really valuable little piece from a 17 year old poet and writer in gaza about the reality and indignity of relying on foreign aid solicited online. this has been the reality for gazans since the beginning of the genocide when a lot of people lost their jobs. while a lot of discourse around online fundraising understandably centers the necessity of this aid (or, less sympathetically, the feelings of westerners who object to the knowledge of our position of power that gazan fundraisers reveal) i really think the perspectives of the palestinians who do the e-begging has been lost.
notice how his post never once suggests you should /stop/ aiding gazans through donations or even deprioritize it. what he is asking is explicitly solidarity, not charity. while it cannot undo the hierarchy inherent to the practice, radical charity is a thing and i think we owe it to people like yazan that we do not see gazans as a helpless population (or a horde invading our attention) but people in their own right using the tools available for them, as we use the tools available to us to help keep them alive.
this post was taken from @abolishtheusa on instagram, and yazan's instagram is @yazan._.mohammd. here is his chuffed fundraiser.
here is the linktree for the sameer project, a which also relies on donations and is running seriously low on funds
here is the website for workshops 4 gaza, which sells radical books and tickets to exclusive workshops in exchange for donations to the sameer project and other fundraisers
This is Yazan who recently created the organization Bridge of Solidarity, which focuses on getting aid to people without phones or social media, and those without living relatives.
On Instagram @ bridge.of.solidarity
Bridge of solidarity chuffed
