Passing the mic.
Here are fundraisers I have adopted from Palestinians who reached out to me directly.
I am also including links to:
A spreadsheet with fundraisers for Palestinian, Sudanese, and Congolese victims as well as other campaigns globally.
A thread of Palestinian GFMs that have not met their goals.
A thread of Sudanese GFMs that have not met their goals.
We must return
No boundaries should exist
No obstacles can stop us
Cry out refugees: “We shall return”
Tell the Mts: “We shall return”
Tell the alley: “We shall return”
We are going back to our youthPalestine calls us to arm ourselves
And we are armed and are going to fightWe must return
This poem by Palestinian poet Harun Hashim Rashid was scrawled in Malcolm X’s diary during his 1964 visit to Gaza. His final words, written before his assassination, were a condemnation of Zionist colonialism. The first line of a NYT advertisement sponsored by the Committee of Black Americans for Truth about the Middle-East in 1970 reads:
We, the Black American signatories of this advertisement are in complete solidarity with our Palestinian brothers and sisters, who like us, are struggling for self-determination and an end to racist oppression.
Afro-Palestinian solidarity has a long and rich history. It is extremely important to me to continue this legacy until liberation is achieved. Last week, I wrote a piece that I hoped would emphasize just how vile and inhumane it is to accuse Gazans who are fundraising of being scammers or spammers regardless of a website’s “Terms and Conditions” (which are already made up by humans and can be changed by humans).
Today, I am passing on the microphone to my Palestinian friends. I’m not a journalist, but I tried to ask questions that were diverse, easy to answer, and at the very least, not overwhelmingly ignorant. This article will be updated as others respond to me.
Noor Hassan and her sister Nasra are both mothers trying to evacuate their children from Gaza. Here is a link to her gofundme.
Me: Where are you from, and where are you now?
Noor: I’m from Palestine, Gaza, Al-Nuseirat
Who are you with?
Noor: My children and I lived alone.. Now we don’t have a house…. I went to live with my family…
I imagine that it’s difficult to have a “normal” day under occupation, but do you have any routines that you’ve adapted?
Noor: There is no new routine in our lives … Our life has become difficult.. We wait for death at any time
Is there anything that’s been bringing you joy, or peace, or comfort?
Noor: Nothing in Gaza brings joy and happiness … But there is one thing for me is my happiness.. They are my children
How has it been trying to access social media from where you are? What are the difficulties in obtaining internet access?
Noor: The internet is very difficult here… And access to the Internet was very difficult at the beginning of the war. We were risking ourselves to go to other places where there is Internet.
How has it been trying to crowdfund online?
Noor: My experience of trying to collect money online I was shy at first because I am ashamed to ask for money from someone.. But this has become above our control… I had not to be ashamed to collect money so that I and my children would live in safety outside Gaza.
What is your impression of the grasp that westerners, particularly Americans, have on the situation? Are there things that pictures and videos just can’t convey?
Noor: I have many Western friends who understand my cause and support my cause and support me … Yes, there are many things that cannot be photographed
Is there anything you would say to people who doubt how much suffering is going on?
Noor: I live a very difficult suffering, there is no electricity and water, and there is no one of the main elements of life … We go to other places to get water….
What’s the first thing you hope to do when the occupation ends?
Noor: When the war ends … I will gather my children, sister and her children and go to Egypt… Because even after the war, Gaza will not be liveable.
At the time of writing this, Noor’s fundraiser is at $23k out of $50k — almost halfway fulfilled.
Mahmoud Al Dalo learned English to speak out about Palestine. He is an English teacher, translator, writer, computer engineer and used to stream games before Israel’s latest assault. He is trying to evacuate his four immediate family members out of Gaza. His fundraiser can be found here.
Me: Where are you from, and where are you now?
Mahmoud: I’m from Gaza and I’m now in the middle of Gaza .
Who are you with?
Mahmoud: I’m with more than 8 families at the same place ( about 50 people ).
I imagine that it’s difficult to have a “normal” day under occupation, but do you have any routines that you’ve adapted?
Mahmoud: It’s too difficult to have a routine in such a situation , but what is important to be provided everyday are water, food, wood for cooking and safety ( safety is the hardest thing because in every moment we are under bombs ).
Is there anything that’s been bringing you joy, or peace, or comfort?
Mahmoud: Joy, peace and comfort are things we forgot about them from the beginning of this war.
How has it been trying to access social media from where you are? What are the difficulties in obtaining internet access?
Mahmoud: The Internet is almost unavailable here in the north of Gaza, and if we can connect to it for one or two hours a day it would cost too much and it’s a poor connection that you could not open a video.
How has it been trying to crowdfund online?
Mahmoud: It’s too difficult, because of internet connection and that I don’t have strong accounts on social media or anything that could make my campaign reach a lot of people .
What is your impression of the grasp that westerners, particularly Americans, have on the situation? Are there things that pictures and videos just can’t convey?
Mahmoud: Generally , no matter what we see or hear about what the outside world is doing for us, the only thing that will make us believe them will be their ability to stop this Genocide.
Is there anything you would say to people who doubt how much suffering is going on?
Mahmoud: If anyone doesn’t believe all of this suffering, then he is not a human, however he can come over here and live only for one week, I’m sure that he will have a heart attack before the week ends , that in case he didn’t bombed befor that .
What’s the first thing you hope to do when the occupation ends?
Mahmoud: The first thing I hope to be able to do is scream and cry .
I am so grateful to my friends for taking the time to pick up the mic. Reading these responses broke my heart. I cannot imagine what you all are going through.
As I await more responses, I will continue to do everything I can to boost and elevate the voices of my Palestinian siblings. Here is a spreadsheet with fundraisers for Palestinian, Sudanese, and Congolese victims as well as other campaigns globally.
Final thoughts:
Aspersions being cast on people seeking mutual aid is nothing new. But in the middle of a genocide, restricting Palestinian voices goes well beyond poverty-shaming, into lethality. I don’t regret my previous article, but wish I could have done it in a way that prevented the oppressor from snatching the microphone. In a perfect world, once they have shown their colors, white supremacists and western chauvinists should never be allowed to defend themselves. They will go to any lengths to disguise their sociopathy, crafting a labyrinth of deflections and excuses. Flaws in any criticisms of them become grounds to discard it altogether. Conversely, when white supremacists defend themselves, vanguards of like-minded chauvinists wriggle out like worms pushing out of the dirt as it rains. Dogpiles and discourse obliterate the capacity for critical thought. Narcissism and megalomania have the last laugh.
I have done a lot of things wrong in my life, but I desperately want to be on the right side of history. Watching people turn genocide into a thought experiment is so spiritually painful that I would be on the wrong side of history if I didn’t use every asset and outlet available to me to speak over them.
Once again, here are fundraisers I have adopted from people who reached out to me directly:
And links to:
A spreadsheet with fundraisers for Palestinian, Sudanese, and Congolese victims as well as other campaigns globally.
A thread of Palestinian GFMs that have not met their goals.
A thread of Sudanese GFMs that have not met their goals.
