We Will Not Look Away: A Vigil for Gaza
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Zaya Benazzo: [00:00:00] Thank you everyone for being here today. Thank you. Yeah. My name is Zaya. My name is Maurizio. We are speaking today from the Unceded territory of Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo. People also known as Sebastopol, California. We gathered today in the shadow of devastation beyond words. Words cannot contain what's happening in Gaza and what's been happening in Gaza.
There are no words that can carry this, and this vigyl is our collective act of remembering, of mourning and refusal to look away. We probably will not find [00:01:00] solace here. We will not find comfort, but. Presence, steadfastness, and a love that refuses to look away. Let this be a field of collective mourning that can hold heartbreak, trembling, rage and let this space be also for those who have been silence.
So let it begin. Introduce Shahd Abusalama, a Palestinian scholar, activist, and artist recently displaced from Gaza, where most of her family is still residing at the moment. She's currently in Barcelona.
Shahd you wanna share? Welcome. Thank you. Thank you for being here today. And I know it, it's not easy for you to be sitting here with us and speaking, so thank you.
Shahd Abusalama: Thank you for offering me the space to talk to you and to your [00:02:00] followers. We're still enduring horrific times. And we are grieving nonstop and worrying nonstop about the survivors, that heart, that hardly survived 22 months of this ongoing genocide with internationally complicity and failure to stop Israel and to hold it to account.
To be honest I'm very consumed by constant worry over some family survivors who continue to be interrupt in Gaza under. Inhumane and unimaginable [00:03:00] conditions. And some of them have left their home around a couple of hours ago to Zeke in in north Gaza, this point where the humanitarian aid enters and Israel perpetuates a manufactured humanitarian disaster building dick traps for our people.
And until they, they return home I can't rest in peace. And stop worrying. And also. It's just whenever we think that it cannot get any worse it just gets even worse. As if Israel is trying to to prove itself capable [00:04:00] of perpetuating even greater evil than we've already seen over the past 22 months of this televised genocide.
And now they're openly saying that they're proceeding with the invasion of Gaza after they've concentrated more than 1 million Palestinians there and subjugated them to constant bombing inhalation siege, denied them access to basic human rights, access to healthcare, to food, to clean water to anything that supports life.
They're hunting our survivors as we speak. And, my, my time capacity is heavily reduced as a [00:05:00] result because I have to be responding to time sensitive issues and emergencies of life and death all the time and especially now. And I just don't know how it's continuing and yet it continues, but it is continuing.
We have to understand that it is continuing because of international failure to respond to Israel crimes against humanity that they've perpetrated beyond the timeframe of the past two years for more than 76 years of ethnic cleansing in Palestine that went. With no accountability that emboldened Israel to reach this genocidal,[00:06:00]
sorry. Just sometimes words feel choked in our throats and it feels that we need to invent new vocabulary to describe the horrors that are unfolding right before our eyes. And the un unprecedented dehumanization and abandonment that our people feel right now. When when Lisa reached to me asking me for, delivering a poem or something to commemorate the memory of our survivors the memory of our martyrs. I couldn't but say yes. I find it hard to be honest, to say no to anything that [00:07:00] concerns my people in Gaza because of my acute awareness that time is made of blood and I have to take every platform, every opportunity that I have in order to amplify their voices.
And I am a survivor myself. And and we always get. To the Palestinians to keep fighting until we see freedom, justice, and equality reign over all of Palestine from the river to the sea. The poem that I chose to share with you is written by an inspirational figure in my life. A woman, her name is Raif [00:08:00] Ziada, and she's an academic and a poet, brilliant poet.
I learned of her when she first showed her poem. We Teach Live, sir, which I'm wearing the t-shirt of we teach live, sir. I was then when she wrote this poem, I was still in Gaza, hardly 17 years old when Israel With No Barrier Warning launched this devastating attack on Gaza that they codenamed cast lid in 2008 and 2009, as the international community was busy celebrating Christmas and New Year [00:09:00] and we're on holidays.
We were slaughtered in our hundreds, and then I wasn't. One of 1,200 Palestinians who were Masaki, a third of whom were children. But surviving that Masaki at the age of 17 was a life changing event. And the voice of IV Ada reciting this poem resonated with me and gave me a lot of power. And Raif continued to write poems with every time Israel renewed its attacks on Gaza, and it's so called mowing the [00:10:00] loan.
