The Need for New Words

This past Saturday, April 12, the Whatcom Coalition for Palestine hosted another public program featuring “Eight Families in Gaza: Amplifying Their Voices,”  the presentation I created in collaboration with members of the featured families, who generously shared their words, their photos, their writing, and their voices with us. My hope was to bring the families closer to my local community, to raise more support for them, and also to raise more awareness about the dangerous and dire conditions Palestinians in Gaza are being forced to endure and are trying to survive. I also hoped that people would be personally affected, and compelled to take actions to end the genocide.

Every time I give this presentation, I am also deeply affected. I have the deepest respect for these families, and feel that it is both an honor and a privilege to be able to speak and share about them. Words are mainly what I have to offer and to give. So I am using them in writing, in speaking, wherever I can. And I know that words on their own are not enough. But I hope that words will be a pathway to more--more connection, more support, more action, more awareness, more change. We need more of all of these things. 

After the presentation, about half of us stuck around to meet with coalition members, to process and talk and plan, and it was during that part of the event when I received a message from one of my friends in Gaza who had just woken in terror to the sound of nearby bombing, when the only remaining hospital in the north was attacked and destroyed by Israeli Forces, leaving patients with no safety, shelter, or medical care, as sick, wounded, and severely ill people were forced to flee into the dangerous streets. Israeli forces have been systematically and intentionally destroying all healthcare facilities, blocking all access to medical supplies, while also targeting, killing, and capturing healthcare workers, and creating conditions intended to inflict more pain, suffering, and death.

Last week, another friend of mine was trying to secure medical treatment for his parents who are ill because of the harsh living conditions and lack of clean water and food, and the clinic they were going to enter was bombed right before they arrived. Had they been moments earlier, they would not have survived. 

Meanwhile, the health crisis is growing increasingly serious with every passing moment. Israel's systematic attacks on the water infrastructure in order to destroy the water supply, while also using food and starvation as a weapon, continues unabated. Israel, and the United States are committing Crimes Against Humanity, genocide, violating all international laws, and engaging in violent acts of brutality that defy comprehension. And so far, nothing has been able to stop this.

Palestinians in Gaza are exhausted, fatigued, and starving. Everyone I talk to has lost weight, some of them have lost a dangerous amount. Everyone is sick with severe stomach pain and headaches. And the bombing, shelling, and drone targeting increases every night. The only thing helping people survive right now is the support they are receiving from those of us outside of Gaza who are sending them what we can, while we also try as hard as we can to end this.

This past Saturday, I was thinking a lot about words and actions, about how things are shared, about the power and shortcomings of language.  I posted on Twitter that I needed new words. I was sharing Moayed Harazen's post, as he was describing the water crisis, and I wrote:

“Just as starvation is used as a weapon, water & sources of water are also targeted & destroyed. I need different words to convey the seriousness of this. ‘Urgent,’ ‘critical,’ ‘emergency,’ ‘crisis’--these words are not enough. What words will finally compel the world to act?”

I keep thinking about how we do not know what it will be that will finally end this, which means we must keep trying anything and everything we can think of, while also thinking of new things to try. And while we are doing that, we absolutely must give as much support as possible to those who are trying to survive. This is more than critical and urgent--I do not have the words to describe how important this is.

Information About Donating:

You can find a list of links on the right side of this blog site where you can make direct donations to the families' campaigns online. And the eight families I have been trying to introduce to our local community are among them. And you can also find the links to the pages for the eight families on the Whatcom Families for Justice in Palestine linktr.ee. 

If you would prefer to give me your contribution so that I can distribute your donation myself, that also works and I am happy to do that. I have been accepting checks, cash, and payments via Zelle–whatever is easiest. Please feel free to reach out to me via email at clarissjanae@gmail.com and we can make arrangements.

Disability Justice for Palestine Online Event: April 15, 2025

During the public presentations, "EightFamilies in Gaza: Amplifying Their Voices," which I have been giving in my local community these past couple of months, I have begun by talking a little bit about the connection and intersection between Disability Justice and Palestinian Justice. I talk about mutual aid, collective liberation, the framework for disability justice, and how all of this has been part of my connection to Palestine. 

