Free Palestine

I’ve been away from this platform for so long navigating through several big changes in life and on the brink of burnout but with everything going on in Gaza, I am so called to build on what I’ve already said because without a shadow of a doubt, Gaza and Palestine have changed me to my core, there is no going back to the ways things used to be and there is no option to stay silent. I also can’t stay quiet as there is an urgency within me to talk about what’s happening and add a perspective that is deeply personal to me as a Muslim woman, an equity practitioner who centers justice in her work, who seeks to always center the most marginalized and someone who is called to use my platforms to denounce systems of oppression.  

I’ve been attempting to finalize writing this piece for the last 2 months, often overwhelmed by the information I’m learning, the facts of a history many incorrectly call complicated and the recognition of real time oppression, ethnic cleansing and genocide happening on our phone screens with a moments access. I’m consumed with images of sheer terror, unable to break away from my phone but in many parts of my life, required to go on living like nothing is happening, like business and life carries on as usual, and I’m so deeply drawn to the plight of the Palestinian people, something I’ve been shamefully ignorant to for far too long, and yet I like so many equity deserving people have been afraid of repercussions for speaking up. I’ve been angered by the sheer willful ignorance of so many people in my circles of influence with so much power and privilege who choose to say nothing, whose friendships and my interest in engaging with have come under deep scrutiny, and I’ve been thinking a lot about the Jewish, Palestinian and Muslim people in my life whose safety I fear for, whose stories deserve to be amplified, who unequivocally equally deserve to live in peace and to thrive and whose pain I hold so much space for. 

I’m also processing a lot from the perspective of my experience as a Muslim woman who has the ability and privilege to pass in the world with no obviously visible markers of my faith in my appearance outside of my brown skin, yet who walks around in the world with an even more heightened sense of fear, anxiety, and uncertainty than ever before. My identity, which has been a complex part of my entire life, something I’ve hidden and been ashamed of for so long, has also left me feeling deeply isolated. I’m having to remind people in my life that as a Muslim woman, I too deserve to be checked in on, that the rise in hate crimes and rampant anti-Muslim rhetoric, which often goes unchecked and without consequence, has real implications on me, my family, and my community through all of this. I’m also no longer allowing the Western media and white supremacy culture to gaslight me into thinking my community doesn’t deserve compassion and care. That’s the only complicated part to me about all of this. As someone raised in the Shia, Ismaili Muslim faith, I know of literally nothing else from my religion other than that of humanity, peace, community, and service that it is rooted in, yet I often find myself having to defend, teach, combat misinformation, or stay silent about my identity, something I’ve been carrying in my being most prominently since the aftereffects of 9-11, but also well before then as a minority identity in a majority of spaces I’ve been required to be in since childhood. And that sense of internalized shame I have held around my Muslim identity has been something I’ve rarely vocalized because what right do I have to do so? As someone who has been taught to take up as little space as possible, to never ruffle feathers or call to much attention to myself as a racialized woman much less as a Muslim woman, how dare I have something to say, to take up space speaking the truth of my religion and about the complete disconnect of the heinous terrorist attack on 9-11 and October 7th to my entire knowing of my faith? Dare I speak into existence the geo-political tensions that have consistently seen world powers like America and Israel emerge as the heroes and the victims through it all despite an unbalanced narrative consistently being fed to us. 

My first very vivid memory of this feeling came after 9-11 where there was zero space, zero tolerance for anything less than an unquestioned alignment to America, even as a Canadian, then and up until now. But a lot has changed since the heinous attacks on Israel on October 7th. My eyes have been opened, my critical thinking has sharpened and there is now an even deeper knowing within me that as an equity practitioner, my integrity is my most fundamental guiding principle where my silence is violence and in complete opposition of what I stand for in my work and life. And so, I dedicate this episode to calling out the systems of oppression that sees an ongoing and brutal genocide of innocent Palestinian people at the hands of colonialism led by the Israeli government and backed by imperialist world powers, including the Canadian government, and the murder, retaliation, and violence against innocent Jewish and Israeli people at the hands of Hamas. I want to speak to you about the power of these disproportionate systems of oppression, the connection to the retaliation of using our voices as marginalized people and help you see how you, particularly if you are someone who identifies as a part of majority culture, can be part of the change, no matter how small of an influence you think you might have. I hope to inspire those of you who have stayed in a place of ambivalence, who feel like things are too complicated to comment on, or even those who are afraid, again particularity my white listeners, to see things as they really are, then to move to action because your voice is necessary, needed and its more urgent than it’s ever been to step into any discomfort to stand in solidarity with Palestine while denouncing systems of oppression, while bridge building and combating both antisemitic and anti-Muslim rhetoric.  