And in between those masakis that. Only make it to TV screens when we are dying in our thousands.
So IV wrote this poem titled, if My Words Can Stop This, in 2014. And that was the first the first attack on Gaza that I witnessed from outside my city of Perth, that Israel rendered for decades as the world's open, largest open air prison. I was [00:11:00] then few months. Out of Gaza when Rafi wrote this poem, and she wrote it as Israel was into the fourth week of the, that summer attack on Gaza in 2014 that lasted 51 days and killed more than 2,200 Palestinians, the majority of whom were women and children.
So Raif words. Now, if my words can stop this, if they can stand in the way of a bomb or a drone or a single bullet, if my words can stop this. If they could stand in the way of a bomb, a drone, or a single bullet, I would [00:12:00] lay them at the feet of every child in and offer them like a prayer. I would recite them over and over, like the holy names of God.
I would write them endlessly until all language breaks like daylight as we count our dead. They ask me for balance. They ask me for balance still. They used, he used to balance his son on his knees and sing, and now he lost his legs and his son. How can I balance your silence against all the sound of artillery in.
How can I balance your silence against neighborhoods wiped out into smoke? [00:13:00] How can I balance between why between David and Goliath? You tell me. Sorry. I know we're not meant to make the, these comparisons. They make some uncomfortable, so let me just say we are holding our ground. Don't you worry about us.
We are holding our ground. If my words can stop this, I would scream back this gasoline taste in my throat for 22 months now. I would write my spine disfigured like maps of Palestine. Stand tall at the top of my lungs. Scream. Make them stop. Make them stop. Please someone. Make them stop. [00:14:00] There's just children playing.
Is the beach forbidden? Is there any place safe Lift under your skies made of iron. Don't kill them.
But we are standing our ground. We are still standing our ground. If my words can stop this. I would argue circles around every Israeli spokesperson. Tell them, let's be clear. Your smooth accents can't make killing children justified. Let's be clear. We are not collateral. Don't you dare call us collateral.
Let's be clear. You are bullish talking points. Stick [00:15:00] inside, skin your bone like shrapnel. I shake my head to shake them off. Your words linger, meaningless. But we are still holding our ground here. We're still holding our crown. If my words could stop this. I would hold him up like fists bounding, like heart bounding in shelters.
They asked us to evacuate, then they bumped us. He pressed his little head into his chest. He's alive. He's alive. I swear he's still alive. They had to pry her little body out of his hands. But if I could, I would [00:16:00] offer me his son.
If I could, I would offer him all the words of the world to take away the pain. But the sky is raining, heavy steel everywhere, the sky. It's raining heavy steel everywhere. There is no time for poetry. There is no space for bodies in hospitals anymore. No water. There's no electricity in this darkness. I wish my words could transform to light, to protection.
I also wish for some quiet. I wish for some quiet for those who paddle to get them to the microphone [00:17:00] and perform the rituals. All you clamoring to get on stage is to speak ra. Get out of the limelight and let Za speak. Speak ine, speak. Let Jerusalem speak. Let speak, let everybody in the streets of speak for itself.
Today.
I will not mourn my death. I will not mourn my death in 140 characters. For your Twitter. My death are not your bloody Facebook status. My dad will not be flattered into an infographic to [00:18:00] share today and then forget. We are still standing here. We are holding our ground. If my words could stop this, I would create a rhythm louder than the speed.
Too familiar. I would learn the lyrics to every freedom song and write it on every building still standing in. If my words could stop this, if they could stand in the way of a bomb, a drone, or a single bullet, I would lay them at the feet of every child in and offer them like a prayer, recite them over and over, like the holy names of God.
I would write them endlessly until all language breaks, but [00:19:00] words can't stop this. So I offer you the silence and a poem. I tell you, you are not alone. Please do not worry. We are holding our ground. We are holding our ground. We will not look away. We are holding our ground. We are holding our ground. Thank you.
Zaya Benazzo: Thank you, shad. Thank you.
Thank you Shad.
Let's bring in Rabbi in one of the first women to become a rabbi in Jewish history, a pioneer, [00:20:00] feminist, human rights activist, writer, ceremonialist, community educator, a master storytelling. Thank you, rabbi, for being to be with us. And thank you One more time, Chad, for your presence, your words.
