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Palestine Still Needs Us

Though it is not currently making news headlines, the genocide against the Palestinian people continues. More than 75,000 Palestinian people have been murdered, and tens of thousands of Palestinian people are missing. A ceasefire was announced by the U.S., but has, predictably, not improved the reality on the ground in Palestine. “Israel” continues to ration food, fuel, and medical supplies, leading to the health crises and deaths.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the Arab League, and 19 countries including Egypt, Brazil, Norway, Spain, and Portugal have condemned the actions of “Israel” to further annex the West Bank. They noted that it is a “flagrant violation of international law” and called on “Israel” to cease its actions to alter the Palestinian territory. The statement said the recent actions “are part of a clear trajectory that aims to change the reality on the ground and to advance unacceptable de facto annexation.” It noted that “such actions are a deliberate and direct attack on the viability of the Palestinian state and the implementation of the two-state solution.” The signatories clearly stated its opposition to any form of annexation. “In view of the alarming escalation in the West Bank, we also call on Israel to put an end to settler violence against Palestinians, including by holding those responsible accountable,” the statement said.

Global Sumud Flotilla

Global Sumud Flotilla—an organized movement to end the siege on Palestine—is organizing its Spring 2026 sailing to break the siege and deliver supplies to Palestine. It is set to be the largest mission, this time with 100 boats and 3,000 participants committed to nonviolence. The crews will include doctors, nurses, teachers, and people of various professions and skills to establish sustained civilian presence and support the Palestinian people. The delegation will include people from 47 countries including Bangladesh, Canada, Chile, Germany, Jordan,
Libya, Malaysia, Mexico, Pakistan, Poland, Thailand, and the U.S. In its appeal for support for the mission, Canada Boat Gaza said, “The blockade is a tool of genocide, being used to starve Palestinians, and to deny access to lifesaving supplies like medicines, fuels, and shelters. In the face of this genocide, we must escalate our efforts to
break the siege.” It added, “Flotillas are a legacy for solidarity, they are a symbol of collective struggle and collective liberation. Despite the illegal attacks on our efforts, we continue to come back.”

Flotilla Goals

The five interlinked targets of the Global Sumud Flotilla, as stated by the organizers, are:

1. Breaking the Siege: Challenging Israel’s illegal naval blockade of Gaza.

2. Delivering Life-Saving Aid: Transporting urgently needed food, medicine, and essential supplies.

3. Supporting Reconstruction: Accompanying Palestinians through early rebuilding efforts of homes, schools, hospitals, and civil institutions.

4. Confronting Complicity: Mobilizing global civil society to challenge the governments and institutions that enable Israel’s illegal blockade, occupation, and mass atrocities.

5. Catalyzing Global People-Powered Action: Turning the flotilla into a catalyst for coordinated land and sea actions that amplify Palestinian voices and mobilize people worldwide where institutions have failed.

The organizers said, “This moment in history requires collective participation. Guided by the Palestinians’ steadfast struggle for liberation, our coalition of everyday people and movements is mobilizing communities worldwide to act. Together, we rise against apartheid, racism, imperialism, colonialism, ecocide, and all systems of oppression.”

In September 2025, the Global Sumud Flotilla led “Israel” to direct its military to pursue its vessels. This allows Palestinian people to access their own water to fish for the first time in years. This is one example of the small wins that are possible and that occur, even as the large, primary goals may seem impossible to achieve.

To support the mission, visit chuffed.org and search for “Global Sumud Flotilla – The Second Mission” to make a donation. The goal is currently €1 million and the campaign has raised €214,000. To directly support Palestinian people, donate eSIMs to help them to stay connected to one another and to the world: connecting-humanity.org/donate.

Recommendations

The Runner Stumbles. The box office at The Dundas is now open for the 2026 Ringplay season. The Runner Stumbles opened last week and the last opportunities to see it are February 26 to 28. Tickets are $37.50 at tickettailor.com/events/shakespeareinparadise, or they can be purchased at $35 at The Dundas box office on Mackey Street..

All We Want is Everything: How to Dismantle Male Supremacy, by Soraya Chemaly. Join Feminist Book Club, hosted by Equality Bahamas and Poinciana Paper Press, in reading All We Want is Everything this month. The publisher said, “All We Want is Everything offers both unflinching analysis and genuine hope, informed by the Bold and revolutionary potential of feminist imagination. From private relationships to global politics, Chemaly shows how naming and refusing male supremacy is essential to resisting the force tearing democracy apart. This fresh, timely, clear-eyed, and necessary manifesto is a call to refuse supremacist identities, relationships, and values in order to build more just, healthy, and sustainable worlds for everyone.” The discussion will take place at Poinciana Paper Press on Wednesday, March 18 at 6pm. To join the club and receive email updates, go to tiny.cc/fbc2026.

