Ways to take care:
part ten
Today, January 26th is the 112th day of the genocide taking place in Gaza. For the past 100 days+ little else has felt important. This violence continues to take place funded by US tax dollars and being enacted with US made arms.
In this newsletter I am sharing some links to articles, books, documentaries/ films that I have read, that I have watched, that I have learned from. Some that I have come back to, that I have sent to my parents, that I have shared with friends to learn more about Palestine.
The Palestinian Museum Digital Archive: an incredible archive, that you could easily spend hours in.
Our Catastrophe by Nadia Saah
View From My Window In Gaza + A Palestianian Poet’s Perilous Journey Out of Gaza + Palestine Is a Story Away: A Tribute to Refaat Alareer by Mosab Abu Toha.
The Right to Speak for Ourselves + Reflections on the 75th anniversary of the Nakba that Never Ended by Mohammed El-Kurd
Why Must Palestinians Audition for Your Empathy? ( the title was changed after it was published to the ‘Palestinian Double Standard’ ) By Hala Alyan
What Does it Mean to be Palestinian Now? by Noura Erakat, Ahmed Moor, Noor Hindi, Mohammed El-Kurd and Laila Al-Arian
“Imagining Myself In Palestine by Randa Jarrar” - everyone should read this essay and others in this collection.
Bye, Bye Tiberia’s by Lina Soualem which is still in theaters in LA until February 2nd, look online to try and find if its playing near you!
Foragers by Jumana Manna which I finally got to watch on Le Cinema Club this past week. It is no longer streaming there, but be on the lookout for future screenings.
Films for Palestine: Films for Palestine is an ever-expanding collection of Palestinian and Palestinian-adjacent films
Dena Takuri’s: How Israel Destroyed my Hometown + “They Could Kill Me at Any Time”: Life Under Israeli Occupation. These are two short documentaries one about the town of Hebron & Ahed Tamimi.
Growing up in Gaza in the dark by Matthew Cassell
All interviews with doctor Ghassan Abu Sittah who went to Gaza to provide medical care and left in mid November when he was no longer able to perform his duties. Here is a short documentary about him from 2003, A Palestinian’s Surgeon Return to Gaza.
‘Unprovoked Narratives’: A series of films celebrating the beauty of Gaza, its people, its struggle and its survival. The program aims to resist the demonisation of this beautiful place.
Gaza Surf Club : a documentary about a group of Palestinian Surfers in Gaza
Israelism: a documentary that came out earlier this year that I hope everyone watches.
Rachel Corrie Documentary: a documentary about the death of Rachel Corrie, a young American peace activist, crushed by an Israeli bulldozer in the Gaza Strip in March 2003, while she was trying to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian home
5 Broken Cameras : A documentary on a Palestinian farmer's chronicle of his nonviolent resistance to the actions of the Israeli army.
Democracy Now interviews: Mosab Abu Toha, Jimmy Carter, there are endless incredible interviews in their archive
eSims for Gaza: Purchasing eSims allows people within Gaza to connect to the outside to communicate with their families and also to show what’s happening within Gaza.
Gaza Mutual Aid Solidarity: “We are an ad-hoc group of volunteers who have loved ones in Gaza. Our goal is to give direct mutual aid to help displaced & distressed families meet their basic needs during these catastrophic times. For the last month, our main focus has been supporting multiple teams in cooking for hundreds of displaced families in Rafah, as well as providing clean water delivery.”
a note from my friend Amanny who is organizing this : “remember: fundraising, even as mutual aid, is NOT a replacement for meaningful & intentional engagement towards true liberation. It is NOT a replacement for protesting, direct action, BDS, taking money out of banks, joining strike, refusing normalization, or embodying the core principles that Palestinians have long dictated at the terms of our liberation. Our modest efforts are not done in the spirit of kinship & solidarity networks; NOT charity, not the mysterious blackholes of organizational structure. Our intention is to sustain life where genocide, mass starvation, forced displacement, and deprivation of all basic rights & human decency, threatens it.”
The ‘5Calls app’ makes calling your local and state representatives and asking them to call for an immediate and lasting Ceasefire SO incredibly easy.
