It's early December. In the northern hemisphere it's getting colder and darker. The winter holidays evoke images of staying cozy indoors, all bundled in warm sweaters, holding steaming mugs, eating hot meals. Many of us have a cultural practice of gift-giving to symbolize an ideal of generosity.
However, the dissonance creeps in. You miss the bus and stand outside in the cold until your fingertips and face begin to hurt, and a shiver enters your chest. You see advertisements for endless products by companies you know profit from genocide. You wonder how cozy or generous any of this really is.
Every time I feel a shiver in my chest, I think of my friends in Gaza. I am living in an apartment with heaters. My friend Fadel is living out of a torn tent in the cold. When I hear about people budgeting for gifts, I think about Fadel trying to decide to use his meager funds on medication or food because there isn't enough for both. I visited my childhood home recently, and I know Fadel's childhood home was bombed with him inside. People around me are planning out travel to see family, and I know he cannot yet afford travel to get urgent surgery to remove shrapnel from his body.
For many of us, this time of year is culturally and economically structured around a particular practice of Christmas that involves the purchase of gifts.
Even for those of us who do not celebrate this holiday have our lives shaped by the pattern of this holiday. It's a time many of our families and loved ones are given overlapping time off from work. It's a time that sellers have sales encouraging us to buy things for each other.
Many people have budgeted all year for gift giving in this month. This is a time when people are ready to part with some money for their loved ones.
That reality does not need to add to consumerism. We can redirect this spirit of financial generosity towards solidarity with Palestine.
If someone asks you what you would like for the holidays this year, you can request that a donation be made to someone in Gaza. If the people in your life who have funds to spend on gifts would not readily do this, then ask them for money so you can pass it along.
My name is Fadel Al-Dane, a Palestinian from Gaza, my age 23-year-old third-year I… Fadel Aldane needs your support for Help Fadel And His F
If you have budgeted for gift giving this year, I hope you will remember Fadel and his family.
Fadel's campaign was verified and shared by @90-ghost and @a-shade-of-blue, and was vetted by @gazavetters (#197 on the gazavetters spreadsheet).
I hope you will send some portion of these funds to them so that they can afford a filling meal, a new tent to stay warm from the cold, and safe travel to an area with a good hospital where he can be treated for his injuries.
If you're feeling the holiday spirit, I hope you can extend your gratitude to Palestinians in need this year. Please donate to Fadels campaign if you can!
Everyone is preparing to celebrate New Year's and Christmas, while here in Gaza we are bracing for harsh weather and a severe storm.
Everyone is sitting comfortably in their warm homes, while we are huddled in our tent, easily blown away by the fierce winds. Everyone else is warm now, but I am shivering from the cold, and the shrapnel lodged in my body is causing me excruciating pain from the bitter cold and constant trembling.
So please, my friends, help us so we can buy a new tent and get me surgery as soon as possible. Don't forget us in your gifts. Please donate.
I deeply appreciate everyone who donates to Fadel.
So often every update from Gaza is terrifying and heartbreaking. It means the world to me on the rare occasion when Fadel texts me with good news about being able to afford the smallest things.
Please help him get what he needs this month. He deserves some good news.
please donate
Fadel still badly needs support to get medicine and food and water, anything you can give will make a difference in his life. Please help him to survive. The shrapnel in his body has caused him so much pain but he has been able to survive because of people's help
Please do what you can
Does anyone understand my pain and what we're going through? We're living in a completely torn tent, and the rain in Gaza is heavy right now. Rainwater constantly leaks in because our tent is ripped, and worse still, I've been injured for over 530 days, and metal fragments are still embedded in my body. My condition is critical, and I need urgent surgery, but everyone is ignoring me.
Please wake up and look at me! Please stand by me! I desperately need your donations to buy a new tent and get my surgery. Please don't ignore me!












