Palestine, Gaza, Women, Words

I was supposed to focus on Israel's dodgy visit to the White House this weekend, thinking about the elements not emerging in all the conversations had about it so far. But, some man and his sexual proclivities jolted the country off kilter, AGAIN. This time just possibly to a benefit (the MAGA are not pleased their Daddy might be the rapist we all said he is), but still the Epstein Denial-Confession sort of pulled all my attention. I do so viscerally want to see all those men removed from their communities, fortunes, and power. Enough with #DeathEaters.

So, let me get back to the matter of Palestine and Palestinian women. 

We are aware, and we are hungering for something to do that might heal the violence driving the harms and destruction as much as the harms and destruction. When I feel like I have nothing at hand, I read.

It's culture, art, our imaginations and our connections that heal. 

We are faced with (in this instance) two men engaged in ethnic cleansing and genocide operations, both men gleeful at the suffering, the rape, the death. 

We could reactivate a thing like #GazaRebirth started by Heather Marsh and Anonymous in 2014 to target fundraising and support for sustenance and rebuilding.

An interview with #GazaRebirth: a New Paradigm for Recovery Activism

After the most recent Hamas/IDF conflict, the people of the Gaza Strip had a heavy job to rebuild, never sure if THIS was the ceasefire that would hold as so many did not. #GazaRebirth, a new initi…

The Cryptosphereraincoaster

We know these are crimes, like those of Hamas, that we will have to prosecute if we want to set our countries right-side up again. None of these parties (people, or political parties) can hold power again. 

Hamas, Israel, Iran, Hezbollah, Qatar. The United States. All have truths to admit, violations to atone for, reparation to give. All have done or fostered the unspeakable that we must speak.

We know this is patriarchy's most distilled form: the destruction of the monster-other for profit, or fun, or both. 

So, here is a tiny, insufficient round up of Palestinian women speaking of and from their homeland and from the diaspora. 

Samma Khullar writing for Byline, reminds us that it's in the fine-grain of our lives we find our common being-human.

I am lucky that throughout this genocide, I cultivated connections with some of the kindest, most perseverant Palestinian women I have ever met. “Community” is a word that often feels overused, but what else describes the love present when sitting around, eating molokhia, and sharing the stories of our grandmothers? What other word describes the warmth in one’s chest when we realize we are all distant relatives, that our ancestral lands are fifteen minutes apart?

And these writers, similarly, take readers into the human dimension, the one from which all else can only be built.

Susan Abulhawa
A Palestinian-American novelist and human rights activist. Mornings in Jenin is a historical fiction of the impact of the Nakba on a Palestinian family and survival under occupation.

Hala Alyan
A Palestinian-American poet and novelist. Salt Houses explores the meaning of home in conditions of perpetual displacement for a Palestinian family. Her poetry is equally evocative of the experiences of diaspora, the sense both of lineage and indeterminacy.

Isabella Hammad
A British-Palestinian author. Her award-winning novel, The Parisian, follows a young man caught between his Palestinian identity and European experiences. 

Ahed Tamimi
A young Palestinian activist who gained international attention for her role in nonviolent demonstrations against the occupation. Her memoir, co-authored with journalist Dena Takruri, They Called Me a Lioness, sheds light on the daily realities of life under occupation and the power of youth activism

Standing by Each Other Through the Trouble

Lisa Ling reports for CBS on a group of women friends, Jewish and Palestinian, finding their hard ways through this nightmare together.

[The link in case the embed gets stripped out: https://youtu.be/-R4vb2YBrJA?si=vG25cGitORmhntTT]

We RadMatFem Gorgons are well aware nothing's neat or simple.

But: Gaza must live again.

And: A habit of humane and kind regard must take hold of our collective consciousness.