See, I'm a person that focuses on systems of oppression and power in my work. I say this to break through some of the noise that is out there with a call to focus on that which we can impact as those of us who have the immense privilege of holding an arm’s length view, to only bearing witness to the atrocities happening from a place of connecting our shared humanity. I ask that if you have the privilege of forming an opinion not rooted in direct lived experience, that you stay with me through this episode to focus on the systems over sides, and to not turn a blind eye to any war crimes or human rights violations, to not take a side of one oppressed group over another and to not center our thinking in binary narratives. None of this gets us to a solution that affords the Palestinian people the humanity they so deserve, none of this stops the rising antisemitism and anti-Muslim hate to stop, it only pits us against one another and separates us from our own humanity.  

And I write and record this episode with not only with my voice but that far more importantly the many voices, experts and those with lived experiences that lean on the possibilities of seeing humanity when we come together to call for a permanent ceasefire and to end the escalating brutality we are witnessing day in and day out while resetting our ideas of what is acceptable, what gets a pass because it’s deemed to be a geopolitical conflict that is too complicated to do anything about, about what we have in our power to change or influence. Gaza and Palestine have transformed and changed us, and we owe it to them to keep fighting for their liberation.  

When I first learned of the attack on October 7th, I took time to process so many of the big feelings I was holding inside and shared my thoughts on social media with a perspective that hasn’t changed significantly since then. Then and now, I don't hold any individual Israeli, Palestinian, Jewish, or Muslim person directly impacted to task. I know not what they are feeling first hand, I don't know the depths of their pain except to know that it's very real, the grieving they are doing is real, the injustice they have experienced is real, the processing they have to do is real, what they are witnessing happen to their people, their loved ones, their fellow citizens is real and I stand with them ALL, human to human. I see the present-day stories of Israelis' loved ones kidnapped, killed, and forcibly removed from their homes. I see the intergenerational trauma of Jewish history rooted in attempted erasure of over 6 million of their people during WWII and beyond. I see the deep-rooted fear of the entire community. I also see the plight of stateless Palestinians being forcibly removed from their homes, I see the 75 years of those living under vicious occupation, the ethnic cleansing of their people happening year over year and at an even more rapid pace right before our eyes. I don't expect many of them to have nuance in their responses amongst their collective and individual pain. 

But what I do expect is companies, governments, those in positions of real power, leaders, the media and supposed allies to oppressed people and particularly diversity and inclusion practitioners who are employed to break down and call out systems of oppression, to do more to denounce the powers that be, to center the voices of those without power, no matter what their religion or nationality. I’ve been deeply disappointed to the point of no return watching many former leaders, those in positions of immense power say nothing at all, watching equity practitioners with a role centered in denouncing oppression staying quiet and continuing to capitalize on the trauma of marginalized people by upholding white fragility and their own fragility. For those outside looking in who can choose to ignore the literal erasure of Palestinian people, those who are upholding one sided narratives that sees the rewriting of history, upholding unbalanced power dynamics that see's innocent civilian lives taken to win land, wars and more power, I implore you to lean in closer, to examine your personal biases, to denounce all the systems of oppression, the people and companies that uphold them and to understand the real cost of speaking up that comes disproportionately to those who are most oppressed.  