This week, on April 15, 2025 at 8 a.m. PST there is an online event, "Disability Justice in Palestine: Taking Action," organized by The Palestinian Disability Coalition, which includes members from "organizations of persons with disabilities, self-help groups, and activists with disabilities from all parts of Occupied Palestine, and also the Disability Justice for Palestine Collective, which is made up of disabled people, "researchers, human rights activists and advocates from all over the world working together to document the situation of Palestinians with disabilities and the crimes being committed against them, and advocating for justice and accountability." 

You can find out more about this event on the Disability Justice for Palestine Collective website, and register for the Zoom online. 

[Image Description: ONLINE EVENT: DISABILITY JUSTICE FOR PALESTINE: Taking action

APRIL15-11h EST/18h Palestine /Palestinian refugees with disabilities will join from Gaza, the West Bank and other locations to tell us what is happening to their communities in occupied Palestine. Join us, listen to their testimonies, and help us spread their voice! Register: https://bit.ly/DJPTA

Organized by THE DISABILITY JUSTICE FOR PALESTINE COALITION and THE PALESTINIAN DISABILITY COALITION / With support from WOMEN ENABLED INTERNATIONAL / ASL & IS interpretation and CART transcription into Arabic & English will be provided.]

Untitled

Of Births & Deaths - My birthday was one week ago last Monday on March 24. It was a landmark birthday, a birthday of deep reflection. I had the day off from work and I asked anyone who wanted to celebrate with me to please donate to my friends in Gaza. I did not get much sleep the night before, up too late, too worried, too much happening. After answering my morning messages from friends in Gaza, I tried to rest for a couple of hours. When I awoke and checked my phone, it was only to learn about the targeted killing and murder of beloved journalist, beloved son of Beit Hanoun, Hossam Shabat. Another journalist assassinated, another strong voice targeted, another beloved Palestinian gone, taken through extreme cruelty, brutality, and violence.

The shock, the grief, the overwhelming emotion felt and expressed by so many filled the day. I thought about the ways in which compounded grief can build and consume, triggering more memories of other losses, releasing unprocessed and ongoing traumas, and causing buried emotions to resurface as though the wounds are still new and fresh.

My birthday was a day of sadness, mourning, and grief. And it was also a day of deep appreciation and profound gratitude. I spent the day trying to raise more support for fundraisers to support families in Gaza, and I also received the most thoughtful and generous messages, photos, wishes and greetings from friends in Gaza, and from allies around the world. Messages, photos, words that touched my heart and soul on the deepest possible level. And I thought about how strange it is this world can simultaneously hold such contradictions and oppositions. How can it be a home to people who are so generous, so thoughtful, so kind and loving, and at the same time there exists people who are capable of committing and supporting horrific violence and cruelty? 

My birthday wish last Monday is one that I still have today: it is for us to do everything we can to support the people in Gaza who are trying survive, as we also do anything & everything to end the genocide & the occupation. May Palestine be free. May all oppressed people everywhere be free. May there be justice. May this  world be transformed. 

Every moment that passes and we are not able to stop this, we lose more loved ones, more lives, more universes, more possibilities of promising futures. And these losses are not just devastating to us and to the world, they are compounded by more trauma and grief. Immeasurable losses. Bottomless caverns of grief.

Everything was already urgent and dangerous because of Israel’s most recent illegal blockade that began on March 2, which cut off access to food, water, medicine, fuel, and urgently needed supplies of every kind. Despair was already widespread and life was already too hard. But with the return of the extreme violence and bombing, everyone is now also back to living in constant fear and danger, while also trying to survive the harshest and most extreme living conditions. 

People are back to trying to soothe their children and babies who cry as the bombs fall. Back to trying to dig out their friends and families from beneath the rubble of what collapsed structures remain with their bare hands. Back to not sleeping, not being able to rest, never being able to relax. Back to daily near-death experiences while also mourning the loss of more loved ones and wondering who will be next. 

There are not enough hospitals or medical staff to help the sick and wounded, and what there is are not easily accessible, not stocked, and staffed by medical workers who are also severely fatigued and traumatized. Food supplies are running low and the violence only worsens. The World Food Program has warned that backstock of any remaining food supplies will run out in a little over a week. Today bakeries in Gaza are announcing their closures due to lack of flour. Hunger and malnutrition are causing serious health problems, and the constant stress from living in extreme danger is taking a toll on people's hearts, minds, and physical bodies. We are running out of time, time we already did not have. 