Thank you. And your beautiful trembling voice that says everything beyond words. And thank you Rabbi Lynn for initiating this gathering and inviting us to sit together, to be together.
Lynn Gottlieb: We will not look away.
Dear relatives across the world, welcome into this ceremony of grief and action. We will not [00:21:00] look away. This is not a webinar. Webinar. It's not a strategy call.
It is a witness, a ceremonial witness. It is a call to continued resistance. Please stay with your heart and your breath.
I offer a humble prayer of accountability. Who could imagine? In what world? The people who endured Holocaust would become the perpetrators of Holocaust.
The people who endured [00:22:00] victimization on such a grand scale would turn around and victimize innocence by the millions.
This accountability, a call to accountability will last for lifetimes until justice comes and
everything is restored through the right of return. And so today we honor this accountability and we light a candle and gaze into the flame. This is a symbol of our spiritual determination. To be [00:23:00] present isn't accountable, and to proclaim we will not look away. Our spiritual determination, our activism, is a form of resistance and in to shake off death and affirm the struggle for life, the Palestinian struggle for life, we will not turn away.
I. We hold a stone in our hands, a symbol of the weight of constant grief, which sits on our hearts moment by moment, and we say, we will hold this stone [00:24:00] and we will not look away. Our grief is a form of our resistance and Ada against death and steadfastness an affirmation of life.
Today we bring an empty bowl. This empty bowl acknowledges. The Heartless and Cruel and Holocaust policy of forced starvation carried out by Israel
so that no Palestinians will remain with American [00:25:00] tax money. And so as Gazen starve in the arms of each other, we invite you into a fast to take time in your lives too fast to step back from the normal things of life until the Gaza. Humanitarian Health Foundation is taken down. Rah is restored, food is applied, and justice in fullness comes our empty bowl.
And fasting is a sign of our spiritual and physical ada. Our resistance, our [00:26:00] determination to hold Israel accountable for the Holocaust. It is imposing and to hold to account everyone who participates in justifying this evil or even worse arms. This evil we will not turn away.
And this bowl of water. This special water. This also acknowledges our tears. Our grief filled with each drop of water is a name that we will hold in our hearts, even the names. We do not know every name. Every Palestinian [00:27:00] filled with names. Existence is resistance and we will not turn away. We refuse to normalize genocide.
We will remain steadfast, smooth to using our lives to manifest a better horizon, A world in which every person is sacred across all walls, borders, where no one has to endure suffering imposed by humanity until every Palestinian enjoys the freedom to live fully, which is the vine gift we have been given.
[00:28:00] And until that day, we will not look away.
May Allah grant all those martyrs. Compassion Amin,
Zaya Benazzo: thank you. Let's bring on Omid Safi. He's a scholar of Islamic mystical tradition of radical love and a professor at Duke University. Thank you Omid for being here with us again. It's always a joy to see you. Thank you. Thank you, Omid.
Omid Safi: Thank you friends. Thank you. As always. We begin in the name [00:29:00] of the one who is Infinite.
Love and mercy enfolds us all, and for whom the entire universe with absolutely no exceptions, are as if contained in her womb, Sah Rahman, Rahim. I'm grateful to be amongst friends who are here for prayer, for a call to action for sharing our broken hearted grief and indeed our sacred rage. If you are experiencing this heart shattering [00:30:00] grief.
Rage. You are not broken, and you are surely not being unspiritual. It's a sign that you still have a heart. It's a sign that your soul has not become corrupted, that there is a beating image of the divine in you that knows that each and every single human life is sacred and precious, and that these vessels that contain the spirit of God are luminous and that every bomb, every starvation, every assault, every deprivation, every occupation.
Is an assault on a [00:31:00] temple holier than any temple build out of stone has ever been.
We have seen and continue to see suffering and massacres around the world. That's true. So what the poet says, I ran my fingers across the globe and I asked, where does it hurt? And it said, it hurts everywhere. That's true. But there's something about what we are witnessing in Raza that makes it the epicenter of pain in the world today.