And that cost is what I’ve grappled with more than ever before. I've thought long and hard about how to speak to what’s happening in a way that upholds my deep-seated value of integrity that drives me to do the work I do. My silence benefits no one, no matter how complex many claim the history to be, and how fearful and unsure I am about saying anything. Beyond my Muslim identity, I hold other identity markers that put me at risk. As a racialized, Muslim woman, who is also single with no partner to fall back on for financial support, who lives in a conservative, white dominated province that sees our government and corporations who consistently center white fragility, I’m at risk. I have much to lose by saying anything at all, no matter how balanced a viewpoint I use to display repeatedly how unequivocally I denounce antisemitism and the like. I've had to triple think through releasing this episode given my direct experience of censorship that threatened my livelihood once before, with my previous to my current employer and their attempts to investigate and censor me via a vicious, cowardly and anonymous employee’s agenda who instigated that employer to consider firing me for talking about white supremacy on this podcast – all this before I formally moved into my role leading diversity and inclusion at the organization. True story, the irony, and the hypocrisy of which are not lost on me at all. I’ve been too afraid to talk about that experience so explicitly because of well-meaning advice on not burning bridges, but those bridges are burned to the extent that I would never wish to step back into that workplace nor work for anyone who played any part in that, so here I am telling you what I went through and how it silenced me for many years.  

And since my awakening to the history of the Palestinian people, since watching their sheer resilience on display day in and day out over the last 2 months days, my heart feels so much more called to speak truth to power and more importantly hold immense pride and trust in my Muslim faith, to speak to it from a place of exactly what I know, to be unrelenting in my need to combat the internalized anti-Muslim rhetoric I have held onto for so long and to combat that same sentiment in other people, not only because of the ways I’m waking up to how Western media and imperialism have successfully gaslit me into believing there was a core deficiency in my religious identity, but primarily because I cannot imagine the depths of trust and unwavering faith many of the Palestinian and Muslim people I have seen display on my phone screen hold. What else can explain how they keep pushing through, what else can speak to their ability to hold on to hope despite everything crumbling around them? They deserve our voices to be loud, proud and on display despite the fear of repercussion.  

I often think about the idea that our oppression is tied together and about the words of Black American writer James Baldwin to Black American political activist, Angela Davis when he said, “if they come for you in the morning, they will come for me at night.” For so many, it’s easy to forget that dominant cultural norms around what is right, wrong and quote on quote “normal” have a very narrow, exclusive point of view, one that those of us from the global majority, and those with any form of marginalized identities never fit into, no matter how hard we may try. I ask that you remember this tie with your own identity as you listen to the rest of this episode.  

And I share the words of Ahlam (AL-AM) Yassin, American-Muslim educator who notes so eloquently exactly what we all need to be reminded of, “When you allow hateful rhetoric to exist without any pushback, someone will pay the price. The individual, or group of people, who pay the price will not always be across the globe. They are here. They are your neighbors, your colleagues, your friends.” 

And from Zohra M. Khorashi, American lawyer who notes “I want you guys to understand something. If we can allow over 7,000 children to be killed in 7 weeks, while choosing to stay silent because it’s a “war” or it’s “too complicated,” the kind of world that we will be creating, will be a world where you child’s life will hold no value. “ 

I use the impassioned words of these brilliant people to help you understand that as a collective there is no other answer than to denounce the systems of power that continue to uphold a world where history repeats itself. I think a lot about being thoughtful in a way that focuses on centering the humanity of what's unfolding in front of our eyes, and I keep coming back to the systems and those in positions of real power that we need to be directing our anger and advocacy towards. I think of these words by Drawn2Intellect - “Use caution when describing barriers. Being Black is not a barrier for me. White supremacy is the barrier. Being female is not a barrier for me. Patriarchy is the barrier. Name the systems of power. These are the barriers.” 

