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Pick a number between one and 37.
Do you have it in your head? Good. Keep it there for now.
It’s now a year since this newsletter started. Since then, a lot has changed and too much has stayed the same. The true number of people killed by Israel in Gaza will never be known, but recent estimates suggest it is far higher than the 45,000 reported by the Gaza Ministry of Health, which has all but collapsed.
Yet again, US officials are briefing that a ceasefire is imminent. Given that Israel and the US have scuttled ceasefire talks in the past, and Israel’s continual violation of ceasefires even when they take effect, whether this will mean genuine relief for people in Gaza remains to be seen.
If the ceasefire does take effect, though, a few very important things will happen. Under its terms, aid will begin reaching Palestinians in large enough quantities to save many lives. The Rafah border crossing, giving Palestinians for whom Gaza is no longer safe or viable an opportunity to find shelter in Egypt or elsewhere. Prices for basic necessities will come down — a 25-kilo bag of flour now costs as much as US$1000 — meaning fundraising efforts can provide greater support to people on the ground.
A ceasefire will not mean peace, let alone justice. The Palestinian occupation will continue, as will the apartheid system that underwrites it and the network of Western patronage and protection upon which it relies. I have no doubt that Israel will break the ceasefire if it eventuates, as it habitually does.
Acknowledging this reality does not lessen the urgency of the current moment or the opportunity it presents. Regardless of its limitations, a ceasefire will mean roughly two million Palestinians’ prospects of surviving the next few weeks and months — hopefully longer — will drastically improve.
For those of us who voice support for Palestinians, this is the issue at hand. It must be the point of our focus and our action. Palestinians are not an amorphous mass whose needs can be met with vague expressions of solidarity. They are flesh and blood. They need flour and water and insulin and mattresses and leg braces and cucumbers and smartphones and baby formula and space heaters and border crossing certificates. They are dying without these things.
Over the last few weeks, dozens of Palestinians in Gaza have messaged me. There are too many to provide details of every last one. Each message is a monument of pain. Lian Iayan has three brothers and two sisters. He is eight years old and has lived through three wars. Saeed is trying to raise money for his brothers Amr and Ahmed. Feda Mustafa’s father died.
“Frankly speaking, I am no longer interested in either studying or my goals, because everyone in my family only thinks about safety and getting rid of this crazy war, and how to get out of this miserable life,” says Ahmed Khaled Abu Shiha.
Do you still have that number between one and 37 in your head?
On Twitter I have compiled a list of every fundraiser that Palestinians in Gaza have sent to me. All 37 of them. The number you picked corresponds to a fundraiser in that thread. I am assigning you responsibility for it. To donate to it, to share it, to agitate for it, to reach out and offer support to the people behind it. If you need help reaching people directly, email me and I will put you in touch.
More than at any moment before this, you must inconvenience yourself. Don’t give enough that it feels good. Give enough that it hurts. Give enough that you have to grit your teeth when you hit the payment button. Give enough that your bank calls you to check you’re not being fleeced.
This is not perfect and it is not enough. That is not important. What’s important is the doing. If you do not give of yourself in this moment, when your money and your voice and your time have more power to prevent people in Gaza from dying than at any time in the last fifteen months, then there is nothing to be done. Delete this email and remove yourself from this mailing list. If the platform I have built cannot be used for this than it is good for nothing.
Very little money came in over the holiday break. It’s currently the middle of winter in Gaza, and people have frozen to death.
If you’ve got anything to spare, please consider giving some money to this fundraiser I’m running for Noor Hammad, a young mum in Gaza, and her baby daughter Hoor. Any money raised will be sent to Noor's brother Abdallah Abdalrahim, who lives in Sweden and can send her money directly.
Hoor turns one on Friday. It would mean a lot if we could help her and her family out.
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