And it's because never before have we ever seen state officials. And the military broadcast their cold [00:32:00] blooded intention in broad daylight. In such unambiguous words, record their atrocity and gloat over it on social media
for those who have hesitated, perhaps being afraid of being labeled an antisemite for speaking out against barbaric assault, against the defenseless occupied people. The justification that we have been fed by the spokespersons of the Israeli government is clear. Frankly, it's boring and insulting to our intelligence and to our conscience.
We are told nothing that happens [00:33:00] before. October 7th justifies what took place on October 7th, not the nakba, not the ethnic cleansing of 750,000 indigenous Palestinians, not 58 years of occupation, not de facto apartheid, not degradation, not humiliation of Palestinians for decades. None of this justifies October 7th, and yet they oddly insist that October 7th justifies everything that the Israeli state has done since then.
For those of us who live in the West, to have this genocide financed with our tax dollars and to do so under the umbrella of our political impunity means we're guilty. Says, Heshel says, you are responsible. All are guilty. We have blood on our hands. I don't know what can wash away [00:34:00] blood, but I hope that tears linked to sacred rage, organized and effective action can be a part of it.
Every element has been polluted. The earth is polluted. All of trees are being uprooted. People are kept from water. The seas are blockaded, fire has been desecrated, and it's become a weapon of slaughter, and every last sky has been occupied. So my plea is really with those of us who are people of faith,
save, save, whatever is left of our own humanity. I was asked to offer a prayer and I have one and I will share it. The single most potent, most prophetic prayer that I have heard in [00:35:00] these last 22 months is this. I wish for you everything that you wish for Palestinians,
I wish for you, everything that you wish for Palestinians.
May it be that what you wish. What we wish is life is freedom, is dignity, is nobility, is food, is water, is freedom, is equality. And if you wish something other than that.
Every religious tradition reminds us that we live in a moral universe and we shall reap what we sow.[00:36:00]
The prayer that I'd like to read for you is simply this. It's one of the shared commonalities between the beautiful faith of Judaism, of Christianity, and of Islam.
It's a faith that says, if you want to see how you stand with God, look at how you are with the poor, with the needy, with the orphan, with the widows, with the stranger. If you wanna translate stranger for today, refugees, God of the broken hearted, you always say that you're close to the ones whose heart is broken.
God of love, God of mercy, God of justice. We are broken hearted. Be with us now. [00:37:00] Be with the people of Palestine. Now we are overwhelmed. Help us. Save us from the storm that would drown us all. God of love, God of mercy, have mercy on us. Have mercy on the people of Palestine. For the enemy has none.
God of love, God of mercy you promised us. That you were always with the least of these, the poor, the orphan, the widow, the refugee.
We have no one but you and that of you, which moves through us. [00:38:00] Raise are dead and bathe them in the light. Feed the hungry, humble, the oppressor, comfort, the suffering. Protect our children, our youth, our hopes, our dreams, our women, our men, our elders, our land, our olive trees, our water, our air, our dignity, and whatever is left of our humanity.
I am gonna end with an invitation for us to join in a chant, which is Aman. Aman means sanctuary. It's where the word for [00:39:00] faith comes from. We can't even have faith until we've created a sanctuary, until people are safe to live, to breathe. So let us pray that God makes of each of us and us together a sanctuary to protect those who are suffering.
Aman.
Aman. Aman. Aman. Aman a.[00:40:00]
Zaya Benazzo: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, brother. Thank you so much. Reverend Michael Joshi, the pastor of the Buena Vista United Methodist Church in Alameda, California. Thank you for being with us. Reverend Joshi. Thank you. Thank you.
Reverend Michael Yoshii: Meetings, friends. Just to correction, I'm a pastor emeritus at Buena Vista. I retired five years ago there. Okay. I come into this space from Chen land in the state of California and with a heart wrenching time. It is indeed. And, but it's good to be together with so many people who are together collectively in a space where we can call for a place for mutual support for the grieving.
I also come into space after last week our family commemorated the 80th anniversary of the bomb Hiroshima Nagasaki. My [00:41:00] mother-in-law was a survivor of that bombing. She was a teenager and unfortunately witnessed the instant death of 70,000 people in that bombing which has lived with her.
She's long passed away now, but lived with her throughout her life. And so as we consider what's happened in this sort of incremental genocide of dozens over the last almost two years, almost the same amount of people that have been killed, children, women, pregnant mothers young and old we bring a message of our mutual support in our continuing grieving together.