And I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge your legitimate fear in speaking up for the Palestinian people, regardless of how you identify. I like you want to hold space in an intentional and thoughtful way for the Jewish community worldwide. I don’t want to cause harm, discount their pain, their fear and the substantial and outrageous rise in anti-Semitic hate crimes and rhetoric that has amplified even more than usual since October 7th. So, I bring you with some words of someone who I deeply admire, Aparna Rae – whose details are noted in the episode notes - who captured the balance we’re attempting to uphold but which asks us all to consider the root cause of harm, the root cause of much of what you likely fear that is holding you back from stepping into action. Aparna in a December 12th LinkedIn post wrote:

“A pattern I've seen play out in many Jewish voices speaking to the rise in antisemitism and hate events in the past two months, and the lack of safety they feel - no mention of right-wing led antisemitic movements in the US. The biggest threat to Jewish people is not college students who want to see a ceasefire and dignity restored to Palestinians. The greatest threats are people and organizations that our government allows to operate without consequences. It's the predominantly white-led, alt-right, and conservative groups. It's Elon Musk and Twitter platforming known Nazis because it boosts the company's bottom line. It's the arms dealers and US oligarchs who profit from the war (and subsequent / desired redevelopment of Gaza). It's conservatives who are using this moment to sow even deeper hatred of 'the other'. Antisemitism in all its forms is vile. Stopping it requires calling for consequences for the people who amplify it, perpetrate it, and profit off of it. Pushing back on people asking for Palestinians to have clean water and food will not stop it. Jewish friends and colleagues, we see you, we love you, and we care for your safety.”

For so many of us processing the realities of what is happening, nuanced perspectives are rooted in pushing against the systems that perpetuate erasure, censorship, and retribution and they desire to uphold humanity and call out hypocrisy. For oppressed people speaking up, the stakes are higher than anyone else and I've seen this play out multiple times this past two months with multiple equity deserving people at the receiving end of hate, vitriol, and unfounded accusations of antisemitism for calling out systems of oppression rooted in attempting to silence their voices and take away their livelihoods. Consider the creation of Canary Mission, a public facing website that documents people and groups who they claim promote hatred of the USA, Israel, and Jews.  A site that has taken careful time and attention to document the push back that many people have had across North America against Israeli government policies – those pushing back who are featured on Canary Mission include students, college professors and medical professionals who are now documented with personal details on their areas of study, their occupations, employers, and social media profiles and specific details on their accusations which more often than not include attending protests, accusing the Israeli and US governments of committing and aiding in genocide and calling for a Free Palestine. This is walking a dangerous path, and it doesn’t take much to notice a trend amongst those that are accused of such vitriol – most often they are people from equity deserving groups – their photos are displayed, and accusations of antisemitism used to prevent them from accessing gainful future employment or risking their current employment. I encourage you to take a few minutes to Google Canary Mission and see for yourself the depths and lengths some will go to in order to silence a person’s free speech and who is most disproportionately impacted for speaking out. This needs to be known and stopped.

This week was also the release day of a toolkit I co-authored on solidarity and advocacy for the United Nations Global Compact Network here in Canada and it has me thinking a lot about performative allyship and complacency. I can't speak on solidarity and advocacy and urge others to do the same while being too afraid to put my thoughts out there when it matters so much, when the systems of oppression that love seeing oppressed people pitted against one another are winning. When we're not pointing responsibility to the hands of destructive government policies, imperialism, extremist terrorist beliefs, retaliation, and an eye for an eye, play out in front of our eyes, we are part of the problem. What's happening in the Middle East is rooted in thousands of years of conflict, it’s not anywhere near new but the conflict is happening in ways now that many of us have had the privilege of ignorance from in years past and it's jarring to watch responses from governments, businesses and individuals with immense power that centre viewpoints in upholding a hierarchy of oppression and keeps so many silenced for fear of being labeled as islamaphobic at "best" and Antisemitic at worst. 

And I ask you to consider the reality of what’s in front of us, the irrevocable harm that has been caused by ruthless government policies that have a core ability to separate themselves from the humanity of millions of innocent civilians. The war crimes, the disproportionate destruction playing out in front of us that demonstrates exactly what happens when supreme power goes unchecked.  

