Hello, all.
Below you’ll find a poem, a link to several relief organizations on the ground in Palestine in need of funds, and a few links to articles explaining why #freePalestine is not antisemitic, but a call for a future that we must begin working towards.
Reject antisemitism. Reject Islamophobia. Yes, reject Hamas, but don’t get fucking bogged down in the notion that Hamas is the issue. And don’t demand that people condemn Hamas as a means of proving something to you! Hamas is problematic, but it’s the forward to the book that is this time of crisis. Start reading the actual chapters of that book.
The notions of #freePalestine and decolonization require the imagining of a world in which one people does not have to eradicate another in order to validate its existence. A world in which countries do not get to use each other in order to play chicken over resources, access, and power. We can choose differently. I urge you to.
-AKC
and still, you insist the tree does not respond when the axe speaks to it
Death does not
become anyone silently
when borne
on blood
like this.
In the wake of so felled a forest,
fires rage. The morgue,
its lumber,
pulp, heartwood
bursts bounds
presumed drawn
to new flesh
easily consumed,
rage leaping
body to body.
This is how
the world ends. First,
one.
Then another.
Then—
ravaged moonscape
unshadowed,
the last light
of a choked sun
— nothing.
Local Palestinian Organizations Responding to the Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza
“At BuildPalestine, we believe it’s time to shift the focus to directly empowering local organizations that are at the forefront of responding to the ongoing crisis. These organizations are not only providing essential humanitarian aid but also crucial psychological support to the affected communities.”
“Many people are critical of the state of Israel. As Israel is a state among nations, it must bear criticism of its actions the same way that every other nation must bear criticism of its actions. Labelling all criticism of Israel as antisemitic, as is often done, is an attempt to elide Israel’s responsibility in the world, impugn the character of the critic, and draw attention away from very real acts of antisemitism that are happening, which puts Jewish people further at risk.”
Article: “The Left is Not “Anti-Jewish,”” The National, November 6, 2023
“The liberation of Palestine and ending the Israeli occupation is a bedrock leftist position for which millions of people—and countless Jews—have fought. It is rooted in a just demand: that Palestinians not live under occupation. Some believe in a two-state solution, others in one state with equal rights for all. But they share a position of ending what people from former president Jimmy Carter to the Rev. Desmond Tutu have recognized as Israeli apartheid. We should be proud to stand in the tradition of people ranging from Muhammad Ali to Howard Zinn in fighting the injustice of occupation.”
Article: “As a British Jew, I Say: Not in My Name,” Tribune Magazine, October 20, 2023
“There are lines that need to be drawn. Opposing the actions of the Israeli government is not the same as supporting the atrocities of Hamas. Neither is providing the relevant history against which all this violence is taking place — history which most recently includes a 17-year-long blockade on Gaza that has limited the movement of food, building materials, and people throughout the area, and which itself flows on from years of occupation and the Nakba. Acknowledging such context is not apologism. Historical context is a precondition for progress toward any kind of just peace.”