I also bring into the finishable prayer beads as my stones, which were given to me by a friend, was a sh of the village of Waif King. A Muslim village that we partner with. And they're very meaningful beads for me as a Christian for us to honor our interfaith [00:42:00] partnership together. I know that many people often feel prayers are meaningless in this time when faith and people of faith seem to be lacking in response.
But my offering will be to share some prayers, some sung prayers, and first I'll be begin with in honor of Sheikh Yusef.[00:43:00]
Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelu, hallelu, hallelu,
hallelujah. For the martyrs, young and old, many stories yet untold old. Grant them justice. Grant them peace for the living or masses.
[00:44:00] Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelu hallelu
Liberation. We will see it is time. All our free. Give us healing in your love upon us. From above Hallelu. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelu
hallelu.[00:45:00] [00:46:00]
Zaya Benazzo: Thank you Pastor Yohi. Thank you so much.
Lynn Gottlieb: I am checking back in now to see if Ashira is ready to speak.
Ashira Darwish: Thank you everyone. I would just like to say that I haven't had the chance to really grief and cry, and these opportunities are great because I get that chance to take a break from the rage and the anger and to remember the sadness, which is hard to forget, but.
I try to turn it into rage because rage moves me into action. And so long as I'm in action, then I'm doing something. And right now, so long as the people are still dying, starving and there's more people dying every second, like the child who was just killed while carrying the water, [00:47:00] there's no cha no time to be still.
And grief. It's time for action and movement and action and movement constantly in order to end this genocide. And what I would share is a prayer from I Emma, then to keep us strong.
Be like the mountain. The wind cannot shake it and be like the tree. Its sleeves may fall, but its roots remain firm. Oppression may endure for an hour, but it will never last forever. And justice, even if delayed, will never perish. Let our grief and rage and anger move us into action. [00:48:00] We have been told by the colonizers that we need to act passively, peacefully resisting so that they can accept our resistance.
But in a time when children are being burned alive in a time where families are being wiped off the registry, it's not a time to be silent. It's not a time to be still, and it's not a time also to be following the book. It's time for mass action and for people to use their rage to stop this if it's being hooked to the.
Ships that are sending the weapons. Then be it. If it isn't stopping the embassies and closing all the embassies that are complicit, the Egyptian, the Palestinian, the Israeli, the U-A-A-U-A-E, the Jordanian. Then so be it. People need to be in action. We get to grieve when this is over. We get to cry now as we march, we get to [00:49:00] scream.
As we march, we get our rage to move us in action. The artists can move. It doesn't have to be direct action, but people who have the ability need to move. It's, we can't just sit and watch and grieve from afar while these children are being starved to death while everything that we know is being wiped, it's not only Gaza, it's the West Bank that's being taken over.
It's everything that we know of Palestine. Is being wiped off the map. And time for action is now. It's now to stop it, to end it, to utilize all of our power to remember that if we fall and if we crumble in the sadness, if we let it paralyze us, if we let us, if we let it make us numb, then they win.
We need to use the [00:50:00] grief, the rage, and anger to move us into action. And what I personally grieve right now, what I can grieve, what I've been grieving is my children's childhood that has been taken away by me not being present for them because I have to be in action. And I do realize that I am constantly in action as much as I can, but at the same time, it takes away from my mother and.
That's all the Palestinian mothers, because every time we look at our children, every time that I see him breastfeeding right now, I remember that mother's milk is drying, tane, Gaza, and they can't breastfeed. They've stolen everything from us. Those who are there, those who are away, those who are watching, those who are connected in any way or form with Palestine, they stole everything from us.
And I hope it always makes you move in action and holding each other in this space so that we can release [00:51:00] some of the grief, so we can cry together so that we can get stronger tomorrow and be like trees rooted in the ground, in our fight, in our struggle. For a free Palestine, for a free Congo, for the right, for land, back to all the indigenous communities around the world.
Thank you.
Zaya Benazzo: Thank you.
Rae Abileah, a Jewish faith leader, social change strategist, writer, facilitator, and a SAND member. Thank you, Rae, for being with us in this journey. Thank you.
Rae Abileah: Grateful to be with you all.