The supreme power that has gone unchecked for 75 years has a record of escalating torture, inhumane treatment and if you don’t know the history, let me provide you with some facts to consider:

According to Khaled Quzmar, General Director, Defence for Children International – Palestine - since 1967, Israel has operated two separate legal systems in the same territory. In the occupied West Bank, Israeli settlers are subject to the civilian legal system whereas Palestinians live under military law. No Israeli child comes into contact with the military courts. Israel has the dubious distinction of being the only country in the world that automatically and systematically prosecutes children in military courts. Each year, between 500 and 700 Palestinian children are tried in these courts, which, in practice and by design, deny fundamental fair trial rights and due process protections. This dual system offers no semblance of justice. From the moment Palestinian children come into contact with Israeli soldiers, their very basic human rights are denied. The majority of Palestinian children report being blindfolded, strip-searched, and subjected to physical violence at the hands of Israeli forces. Most Palestinian children are not informed of the reason for their arrest, and over half are forced to sign documents in Hebrew, a language they cannot read or understand.  

Further, in a 2022 report put out by Amnesty International, which is independent of any institution, ideology, economic interest, and religion and whose sole stated interest is in achieving human rights for all, titled “Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians: Cruel system of domination and crime against humanity” they analyzed Israel’s intent to create and maintain a system of oppression and domination over Palestinians and examined its key components: territorial fragmentation; segregation and control; dispossession of land and property; and denial of economic and social rights. It concluded that this amounts to apartheid and called for Israel to dismantle the cruel system and the international community to pressure it to do so. A call to all those with jurisdiction over the crimes committed to maintain the system should investigate them. 

And 2023 marks the 75th anniversary of the mass displacement of Palestinians known as “the Nakba” or “the Catastrophe”. May 15, 1948 marked the end of the British Mandate and the beginning of Israel as an independent Jewish State. Palestinian Muslim and Christian Arabs consider this day to be al-Nakba (pronounced an-Nakba), ‘the Catastrophe’, whereby they were dispossessed from their homes, lands, and livelihoods as a result of Israeli ethnic cleansing operations during the Arab-Israeli War between November 1947 and July 1949. For decades, the Nakba had not garnered universal international recognition, as countering narratives have downplayed the plight of Palestinians. Resistance remains: The United States, Canada and the United Kingdom were among 30 countries that voted against the U.N. resolution to adopt this year's commemoration. For many Palestinians — millions of whom remain a stateless people to this day — the Nakba isn't just history for today's generation, but what they call an ongoing catastrophe punctuated by the violence of an entrenched Israeli military occupation.

And consider up until October 7th, out of 2.2 million Palestinians living in the Israeli controlled Gaza strip, half were minors - those we most easily hold sacred, who have little to no meaningful ability to align with an extremist regime. Further, consider that the Palestinian people are under brutal occupation and have been ruled by Hamas - a fascist organization - for over 20 years with no democratic ability to elect anyone else into power or voice opposition. I ask that you consider the defenselessness of an entire population of humans with nowhere to go, whose electricity has been shut off, who have no access to water and whose only safe spaces of care, their literal hospitals, have been bombed to the point of no return, all at the hands of the powerhouse Israeli government that is quote “infected by seeds of fascism” and that which is backed by the most powerful countries in the world.  I ask you to pay attention to the ruthless ways the Israeli government has killed at least 89  journalists as of the date of this recording since October 7th, to note the history of occupation that has dehumanized an entire country of people to justify the heinous acts that we can not turn a blind eye to. 

There is so much I can say, so many facts to bring to the conversation, logic that asks you to consider how the self-defense stance would stand if Hamas had infected Israel, would the same disregard for innocent Israeli civilians be taken, would the same vicious and unrelenting approach be used? Ask yourself how this can be done with no regard to the humanity of millions of people who were simply born in an exploited country that at one point in time had a deep richness of culture and tradition and who were quickly deemed disposable when their land became more important than their humanity. Yet despite the facts and the history that one can easily and quickly grasp, despite the intelligent fact spitting, compelling statements from those that are using their platforms to denounce the genocide, Palestinian people are forced to bring out their most urgent trauma to get people to care, to document brutal images of their children in sheer agony, their entire worlds crumbling around them, to elicit any sort of impassioned response or action and it requires us to ask the hard questions to understand why you don’t say something, do something, spread awareness or find a way to step into advocacy. The marked difference in my eyes is that of deeply internalized anti-Muslim bias and possibly a deeper bias against brown skinned people, against Arabs and anyone who doesn’t aligner closer with dominant, white supremacy norms, because what else could explain your silence? What else could explain your alignment with the state of Israel in a way that chooses the humanity of one oppressed group over another?  