The Earth Breathes Every Season. This exhibition at Poinciana Paper Press features work by Tracy Assing, Candida Cash, Lisa Codella, Sonia Farmer, Erin Greene, Monique Johnson, Carol Sorhaindo, and Natalie Willis Whylly. It opened on Saturday, February 14 and the work will remain on display for the next two weeks, open to the public Thursdays through Saturdays from 11am to 3pm. “In the latest exhibition at Poinciana Paper Press, seven artists contend with the tethers and portals found in the landscape around them, creating connections between eras,
islands, and each other. Whether floating between worlds, excavating a wound, or sitting with the stillness of a breaking headline, each artist stands in the gap of what is unsaid to midwife its exhale. Experimental poems, prints, and books channel these encounters, collapsing wisdom and wonder into powerful play and embodied insight.”

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Lessons we could learn from MLK

Monday, 19 January, 2026 was Martin Luther King Jr. Day. After criticism for not recognising the day, the President of the United States released a proclamation to “honour the brave men and women who remain steadfast in their commitment to law, order, liberty, and justice for all.” While previous proclamations on the federal holiday included mention of continued work toward racial justice, the one issued this year avoided mention of race, racism, and the treatment of black people in the country.

In contrast, former president Joe Biden delivered a speech at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta (once led by Martin Luther King Jr.) in 2023. “It’s still the task of our time to make that dream a reality, because it’s not there yet,” he said. “To make Dr. King’s vision tangible, to match the words of the preachers and the poets with our deeds. The battle for the soul of this nation is perennial. It’s a constant struggle. It’s a constant struggle between hope and fear, kindness and cruelty, justice and injustice, against those who traffic in racism, extremism and insurrection. A battle fought on battlefields and bridges, from courthouses and ballot boxes to pulpits and protests.”

Every year, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, there are arguments about the man, his work, and his legacy. Many try to use excerpts from his speeches and writing to justify their action and inaction where the rights of all people are concerned. “Today, let us remember Martin Luther King as he TRULY was: A black radical anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, revolutionary Christian internationalist who was deemed an enemy of the State and assassinated for his radical work,” Marc Lamont Hill said earlier this week. “Just about everything else is a lie.”

As we find ourselves in the midst of global upheaval with human rights violations filling the news, it is useful to turn to King’s words and the message he consistently delivered. There is no excuse for inaction.

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

For more than two years, the genocide enacted against the Palestinian people by Israel has been broadcast to the world. Many have ignored the cries of Palestinian people who have been terrorised in every way possible: from denial of basic needs including housing, food, and water to experiencing tremendous loss to witnessing the destruction of their land and murder of their family members, friends, and community members. Many have somehow managed to believe that the genocide in Palestine is separate from the lives we live in other parts of the world. They think we have no part in violence inflicted. They do not see how easily we could be on the receiving end of the same violence, due in part to our refusal to rebuke it and withdraw our participation, however indirect.

There have been many signs that Palestine is being used as a testing ground. Oppressors are not only testing equipment and various kinds of technology, but international law and both the apathy and the resistance of people everywhere. Events in Venezuela and commentary by the US government on Greenland certainly give an indication of the far-reaching consequences of silence on violence and injustice inflicted on people, whether or not it is seen to be contained by borders.

“Empire never stops at one place. Gaza was the test. Greenland, Venezuela, Iran now loom as the victory’s bounty. [Is this the beginning – of a new world (dis)order?] What goes around comes around, and fools are those who didn’t see it coming,” Francesca Albanese recently posted on X.

UNRWA reported on January 20 that its headquarters in Al-Quds (referred to as East Jerusalem) was stormed early in the morning. “On January 14, Israeli forces stormed into an UNRWA health centre in East Jerusalem and ordered it to close,” they reported. “Water and power supplies to UNRWA facilities – including health and education buildings – are also scheduled to be cut in the coming weeks. This is a direct result of legislation passed by the Israeli parliament in December, which stepped up existing anti-UNRWA laws adopted in 2024.”

In addition, UNRWA said, “These actions, together with previous arson attacks and a large-scale disinformation campaign, fly in the face of the ruling in October by the International Court of Justice, which restated that Israel is obliged under international law to facilitate UNRWA’s operations, not hinder or prevent them. The court also stressed that Israel has no jurisdiction over East Jerusalem.”

United Nations experts, including independent experts on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order:

Special Rapporteur (independent experts appointed by  the UN Human Rights Council) on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context;

Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance;

Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons;

Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change;

Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health;

Special Rapporteur on the right to food;

and Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967 spoke out against the ban imposed by Israel against 37 organisations providing aid in Palestine.

“The ban is not an isolated act,” the experts said, “but part of a systematic assault on humanitarian operations in the occupied Palestinian territory and another step in the deliberate dismantling of Gaza’s lifeline.”

“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor. It must be demanded by the oppressed.”

Where, laws, policies, and courts fail, there must be people who stand together and raise their voices to speak truth and make clear demands for justice. This is not limited to protest signs and chants, petitions, or even organised acts of civil disobedience. It includes strategic decision making at the personal and community levels to affect the economy and, by extension, the ability of governments to fund war and genocide.

