality’s central archive and more than a century of documents, leveled the Al Qarara Cultural Museum and Rafah Museum, completely destroyed fifty-nine and partially destroyed 136 mosques (including, again as I wrote this, the oldest and largest mosque in Gaza), and reduced parts of the Church of Saint Porphyrius—said to be the third-oldest church in the world—to rubble.
What have you done for Palestine today?
Gwyneth–a hard read, but so powerful to see these resources and questions gathered up in one place! Thank you for writing this!