Zaya Benazzo: And Ray, you've been instrumental in supporting us, releasing the film and guiding us in the last two years, so very grateful for your support and for being here today.
Yeah. And[00:52:00]
Rae Abileah: yeah. Yeah. Your words are still reverberating in my heart. Be like trees rooted in the ground for a free Palestine. May it be. So in shaah, friends, we are in a moment going to move into small circles. To give space for each of our grief, our hearts to speak. You need not be eloquent. You only need to show up and be present.
We'll be asking you to share if you feel called on two questions. What is the grief you're carrying as you're witnessing this genocide? And secondly, what does steadfastness UD steadfast action mean to you in this hour? Maybe? How are you embodying that call that we've heard in such a prayerful way from each person?
Today [00:53:00] when we go into breakouts, you'll be in a room with three to four people and each of you will have about two minutes to share. It's never enough time. And when the sacredness of time, we practice that concise prayerful speech. And when we're not speaking, we're actively listening and holding each other, refraining from crosstalk or getting into conversation so that everyone may have a chance to speak.
When you enter the room, you might wanna briefly say hello to each other with a wave or placing a hand on the heart. And then one of you can begin. We'll be sending little notifications in your zoom window so that you'll see when it's time to move on to the next person. And everyone in the circle, if they wish, can get a chance to share.
After each person shares, you may wish to pause and take a breath or two before moving on. Let that person's words land in your heart. [00:54:00] If you don't wish to go into a breakout room, you don't need to accept the invitation, and you may remain in this room where we'll play some meditative music and be with you.
We'll return in a little less than 10 minutes, so we'll have two minutes per person, eight to nine minutes in the breakout, and we'll see you back after that time. We'll place the questions into the chat as well before we go, and we'll go ahead and open the breakouts. May these weavings and conversations continue, bring these questions to those that you love, that you organize with.
Friend. What are you grieving in this time of witnessing genocide? Friend, what is steadfastness looking like for you in this moment of so much destruction? How are you finding ways to take meaningful [00:55:00] action?
I wanna invite you to share in the chat, which I believe is now opening some words of what you might be taking with you as you're harvesting your witness from these groups. Maybe something that resonated with you or a way of taking action or some something someone remembered. Feel welcome to share in the chat.
And in addition to this conversation and way of making ritual together, I invite us to take with us from today the ritual symbols that we've gathered onto our alters for ongoing remembrance. Placing the empty bowl and the stone somewhere we can see it visibly each day, or engaging in a fast for Gaza.
Holding the candle still lit. After we close [00:56:00] soon, continuing the remembrance and letting it guide our hearts into action.
May all of those we've remembered today, their lives be for a blessing and also for a transformation and for collective liberation. And I'll pass back over to you both Zaya, Maurizio, I believe we'll get to hear a few words next about Project Hope.
Zaya Benazzo: Yeah. Yeah. Thank you Lee. And as many of you have received that this gathering with this gathering together, we're fundraising for Project Hope, and we have years with us today who is the founder of Project Hope.
And he's been doing incredible work in the last, there is Es I let you speak and we also have the video of Project Hope, if we have the time to share. So thank you Es for being with [00:57:00] us.
Iyas Sartawi: So thank you so much for this opportunity. I'm so honored to be among people like Rabbi Lynn, RA Ray, yourselves Mike River, Mike Yohi.
Honestly, I'm sad, anxious, and angry. Not only because what's going on just for the last 20 48 hours I lost or like we lost as a family. A child in the West Bank due to inadequate, insufficient medical. Attention, imposed by the occupation. And also the last 48 hours we lost one of the team members lost their mother-in-law also because of insufficient care in Gaza.
And so not only in Gaza and West Bank even, we lost a dear family member here in the United States. Actually, I'm gonna be, after this. I'm gonna be going to the funeral and the prayer and all the things we need to do for the young man who lives [00:58:00] behind him. Young pregnant wife. So it's been a lot.
Also one thing I wanted to probably make a point to people here the first. Amazing girl was who spoke Shahe. She's from Gaza. I'm from the West Bank and RA is from Jerusalem. We all from the same people, but we have different situations, different, IDs and different livelihoods.
