The next "Eight Families in Gaza: Amplifying Their Voices" presentation will be on Saturday, August 15 from 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Bellingham Public Library in the downstairs Lecture Room. (This event is not sponsored or endorsed by the Bellingham Public Library.)
Developed in collaboration with the families who are featured during the event, these special presentations have given area, regional, and local communities numerous opportunities to get to know and become connected to these beloved families in Gaza. The presentations and the efforts of communities both here and in Gaza have led to the development of friendships, support networks, communities of care, and mutual aid efforts, both locally and in Palestine.
However, when these efforts first began, many of us did not believe or understand that the intensified genocide of the Palestinian people would last for nearly three years. Meanwhile, each day that passes brings with it more violence and more injustice, and nothing is getting any easier.
So where do we go from here?
Yes, words matter, but at the same time, words alone are not enough.
Yes, our actions matter, but our actions thus far have not ended the genocide.
While Western and particularly U.S. media bear responsibility and have perpetuated and helped sustain the genocide, this is not something that can explain how we are still allowing this to continue. As Abdaljawad Omar noted in a recent article,
"This structure of disavowal is deeper than mere propaganda, and recognising it as such redefines the Palestinian predicament. If the issue were simply censorship, the solution would be more documentation or more insistent testimony. But when evidence proliferates, and visibility increases, while political evasion persists, we face a different obstacle entirely. The facts are out there, but their implications are repeatedly refused. It is a cultivated imperviousness to what is already known."
A cultivated imperviousness to what is already known.
Recent days have brought with it the widespread usage by many Palestinians in Gaza of the social media hashtag, #TheyLiedToYou, as Palestinians still bear the burden of trying to get the world to wake up even as they are the ones experiencing the impacts of the genocide every moment of every day. And here in the West, our attention grows more inwardly focused, as our collective actions (which were never enough to begin with) are falling even farther short of what they once were and what they should be.
We know that there is no "ceasefire." We know that the violence continues, and that conditions are worsening. We know that the U.S. is the primary country responsible for maintaining and sustaining the genocide, and that those of us living in the imperial core, particularly in the U.S., bear a responsibility to do more than what we have done. We also know that it is important that Gaza and Palestine should have our focused attention.
But what else do we know? What else can we do? And how do we move beyond knowledge and talking to actual actions that will cause a change and bring an end to the illegal occupation and the genocide?
What responsibility do we have as individuals? What responsibility do we have collectively? And where do you see yourself in all of this?
Where are we now, how did we get here, and where do we go from here? How do we move beyond this moment towards something different?
There are of course more questions than answers. And this special presentation will include even more questions than the ones I pose here. But it is in community that we learn, that we act, and that we can find and stick to hope, that we can discover and take the actions we must take. And it is imperative we do this.
People ask me all the time, "But what can I do?" If you don't know where to start, start here. Start by giving these families your support. And by coming to this presentation. And I believe it will help you find some answers, and lead to more questions too. But in these things you will find a way to keep going, to care more, not less, and to find the actions you need to take. And the more of us who do this, the more of a chance we have, and the faster this world can be transformed from what it is now to what we know it can and should become.
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