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"I had not touched a cat in 15 years when an orange kitten wandered over to sit with me in the grass one day. I was left without adequate words to describe that experience. It reminded me that I am alive. It instilled in me a raw, unbridled happiness that I had never felt before, not even as a child. 

I have spent many hours with those cats, and still I am amazed at how perfectly they reject everything it means to be in prison. They are playful and unselfconscious, curious and silly, soft and cuddly.

Sometimes it is even more interesting to watch my fellow prisoners interact with our cats. All those hard cases doing hard time melt like butter on a summer sidewalk when they visit the felines, feed them, watch them chase the birds and bees, and when they make toys to entice the cats to play with them. 

I don’t think about the past when a cat hops in my lap. I don’t think of what I should or could have done. I don’t think about courts or life sentences or parole boards. What comes to mind is peace, and a sense that everything is going to be OK. What’s in the past needs to stay there if I want to have a future, if I want to be grateful for today and for the fact that I am no longer the person I once was.

While those in power construct health, nutrition, and hygiene as ideologically representing "morality" and "purity," the material project they undertake is to ensure these things are only accessible to those in power.

The prizing of health, hygiene, and nutrition as a fascist ideal necessarily comes hand in hand with the deliberate targeting and systematic destruction of all sources of survival.

Nutrition. The famine in Gaza is recognized globally as a deliberately constructed starvation of Palestinians. Israel has blocked aid, used their own aid sites as death traps to lure starving people, and tortured people trying to bring aid. They use malnutrition as a tool of genocide. Fadel's family has been on the brink of starvation for months, and their access to food is held at the whims of blockades and the flow of donations.

Hygiene. The overwhelming majority Gaza’s water and sewage facilities have been destroyed by Israel’s bombs. In August Israel bombed a sewage line near Fadel's family in Gaza, and ever since they have struggled to get clean water. They are all getting sick drinking dirty water. Forcing people into overcrowded displacement camps and toxic fumes and residues from weaponry also contribute to the spread of illness. Now there is an unprecedented outbreak of Guillain-Barré syndrome in Gaza due to these conditions.

It is an ableist, eugenicist project to make populations disabled and then allow them to die.

Take a moment to reflect on everything that Fadel has endured. Try to imagine yourself or someone you love in his place. Fadel has been in terrible pain from his injury for over a year, and struggling to survive a genocide. GoFundMe deleted his earlier campaign not long ago in a horrific act of injustice.

Islam Al-Najjar (9.2k/30k - 31% funded) (vetted #332 by el-shab-hussein and nabulsi). He has six family members, and is currently trying to seek urgent medical treatment for his mother with cancer.

Mahrah and Mahmoud Ibrahim Abdel Darwish (2.7k/18k - 15% funded) (vetted by 90-ghost). Their father is disabled with osteoporosis and high blood pressure, and his condition only grows worse with malnutrition.

Mahmoud Ayyad (17.5k/55k - 32% funded) (vetted by 90-ghost). He has a large family, most of whom are young children and old women, and he's trying to raise money to help everyone escape.

Mai (4.9k/10k - 49% funded) (vetted #1197 by Butterfly Effect Project). Her mother has heart problems and her brother's hand was severely injured by shrapnel.

Ahmed Aldany (14.8k/25k - 59% funded) (vetted #198 by Gaza Vetters). I've been speaking with Ahmed and trying to focus on his particular campaign when I can. He's young, only a teenager, but despite his youth he's taken charge looking out for his family, and is currently trying to afford food for them.

Samah & Ibraham Aburakhia (20.3k/30k - 68% funded) (vetted #336 by el-shab-hussein and nabulsi). Samah and Ibrahim have a large family, consisting of 28 members. 15 are children, and they are trying to afford basic needs as they await an opportunity to reach family in Canada.

Ibrahim Yasser (64k/100k - 64% funded) (vetted #25 by Gaza Vetters). Ibrahim is a young man urgently trying to seek asylum abroad with his family. He recently lost his best friend and has been desperate for help.

Aboud Al-Qudra (14.3k/25k - 57% funded) (vetted #408 by el-shab-hussein). Unfortunately his original gofundme campaign was shut down, and he needs help affording everyday needs as well as medical care for his ill family members, including his mother who recently awoke from a coma.

Nour Alanqar (29.6k/40k - 74% funded) (vetted #245 by Gaza Vetters). Nour is a mother of three, the youngest not even a year old. One of her daughters contracted hepatitis, and she is urgently seeking funds for medical care and shelter.

Ahmed Sammer (38.2k/50k - 77% funded) (vetted #428 by Gaza Vetters). Ahmed's son Samir is in critical condition and badly needs to be evacuated to avoid amputating his foot. He is trying to send his son someplace where he can get proper medical care.

Nour Ashour (14.8k/80k - 19% funded) (verified by 90-ghost). Nour is trying to gather funds to help her disabled 4-year old son Muhammad medical care. As a result of the war, he was unable to continue receiving physical therapy and she's urgently trying to help him get treatment.

Fadel Aldany (31.8k/50k - 64% funded) (vetted #197 by Gaza Vetters). Fadel was disabled as a result of his home being bombed, and is now suffering from shrapnel in his body. He is in a lot of pain and badly needs medical treatment as well as everyday supplies.

Nader Ahmed Gibril (9.1k/50k - 18% funded) (verified by 90-ghost). Nader is trying to raise funds to get his wife and three children out of Gaza, but rising costs of everyday necessities has made it difficult to save up.