If that makes you uncomfortable to hear, I’m glad. If it even for a moment gets you to look internally to examine your approach, then I’ve done my job. If it gets you to reflect on how you’ll look back at this moment in history years from now and gets you to understand that your livelihood, your own humanity is at risk, then I’ve accomplished what I needed. If it gets you to understand your performative hypocrisy giving land acknowledgments in an act of reconciliation at the start of meetings at work yet doing nothing to call out the colonizer’s playbook repeating the same tactics, they used hundreds of years ago in this country to cause irreversible damage to the Indigenous Peoples of Canada, then I’ve done what I needed to do. If you feel anything at all, I need you to do something with that discomfort, to take a risk, to stop leaning on neutrality or apathy and get to work because that is what real solidarity requires. And if you’re moved to action, here are ways you can make a difference: 

First, don’t get numb to what you’re witnessing. The numbness keeps you apathetic, in a place of inaction, it separates you from people who deserve to be seen in their full humanity and eventually it stops you from trying. I implore you to see the Palestinian people for the fullness of who they are beyond their trauma but to also use their lived experiences to drive you into action. Expand the stories you prioritize; I’ve included stories of folks from the Palestinian diaspora that I urge you to center in your learning to keep you from numbing yourself to the realities they face and carry day in and day out. The time for self-care and removing yourself is not when you are most urgently needed to tap into your voice and influence. 

Next as Zara Choudhary notes “when a moral or logical argument cannot be refuted, a common tactic employed by the colonizer, is diversion.” The diversion in this case is erasing the humanity of an entire population of people, seeing them as monsters, aggressors, out for blood and tapping into the deep-seated fear so many Jewish people rightfully carry from their holocaust history in their hearts and beings. In the case of Israel’s occupation of Palestine, the tactic of dehumanization has been central to their success. Be mindful of watching for the tactics used to separate your sense of humanity from the Palestinian people. Don’t fall for the dehumanization, the othering, a tactic used time and again in history because and because I can’t speak to it with as much direct knowledge as so many experts, I ask you to listen to the words of Palestinian-American businessman and political commentator, Ra'fat Al-Dajani. Ra’fat notes that: 

“Dehumanization works on two basic levels. The first level denigrates Palestinian morality and basic character, charging that Palestinians don't react violently on occasion because of the oppression and violence of the Israeli occupation, rather they do so out of a deep-seated hatred of the Jews that is inseparable from their identity. In other words, the misconception perpetuated by dehumanization is that Palestinians are violent because of who they are — because of something intrinsic in their very nature and culture, or as Israeli Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich has framed it, because Palestinian society has chosen to sanctify death in contrast to Israeli society which sanctifies life. This is very effective in advancing the Israeli argument that since Palestinians are not moral like us, then they are not entitled to the same rights we have. The second level of dehumanization works in legitimizing violence against Palestinians. Since Palestinians lack basic standards of morality, then it is easy to portray them as irrational, brutish and even less than human. There is no way to reason with such people [Palestinians] and the only way to interact with them is through the use of force, whether state-sponsored force by the Israeli security forces or non-state actors such as Israeli settlers. Force is the only language they understand. Consequently, we see no real and sustained international outrage over Israeli actions that would be considered outrageous should any other country engage in them. These include demolition of the houses of family members of individuals accused of violence against Israelis, imprisonment of children for extended periods without explaining charges against them, use of excessive and sometimes deadly force and live ammunition against stone-throwers, and extrajudicial executions of Palestinians by Israeli forces. Dehumanization is a convenient narrative, particularly if you are the oppressor and the occupier. It is also a critical element of maintaining an occupation that by all standards of international law, humanity and justice should be sanctioned and condemned. That is why any attempt to humanize the Palestinians is considered deadly as it would inevitably result in ending the occupation and evacuating Israeli settlements, or in granting Palestinians full and equal rights, both of which Israel in its current political makeup absolutely refuses to do.”