Yesterday I wrote and posted an update to the fundraiser page for my friends Yanis and his wife and their sweet son Mahdi. In it I explained that despite the constant danger and harsh living conditions: 

"Yanis and his family are doing everything they can to take care of each other, to survive, to find and create moments of relief and joy in the midst of the suffering. Today is Eid, and many in Gaza have been calling it the 'Eid of sadness.' Yanis and his wife have tried to make it special for their sweet son Mahdi, but there is a heaviness in their hearts as many children were targeted and massacred by Israeli forces this morning.

The grief is immeasurable, and for parents especially, their grief is accompanied by a fear and worry of what will happen next, and how they can provide protection for their children when everything is out of their control, and people are targeted no matter where they are. Yanis and his family had a very frightening experience just yesterday when the tent next to theirs was bombed, and as Yanis explained, 'Death and I are neighbors.' The reality is, there is no safe place in Gaza."

Everything we do matters, and nothing we have done has been enough. We must keep doing all we can to support the people trying to survive, while also doing everything we can to end this. I don't know what it will finally take. I don't know that anyone does. But the more of us who are trying, the closer we are to finding out. 

We must do more, and we must do it now. This urgency cannot be overstated. 

[Image Information: Original image and text graphic can be found online at Al Jazeera: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/24/al-jazeera-journalist-killed-in-israeli-strikes-in-northern-gaza]

Whatcom Coalition for Palestine - Info Table at Local Event

I will be at the at the "Skill Up & Connect for Community" event, along with some other folks from the Whatcom Coalition for Palestine, on Saturday March 22, 2025. 

We will have information about upcoming events, craft items for sale to support donations for families in Gaza, and information about ways to get involved. 

March 22 from 2:30 to 6:00 p.m. Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship 

"We are living in a nightmare."

MARCH 16, 2025

There have been so many mornings after long nights of troubled sleep these past eighteen months when I have started my day thinking this was it--this would finally be the moment, the thing, the time the world would awaken and together do what is necessary to end this injustice, to stop this violence, to try to begin to put right so many wrongs which have left permanent scars and mountains of grief that will never be fully processed.

How I have been wrong so many times. How my heart has broken with each wrong day.

With Israel's continue violation of the ceasefire agreement, and constant flagrant violations of every international and humanitarian law, conditions in Gaza continue to be dangerous as they find ways to extend their genocidal attacks on the Palestinian people.

Military aggression and the sadistic violent targeting of people as they try to survive have increased. Since the very beginning of the ceasefire implementation, Israeli forces have continued their attacks, intermittently firing upon or bombing individuals with drones, killing approximately three Palestinians per day. The use of drones to create a permanent sense of danger and threat is also common, as they hover above tents and play threatening messages when people are trying to rest.

Israel's most recent total blockade of trucks and supplies, which began on March 2, means Palestinians in Gaza are suffering from extreme hunger and ill health, as conditions worsen by the minute. How we have allowed this to continue defies comprehension.

 
These past two weeks have been very very difficult. The water crisis has only grown more dire, with Israel cutting power to the last remaining desalination plant this week. Food prices have skyrocketed, and people are forced to survive on canned food with low nutritional content, which exacerbates chronic health problems, especially for those already suffering from high blood pressure. Which also means new health ailments and diseases are becoming increasingly widespread. And because it is Ramadan, people are fasting, which means there is also great suffering from not having enough food after fasting for 16 hours at a time.

Everyone I talk with is exhausted. Everyone is weary. Many are sick. And no one knows when this will end. And all of this suffering, hardship, and danger is not the result of a natural disaster which cannot be controlled– it is a deliberate, human-made crisis being intentionally inflicted to cause harm.

When I spoke with a friend on Friday, and I asked how he was, he said he was fine. He always tries to reassure me, never wanting me to worry. I responded that I was glad he was fine, but that I also understood that nothing was fine, that everything was difficult. And that was when he finally said:

"We are living in a nightmare. We hope it ends quickly, because this is not life."

[This animated image above includes some of the words shared with me by the families in Gaza who I am closest to.]

The pain of seeing others suffer and not being able to stop it is different from the pain of living through the suffering first-hand. But it is still a pain that binds us, and it drives my every action, hope, and prayer. I have stepped up all my efforts to raise funds because it is the main thing I can do to help right now. I am talking to everyone I can. I am selling anything I have of value. I am planning more fundraisers. Every day I seek out more ways to do more and to reach more people. I share this with you not to center myself–I hope the focus will always be on the families in Gaza who are trying to survive–I share it because I want you to understand how the support you have given is important. It is making a difference. It is helping. And it is needed. Anything you can do or give right now is needed.

