The First Post
In the name of God the Most Gracious the Most Mericful.
Why did I start this? Why now?
For the last seven months, Israel has been enacting a genocidal campaign in the Gaza Strip, endlessly bombarding medical, educational and religious facilities. Israel has cut off food, water and electricity. And this description barely scratches the surface.
Gaza is the closest to home I have ever been -- it’s the closest to home I have ever felt. It’s true, I’ve only ever visited on two occasions -- when I was a toddler, and then again as a teenager. But Gaza has a distinguished place in my heart. Gaza is Palestine. It’s where my parents were raised, where my father and his family fled to when they were violently expelled from their homes.
They were expelled as a result of the Zionist ethnic cleansing campaign which led to the 1948 Palestinian Nakba. And now, I can never go to Yaffa, where my mother’s side of the family is from; I can never go to Isdud, where my father was born -- at least not in a future where Israel’s apartheid practices are allowed to continue. Both of these cities were victim to Zionist terrorist militias, and they are now claimed to be Israeli territory. But in Gaza… in dangerous Gaza, beautiful and besieged Gaza, I am Palestinian, and unabashedly so. Gaza is my heart’s home.
I started this Substack out of love for Gaza, and out of love for those who live there. Out of fear of losing my family, and out of desire to do something. But the proximate cause was Aaron Bushnell. The next post explains who Aaron Bushnell is, and how he came to be known, and includes a letter written in his memory. But for now, I would like to say, my aim for this platform is not to glorify his act. My aim is rather quite disparate. It is to provide a space for people to ask questions, and provide them with a means to draw their own conclusions.
I want the work presented here to be characterized by coherence and discipline. I want people to hear the voices of Gaza, of Palestine and the diaspora. I want the result of this endeavor to be the dismantling of the assumptions upon which the West bases its justifications and the (sometimes absurd) questions it poses to advocates of Palestinian freedom. I want to make clear the flaw in their vision, that makes them see the world invertedly. I don’t know where this is ultimately going to lead. I don’t know if this attempt will be successful. I don’t even know what I’m doing or how to do it! But Aaron Bushnell showed me that I have to try.
And God is my Witness.