Which where we, before 1948, we were just about 20 minute drive from each other. So I just wanna go fast and talk about the project and hopefully also Zaya. I shared with you also another video, Hain Illa, which who is the girl who walked into the fire and she became known like widely. And it's an example also how we help children.
And we have also the Anna Cherri video. We distributed the water on the souls of him and the other five journalists. So basically [00:59:00] project for Palestine. I founded it in just a few, couple months after the genocide started. What I was clear for mostly Palestinians, the objective was it wasn't fighting the edge group.
It was a just con evident campaign of ethnic cleansing. I started seeing them bombing all the bakeries. And even there was one day when I heard that Israel bombed the last function in bakery and ga. In Gaza City, that's when they're mostly of the attacks. Were on the north. So projects over Palestine is a mutual aid.
And mutual aid campaigns are the kind of campaigns that we collect, the duration money here in the United States, or whether we have allies as also in Europe and the Middle East. And while Israel is blocking the eight, like what it has been doing for the past 24, 22 months, we still are able to deliver the money.
And the team in Gaza, they work with whatever they have in the market. So [01:00:00] they go by from the local markets and deliver on people. Not undermining the other the heroic and wonderful job of the other types of organizations while Israel is blocking the aid, they can't do anything.
They're paralyzed. But we still are able, even in the most worst situations where like the food was cars, we were still able to go and get food for people because there is still always like some food, but it is very expensive. People have lost their their livelihoods. They've lost their savings.
They've finished their savings, they lost their jobs shops, so there's no income. And Israel has engineered even the, what we see the. Past few months with the GHF and the new way of the aid is that even like in front of the international community, it's it tells them that there are trucks of aid that are getting in, but it engineered a way that this aid will be looted and not make it to people for free.
So we're talking [01:01:00] about a kilogram of flour that is used to cost maybe a whole bag of like just five shekels. We're looking at a hundred shekels for just one kilogram of flour. So the types of projects that we do a lot of like food distribution, whether in firms in in, in form of packages or hot meals.
Water has also been we still we have been doing water for a long time, but since January, 2025, when the hundreds of thousands of people went back in just a couple of days from the south to the north, created so much demand on water, of water on the in the north. And again after that, with the continued destruction of the water treatment facilities and the infrastructure of all the municipalities in Gaza, the ability to provide water has gotten lower and lower.
And also with the fact that also the diesel prices has gotten so much higher, even a lot of the smaller water treatment facilities stop stopped operating. [01:02:00] So we have been distributing water and the way we distribute, we buy from the water treatment facilities that extract groundwater, which is not suitable for human consumption.
And then the, we send them in form of like tanker trucks to almost everyone in Gaza. We serve Gaza in the north and the center and the south. We have been also helping hundreds of families survive. Also we have been focusing on these injured children like PanIN who lost their entire family in an airstrike.
The team finds them in hospitals and we provide care for them until they somehow get out of Gaza, like Hain. She's in Jordan now. But the video will show how we kept looking after her. We also support the hospital with Gaza. We send food packages we support medical points.
We support schools by school supplies. We provide tents for people, who survive bombings. [01:03:00] And we also have been somebody called me. I hope I'm still there.
Yes, they're there. Yeah. Yeah. We have been also supporting the two churches of Northern Gaza since the beginning. And we still support them because they're not only to support 'em to survive, because they also have a lot of the Christian communities have been living in these churches as well.
Yeah. That's what we do. If you feel you wanna see more, you can always follow us on our Instagram project, hope Palestine. Just the three words Without Space Project Hope Palestine, we have launched a 100,000 liters of water distribution on the souls of the martyred journalists that have been martyred by Israel in the past week.
Rae Abileah: . You'll find the link in the chat to support Project Hope. Sending our dollars is one way that we can help in this moment. What I have [01:04:00] learned from my time spent get leading groups to bear witness in the West Bank is that when we bear witness, when we are in this witness, we inherit a responsibility to carry these stories and names forward.
That it is not enough to just say the name, that like a Shera said, we bring our tears into the streets, into our actions. We bring our grieving and our rage, and we cattle use that energy as a catalyst to take action. Were it not for the grief and the rage of the international community, my own family would not have survived in the Holocaust.
It is on us now to take action. So there are so many ways to let our tears water the seeds of justice, and it [01:05:00] is actually such a beautiful thing that I can say that in our global community, the chances are that wherever you live, there's a movement going on. There's a way you can plug in and be part of the organizing.
