& how do we bear witness? & how do we go on?
Week in Links: Issue No. 13
“The moment we face now is apocalyptic, the engines of destruction roaring at our gates and in our skies. Each moment is an atrocity. Genocide has begun. But Israel is mistaken if it believes this will be the final word. Palestine will live.“
— Sarah Aziza, “Doomsday Diaries”
For the past two and a half weeks my days have been the same. I wake up, I check social media, I cry. I watch videos of people digging through rubble with their bare hands to save their family members, their community members, even stray kittens. I watch videos of doctors desperately trying to save injured and dying children without clean water or anesthesia. I watch people in shock, in unimaginable grief. People who have lost their entire families in one day. Doctors identifying their loved ones among the deceased brought in on their shift. Parents holding the bodies of their children, babies, babies. I call and email my representatives. I refresh and repost and I cry.
But today felt different. Worse. No news coming out of Gaza. Israel cut all lines of communication. All we know is that the Israeli airstrikes are the heaviest they’ve been. All I know is that if they were willing to murder over 7000 people with the entire world watching, I’m terrified of what they’re doing in the dark.
All I’ve been thinking, all I can think is I’m so sorry.
I’m sorry that my tax dollars are paying for this. I’m sorry that I haven’t been louder before about my support for Palestinian liberation. I’m sorry that your grief has to be filmed and subtitled in English for people like me to see. I’m sorry that despite our outrage and tears, posts and calls and protests, this is still happening—
& so mingled with the grief and the guilt I am also resolved. That their efforts will not be in vain. That Palestinian stories will be told and heard. That I will not sink in despair, that I will carry hope inside me because that is the very least I can do. That Palestine will be free.
In this newsletter I wanted to share some of what I’ve been reading; not only the think pieces and the news but also the poetry and literature that cut to the quick of it all, to our shared humanity. I hope you’ll take the time to read, that maybe some of the following will fill your cup. So that tomorrow we may wake again, grieve again, but also continue again. So that we may go on, with hope in our hearts.
A reminder to keep talking about Palestine and keep calling and emailing your representatives. Find a protest near you here and learn about the Boycotts, Divestments, and Sanctions (BDS) movement here.
Essays
“Doomsday Diaries” by Sarah Aziza | “‘They’re calling us terrorists, Sarah.’ My father’s voice is bewildered, wounded. For thirty years he has waited, sure that, one day soon, America will love him back.”
“The Palestine Double Standard” by Hala Alyan | “A slaughter isn’t a slaughter if those being slaughtered are at fault, if they’ve been quietly and effectively dehumanized — in the media, through policy — for years. If nobody is a civilian, nobody can be a victim.”
Poetry
“Naturalized” by Hala Alyan | “Can I pull the land from me like a cork?”
“The Interviewer Wants to Know About Fashion” by Hala Alyan | “Isn’t it a miracle they come back?”
“Nakba” by Sheikha Hlewa | “And she can’t bear meek women. She never once mentioned Nakba.”
“Mahmoud” by Maya Abu Al-Hayyat | “You’d have forgiven him, you’re kind like that.”
“Fuck Your Lecture on Craft, My People Are Dying” by Noor Hindi | “I know I’m American because when I walk into a room something dies.”
“Mimesis” by Fady Joudah | “My daughter wouldn’t hurt a spider…”
“On This Earth” by Mahmoud Darwish (2 other translations) | “She was called Palestine. Her name later became Palestine.”
Articles
“A Textbook Case of Genocide” by Raz Segal | “Israel has been explicit about what it’s carrying out in Gaza. Why isn’t the world listening?”
“A ‘McCarthyite Backlash’ Against Pro-Palestine Speech” by Alex Kane | “From university disciplinary hearings to death threats, supporters of Palestinian rights are facing a wave of reprisals.”
Podcasts
Books
The Hundred Year’s War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi | “For over a century, the Palestinians have been depicted in precisely the same language by their colonizers as have been other indigenous peoples.”
Courting Samira by Amal Awad | “I was living my very own Victorian-era-style courtship.” (A little different from the other things I’ve shared, this is a Palestinian-Australian romcom that brought me light and escape these past two weeks.)