And I ask you to connect the dots - if we don’t think the colonizer or the oppressor’s playbook are the same, consider how the tactic of dehumanization was used to eradicate entire populations of Indigenous Peoples across North America and justified the segregated of Indigenous children to residential schools. “European colonizers categorized the native populations as savages in need of salvation—where they saw fit to forcefully remove children from their “uncivilized” communities, implemented cultural assimilation policies such as residential schools, and other initiatives to eradicate the offensive existence of Indigenous populations.” 

In the words of Holocaust survivor Hajo Meyer, “My great lesson from Auschwitz is: whoever wants to dehumanize any other must first be dehumanized himself. The oppressors are no longer really human, whatever uniform they wear.” 

Next, I ask you to critically reflect on the news media you consume and to move beyond any echo chambers of people and news outlets you follow and engage with that think, act, and look like you or are like you, that keep your perspective hollow and unrelenting in its ability to see things for what they really are. Consider western media bias which time and again takes a one-sided and self-serving narrative and survives off creating fear in our psyches to perpetuate an enemy that justifies disproportionate violence for those of us from equity deserving groups. Violence that saw the murder of a 6-year-old Palestinian, American boy by a white terrorist who CBS news depicted as an “Air Force veteran who was honorably discharged from the military, is self-employed, owns several properties in Plainfield, and was a longtime member of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Plainfield. He also has ongoing health issues due to a prognosis of prostate cancer.” Consider the lengths that western news media can go to humanize perpetrators of hate crimes, a man who stabbed 6-year Wadea Al-Fayoume 26 times believing he and his wife "were in danger," because he feared Wadea’s mother "was going to call over her Palestinian friends or family to harm them.” Fear built into him partly from his frequent listening to conservative talk radio.  

According to Barry Glassner, sociologist, and author of The Culture of Fear, “we are living in the most fear mongering time in human history. And the main reason for this is that there’s a lot of power and money available to individuals and organizations who can perpetuate these fears.” For mass media, insurance companies, Big Pharma, advocacy groups, lawyers, politicians and so many more, your fear is worth billions. And fortunately for them, your fear is also very easy to manipulate. We’re wired to respond to it above everything else. If we miss an opportunity for abundance, life goes on; if we miss an important fear cue, it doesn’t.” 

Consider that as of December 7th, more than 1500 journalists from dozens of US news organizations have signed an open letter protesting the Western media’s coverage of Israel’s atrocities against Palestinians since the October 7th attack. Condemning Israel’s targeted killing of reporters in Gaza and criticizing Western media bias, they write that newsrooms are “accountable for dehumanizing rhetoric that has served to justify the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians,” “undermine Palestinian, Arab and Muslim perspectives” and “have invoked inflammatory language that reinforces Islamophobic and racist tropes.” When journalists are not gathering, verifying, and presenting information to the public in a fair, accurate, and unbiased manner, their language matters to pay close attention to more than ever.

Now think through your consumption of media – has it been one sided, has it painted a fearful narrative that absolves one group from taking ownership or responsibility, is it predicated on the idea of othering one group in a simplified manner? If you’re wanting to expand that sphere of influence, I’ve included key learning experiences for me on the history of Palestine and Israel that will open your eyes to a perspective you may never have heard otherwise. 

If I can leave you with one final thing, please just do something. Attend a local protest, call your local MP’s to demand the call for a ceasefire, engage in the boycott movement, read a book on the history of Palestine, watch a YouTube video from a source outside of Western media or follow Palestinian creators on social media who can tell you about their experiences and amplify their content. Pay attention and then act, your comfort should not be prioritized right now. Ask how you will look back at yourself in 1 year from now, 5 years from now - how will you feel about what you did? Your solidarity is the only way to fight the systems of oppression that thrive at seeing us pitted against one another. They thrive when you’re distracted, when you think things are too complicated to get involved, when you think it’s not your problem. Little do you realize our oppression is all tied together, and our collective liberation is the only answer, so Free Palestine and ceasefire now.