I write this during a pause in the massive destruction, during the second temporary (quasi) ceasefire imposed on Israel. The pause gives some time to reflect on what the last 15 months have created; for Palestine, for me, for us as a group Identifying as Women in Black pro-Palestinian vigilers.
I count myself fortunate to have been living in the New Paltz area in October of 2023, fortunate because of Women in Black. At that time I had just recently been dispossessed of my home, my cabinetry work shop, my gardens, all of which I had created from nothing only to have it seized by the duplicitous property-owner. When Israel Initiated its assault to destroy Gaza, I as a long-suffering friend of dispossessed Palestinian olive farmers in the West Bank began feeling demoralized, as if I were alone in the world with my despair. It was a tremendous relief and joy to join with all of you, to be with people whose hearts were open to pursue justice, peace, compassion, love. Through these months and months of unfolding destruction and dehumanizing cruelty being leveled on Gaza, I have been buoyed by the unwavering faithfulness of our group here on the sidewalk. I am very grateful for the many Jewish persons among us who stand in opposition to the defiling of their faith as perpetrated by the State of Israel. I see the willingness to seek truth and love, regardless of the consequences, that permeates our ranks. I am grateful to be part of this. I look upon us as prophets, or at least emissaries of prophecy. As such we are perceived as out of the norm: strange, different, queer. But we have persisted.
Now, In Gaza, after fifteen months withstanding assaults, Palestinians by the hundreds of thousands, mostly traveling by foot, are allowed to pass through the Netsayim corridor. They return home, past razed earth and destroyed building rubble to their homes of destroyed rubble, to their schools and hospitals and water treatment plants and sanitation plants and mosques of destroyed rubble. They go in jubilant resistance, returning to set up tents of survival. But how will survival be possible when they are still the sacrificial lambs of both Israel and the U.S.?
During these 15 months of mass destruction the Biden Administration and now Trump have paved the way for enormous weapons sales to Israel. Illegal Israelisettlement through displacement of Palestinians skyrocketed in the West Bank under cover of the Gaza genocide. Donald Trump has the 100 million dollar contribution from Miriam Adelson to pay back with his pledge of allowing Israel to annex the West Bank. He also seems intent to keep on his side the powerful American Christian Nationalists who support the Greater Israel concept. Everything seems stacked against a free, liberated Palestine.
Only the world’s outrage at Israel’s brutality seems to impose any resistance. We will continue to stand in support of Palestinians' right to return to their homes; their right to freedom of movement and equal rights, whether they live in Gaza, the West Bank, Jerusalem, or Israel; and their human rights to food, shelter, medical care, and education as a free and proud people.
Will we be able to see clearly, what one amongst us (Alejandro, as I recall) said as he addressed us after a vigil: “that the liberation of these people is a liberation of all of us”?
Salaam alaikum.
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