The families I am talking with every day are living in a nightmare which feels never-ending, a nightmare from which they hope to awaken. A nightmare that would end if we could wake up those in this world who are still too asleep to understand and stop what is happening.

Please don't stop talking about Gaza, don’t stop giving your support. And if you haven't started yet, please start now. Bring this awareness with you to every space you are in. Give as much as you can afford to give. Lives literally depend on it, and we have a duty and responsibility to support those who are trying to survive, especially when we have been unable to stop what is being done to them.

To Palestinian Students & Educators

MARCH 9, 2025

This post is dedicated to Fadi, Majd, Mohammed, Muhammad, Arkan, Mahmoud, Ibrahim and his siblings, (including Shahd), Wassim, Ibrahim, Samah, and the student collective who created the #WeHaveToStudy24 hashtag campaign. And to all the other Palestinian students and educators. And to Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil, and the student movement for Palestinian Justice in the U.S. and throughout the world, whose voices will not be silenced.

Every day I think about the students in Gaza. I think about the teachers. The educators. The professors, administrators, and staff of the schools, colleges, and universities in Gaza. Those who have been killed by Israel, and those who are still alive but whose school and university buildings have been destroyed. Those whose education and careers have been violently disrupted or ended. Those who are still trying to learn and to teach despite the ongoing genocide.

During last week’s presentation, I talked a little about scholasticide in Gaza, and I also shared the stories of one student and two educators who I am personally connected to and am trying to raise funds for. I think about the three of them constantly, and I speak with them often. But I know there are also many many more students and educators who I did not talk about, who are also in need of recognition and support.

In December 2024 I wrote:

“I have seen students in Gaza study by flame and torch light in the midst of falling bombs; students giving their thesis presentations in makeshift tents, wandering the destroyed streets after searching all day for water and food to now search for a signal so they can take their final exams. And I wonder, what world am I living in where no institution of higher education in the country I reside has expressed any public support for these students, nor any condemnation of the genocide and violence the U.S. government is funding and making possible?”

I also wrote how I could not understand why educators, college and university staff members, teachers, professors, and school administrators everywhere, all over the world, were not doing more for our colleagues in Palestine. Nearly every university and college building in Gaza has been destroyed, and the lack of response to this scholasticide from our educational institutions–or rather not just the lack, but in some cases the overt and violent suppression by educational institutions against students, staff, and faculty who are speaking out--is yet another example of how the United States has failed the Palestinian people, and the world.

And with today’s news of the arrest and forced disappearance of the Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil here in the United States, I will add that I also do not understand why educators, college and university staff members, teachers, professors, and school administrators in this country are not doing more to support Palestinian students and allies, no matter where they reside.

Palestine has been renowned for years as having one of the highest literacy rates in the world, and as being a place where education and reading are valued, supported, and highly esteemed. Education is integrated into Palestinian culture, heritage, and identity. Which is why Israel (with the support of the United States government) has always targeted it.

Quoting from the a statement published by the Scholars Against the War on Palestine, ‘Scholasticide’ is a term that was first coined by Professor Karma Nabulsi, who conceptualized it in the context of the Israeli assault on Gaza, Palestine in 2009, but also with reference to a pattern of Israeli colonial attacks on Palestinian scholars, students, and educational institutions going back to the Nakba of 1948, and expanding after the 1967 war on Palestine and the 1982 invasion of Lebanon.

“The term combines the Latin prefix schola, meaning school, and the Latin suffix cide, meaning killing. Nabulsi used it to describe the ‘systematic destruction of Palestinian education by Israel’ to counter a tradition of Palestinian learning. That tradition, Nabulsi observed, reflected the enormous ‘role and power of education in an occupied society’ in which freedom of thought ‘posits possibilities, open horizons,’ contrasting sharply with ‘the apartheid wall, the shackling checkpoints, [and] the choking prisons.’. Recognizing 'how important education is to the Palestinian tradition and the Palestinian revolution,’ Nabulsi noted that Israeli colonial policymakers ‘cannot abide it and have to destroy it.’ During the latest Israeli genocidal war on Gaza, Palestine in 2023/2024, scholasticide has intensified on an unprecedented scale.”