The tide is turning. People are standing up and making our voices heard collectively, as Shad said at the opening of this gathering. Genocide continues because of international complicity and therefore our international community has a power to help stop it, especially in the countries like my own country here in the United States that are fueling the genocide directly with weapons that are carrying it out.
So I invite you to join with me in petitioning our governments to pressure Israel to stop the starvation and the siege, and that if your government is one that is sending [01:06:00] weapons, if you're in the United States in particular, that you contact your legislators and ask them to block the bombs. We had a historic vote recently led by Senator Bernie Sanders, where twice as many senators as had previously six months ago voted in favor of blocking the bombs.
So our calls. Our direct actions, our visits, which are with our legislators, are actually so important. You'll see some links in the chat to be able to take action online, to send a message to block the bombs. We also want to invite you, if you haven't already, to see where olive trees weep and consider hosting a screening with your community, with your congregation.
It's really easy, actually. The technology is wildly simple. You go online, you fill out a little form, and you can stream the film, and it comes with a discussion guide so that you can open the doors to [01:07:00] have conversation. There are so many people who don't know the history of that this ethnic cleansing has been happening for decades and decades, who are just now realizing that something is going horribly wrong, that children and families are starving.
Let's welcome them with open arms into a movement built with love. One way we can welcome is by sharing this film, by creating space for learning and conversation. And as Ashira said, each of our actions doesn't look the same. There's room for artists. There's room for healers, for lawyers, for poets, for doctors, for whatever special skills you have.
Your unique gifts are needed in this moment urgently, to stop this genocide and to stand up to the rise of authoritarianism in Israel and wherever it is happening, wherever people are being dehumanized, we pray [01:08:00] through our action. Friends, let our grief carry us toward this heartfelt action. And I wanna repeat Omid words as a prayer for us in taking action.
I wish for you everything that you wish for Palestinians. May it be that what we wish is life freedom, dignity, food, water equality in Sha own, may it be and I will pass over to my beloved mentor and teacher, rabbi Lynn.
Lynn Gottlieb: Thank you Ray. And thank you everyone. To those of you who are Jewish, I want to call us to remember that we existed before Zionism, and our job is to end Zionism.
As it has been written, I shall place [01:09:00] peace upon the earth and you shall lie down and be safe and undisturbed, and I shall banish armed conflict from the earth. And the sword shall not pass through your land. That is our horizon. That is what we see, and that is meant for every living being even in death.
Palestinians remain our teachers in the meaning of love as this poem written by Nour Abdel Latif, less than a month ago says. If I must starve, let it be with dignity in my children's eyes, not with my hands tied by silence. Let the world witness that I did not bow to the hunger, but stood even as the [01:10:00] sky emptied and the earth closed her mouth.
If I'm a starve, let it be while I still cradle my child's hope, not as a number lost in footnotes. Let the sea carry my name to shores that forgot my people. Let the wind whisper. She fed love when bread was gone. Let us gather up our love, transform it into solidarity as a sign of our love. We will not look away until justice comes.
And for all the martyrs, Allah,
enfold them in the wings of mercy. We, the living will not look away. [01:11:00] Am mean, am amen. Go in peace and go in revolution.
Zaya Benazzo: Thank you. Thank you, rabbi Lynn. Thank you, Shera. Thank you, Ray. Thank you Shad. Omi. And Pastor Michael. And thank you everyone who gathered here with us today for your presence, for your tears, for your stead, fatness, and for your commitment. And just to echo the words of Ray, we pray through our actions.
May we continue? So yeah. And we have the community and we'll continue to gather here. And yeah. And I make this genocide ends soon. This has to end and it's up to all of us to make it [01:12:00] happen. There's no small action. Keep looking, keep donating. We, you can donate directly to Project Hope or through us.
We transfer Don money directly and we are also supporting several families in Gaza that need food and medical support. So the energy continues to be shared. Yeah. So thank you and I wish for you, everything you wish for the Palestinians is gonna become my new mantra and new response to the Haiti mail that we receive constantly when we organize this event.
It will be as simple as that as my response. Thank you Amid for sharing that with us. Thank you. I feel so honored to be part of this community.
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