anything i want

"I’m personally a Holocaust survivor as an infant, I barely survived.

My grandparents were killed in Aushwitz and most of my extended family were killed.

I became a Zionist; this dream of the Jewish people resurrected in their historical homeland and the barbed wire of Aushwitz being replaced by the boundaries of a Jewish state with a powerful army…and then I found out that it wasn’t exactly like that, that in order to make this Jewish dream a reality we had to visit a nightmare on the local population.

There’s no way you could have ever created a Jewish state without oppressing and expelling the local population. Jewish Israeli historians have shown without a doubt that the expulsion of Palestinians was persistent, pervasive, cruel, murderous and with deliberate intent - that’s what’s called the 'Nakba' in Arabic; the 'disaster' or the 'catastrophe'.

There’s a law that you cannot deny the Holocaust, but in Israel you’re not allowed to mention the Nakba, even though it’s at the very basis of the foundation of Israel.

I visited the Occupied Territories (West Bank) during the first intifada. I cried every day for two weeks at what I saw; the brutality of the occupation, the petty harassment, the murderousness of it, the cutting down of Palestinian olive groves, the denial of water rights, the humiliations...and this went on, and now it’s much worse than it was then. It’s the longest ethnic cleansing operation in the 20th and 21st century.

I could land in Tel Aviv tomorrow and demand citizenship but my Palestinian friend in Vancouver, who was born in Jerusalem, can’t even visit! So then you have these miserable people packed into this, horrible…people call it an 'outdoor prison', which is what it is. You don’t have to support Hamas policies to stand up for Palestinian rights, that’s a complete falsity.

You think the worse thing you can say about Hamas, multiply it by a thousand times, and it still will not meet the Israeli repression and killing and dispossession of Palestinians.

If I must die

you must live

to tell my story

Yesterday Israel killed his daughter Al-Shaymaa along with her husband and baby.

Who is going to tell Refaat and Shayma's story? Who's going to continue to tell the world how Israel obliterated entire bloodlines?

Refaat's poem continues to say

If I must die

let it bring hope

let it be a tale

We must promise to keep the tale alive and to uphold the legacy of Refaat, Shayma and the 40,000 others who were murdered by Israel in its ongoing genocide.

"So, take notes, Butcher Biden: The ancestors of the Ireland that you claim to be from disown you. Keep our country out of your mouth. And as for von der Leyen (President of the European Commission), and genocidal Germany with your words and deeds supporting Israel in the ICJ: Not in our name! The people of Europe stand with Palestine and with South Africa."

Israeli settlers - who live illegally on Palestinian land and shouldn’t be there in the first place - regularly destroy and uproot olive trees belonging to Palestinians, often striking at night to go unnoticed.

Olive trees are a livelihood for many families, and a key component of the Palestinian economy. That’s how they are meant to survive. 

These attacks are by no means limited to agriculture. They also burn and vandalize churches, mosques, homes, cars and… cemeteries. 

I saved the worst for last. Israeli soldiers escort Israeli settlers to attack Palestinians then stand by and watch, if not join in too. 

According to the UN the annual rate of Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians has almost quadrupled in eight years.

“My Christian grandmother and my Muslim grandmother in Palestine”

ANTI-CAPITALIST AFFIRMATIONS

i am allowed to spend my time creating things, even if they are not beautiful.

there is no such thing as a "real job." all forms of work are real and valid.

there is nothing that i need to accomplish to be worthy. i am already worthy.

doing nothing is good for my soul.

i am not defined by what i produce.

my worth cannot be measured by my paycheck, my job title, or a list of professional or academic achievements.

i do not need to monetize my hobbies, it is enough to spend time doing something i love.

•I am not only allowed to be still, rest, and eat, I must do these things to survive.

•My body doesn’t need to look or function to someone else’s standards.