According to a UN Report published in April 2024, more than 80% of the schools in Gaza have been severely damaged or destroyed, amounting to what appears to be a deliberate effort to destroy the Palestinian education system. This ‘scholasticide’ also refers to the targeting of teachers, students and staff, and the destruction of educational infrastructure. That same report explains,

“After six months of military assault, more than 5,479 students, 261 teachers and 95 university professors have been killed in Gaza, and over 7,819 students and 756 teachers have been injured – with numbers growing each day. At least 60 percent of educational facilities, including 13 public libraries, have been damaged or destroyed and at least 625,000 students have no access to education. Another 195 heritage sites, 227 mosques and three churches have also been damaged or destroyed, including the Central Archives of Gaza, containing 150 years of history. Israa University, the last remaining university in Gaza was demolished by the Israeli military on 17 January 2024.”

We need to do more, especially those of us who work in higher education in the U.S. And if you are reading this and that applies to you, and you are wondering what to do, how to respond, what we should be asking for, please read the Unified Emergency Statement by Palestinian Academics and Administrators of Gaza Universities, and then review their listed priorities for clarity and guidance. And while you are doing that, please also support the students and educators in Gaza through direct aid and donations.

 

Follow-Up to 'Eight Families in Gaza' Event + An Update

MARCH 7, 2025

Last weekend I gave a presentation for the "Eight Families in Gaza: Amplifying Their Voices" event, offered in affiliation with the Whatcom Coalition for Palestine. I remain grateful to the families who shared so generously shared their photos, their words, their writing, their videos, and their voices. Everything I presented during this event was developed in collaboration with members of the families who were featured, and it was shared with their permission and blessing.

I have the deepest respect for these families. While I know my presentation was not enough to do them justice, and while I wished to center them, what I shared was also filtered through my own personal feelings and experiences. But I still hope that it brought these families closer to all of us, that the attendees came away from the program changed by what they saw and heard, and that local support for these families and for Palestinian justice will only grow stronger.

Thank you to everyone who attended and supported the event, and also to those who made financial gifts to the families. It was heartening to hear from those who passed their support on to me to disperse, and also to see familiar names on the donor pages over the following days. And with the increasingly dire and dangerous conditions created by Israel's continued violation of the ceasefire agreement and international & humanitarian law, combined with their increased military aggression and violence, what was already an overwhelming challenge to find and secure food, water, medicine, and basic necessities has only intensified.

Israel has completely blocked trucks and supplies from entering into Gaza, which means there is once again a severe fuel and food shortage. Prices have skyrocketed and continue to rise. The donations made by event attendees after Sunday's event are helping people get through this terrible week. Currently the families I am in direct contact with are struggling, trying to take things one day at a time, but despair is getting harder to repel.

Ramadan started last weekend, and there is often not enough food to adequately sustain them when they are able to break their fast. They are mainly forced to rely on often canned food with low nutritional value purchased at high prices. They are hungry and exhausted, and without adequate shelter, and there has recently been a serious flu outbreak that has affected many. And with the continued uncertainty, when experience has only shown them that with time conditions worsen, hope is getting harder and harder to find or feel.

Tomorrow I am sending a transfer of funds to the two families whose campaigns I personally host and manage, and then I will begin again more attempts to raise more support to help them get through the next week. And all the while I hope and pray for an end to Israel's illegal and immoral blockade and their use of forced starvation and collective punishment as yet another way to escalate their genocidal attacks on Palestinians in Gaza.

During last weekend's event Q & A following the presentation, it became clear that there is also an interest in learning more about various grassroots groups, programs, and initiatives led by Palestinians in Gaza which we can support. I explained how direct aid is what is most urgently right now, and that donating to NGOs won't have the impact that is being requested from people in Gaza, but there are a number of Palestinian-led collectives, campaigns, and projects doing critical work.

I have created a page which lists some of the groups and projects I am most familiar with and know the most about, and I also try to promote awareness about them on social media, and support their work financially when I can.

I share this now as a follow-up to last weekend, and to thank everyone again for the support. I thank the families in Gaza who so generously shared with me, and I thank everyone who came to and helped with the event. And those who made donations to the families who were featured. And I also thank you for reading this, and for your desire to figure out what more you can do, and your commitment to action.