“The problems of racial injustice and economic injustice cannot be solved without a radical redistribution of political and economic power.”

While Martin Luther King Jr. spoke to the laws and policies that create and maintain such (concentrated) power, redistribution can and must include our own practices. The Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement calls on people everywhere to be intentional with our spending, refusing to give money to companies that support Israel in its genocidal action against Palestine and Palestinian people.

It requires that we break away from our habits of picking up the same products we always have, watching the same movies we always have, and keeping our money in the same banks and investment portfolios that we always have. It requires vigilance. It requires research. It requires a commitment to people, like us and not like us, and a set of shared values that include equality and justice, and that commitment must outweigh the exhaustion and laziness that capitalism levies against us. We have to push past inertia to take responsibility for everything that is in our power, making decisions that eliminate or reduce harm to others and move us toward a world of peace and equality.

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

In a post on X, Bernice King invited people to remember her father by taking the following actions:

1. Amplifying and advocating for the end of state-sanctioned and facilitated violence against black and brown immigrants and against people, period.

2. Speaking up for people who are suffering genocide in Sudan, Palestine, Congo, and other nations.

3. Calling and writing your Congresspersons in support of democracy as opposed to dictatorship.

4. Supporting policies to eradicate poverty (higher minimum wage, affordable housing, etc)

5. Learning the truth about and challenging anti-black racism, which is still prevalent in healthcare, media, lending practices, the criminal “justice” system, etc.”

Recommendations

1. Join Feminist Book Club with Equality Bahamas and Poinciana Paper Press. This evening, Feminist Book Club is meeting at Poinciana Paper Press, 12 Parkgate Road, to discuss Theory and Practice by Michelle de Kretser. The selection for next month is P. Djèlí Clark’s Ring Shout, “a dark fantasy historical novella that gives a supernatural twist to the Ku Klux Klan’s reign of terror.” Ring Shout will be discussed on February 18 at 6pm. Register to join Feminist Book Club and receive updates at tiny.cc/fbc2026.

2. Exhibition openings at National Art Gallery of The Bahamas. On Thursday, January 22 at 6:30pm, What the Landscape Holds, an interactive exhibition by Jason Bennett of The Bahamas and David Gumbs of Saint-Martin, opens. It invites us to “step directly into constructed environments shaped by synthetic materials and technology, where everyday objects are transformed into immersive landscapes that can be touched, moved through, and activated by the viewer.” On the same evening, War Dog: Teeth, Thorns, and Iron, new works by Reagan Kemp opens in the Project Space. “Through painting and ceramic works, Kemp draws inspiration from Ajagunda, the warlike manifestation of the Yoruba orisha Obatala, reflecting on guardianship, survival, and the fragile line between defence and harm.”

3. Pot Luck: Cartoons from The Guardian and The Tribune of the 70s and 80s, featuring works by renowned artist and architect Eddie Minnis, opens at the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas on Friday, January 30 at 6:30pm. The exhibition includes a “vital body of editorial cartoons that captured the pulse of Bahamian life at a time when public discourse looked very different, yet feels strikingly familiar today.”

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BDS For Palestine 2026

We are at the end of 2025 and people are thinking about the year ahead and all that they would like to achieve. Goals and resolutions are being set, and improved lives are being envisioned. There is significant focus on the self and the family at this time. In a few weeks, there will be increased attention on the country and its fate as related to the next general election. Zooming out from our immediate lives and geographic location, the global swing to the political right comes into view. The consequences have been and continue to be far-reaching. While it does not receive the necessary attention, the uninterrupted genocide in Palestine is one of the most horrific failings of our time, certain to reverberate all over the world and for many years to come. The refusal to see the connection between our struggles and the interdependence of our liberation is certain to determine our future. 

 

Even after more than two years of feigning or enjoying ignorance, today is a good day to start paying attention. It is a good day to commit to the development of a political ideology that does not discount the lives or the land of people we see as different or distance from ourselves, but demands solidarity with all people in situations of vulnerability. Our survival depends on it, especially as capitalism becomes more acceptable to the masses for whom it is devastating.  

 

At the United Nations General Assembly in September 2025, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 Francesca Albanese said, “As I argued in my last report to the Human Rights Council, this genocide has become profitable, unfortunately, not just for some corrupt private entities. And this is not only Israel’s crimes. This is the world’s crime sustained by silence, complicity, and the supply of funds, weapons, and political cover. History, we’ll remember, because it’s not that this is the first genocide that is been known. No, the Holocaust, the genocide in Bosnia, the genocide in Rwanda were also known to the people of the time. But this genocide happened because the world didn’t care enough to stop them, like today, or not. But today’s genocide is something different. It’s openly incited, cynically denied, and relentlessly supported, armed, and weaponized, while those who oppose it are silenced, beaten, criminalized, and smeared. This is why I say this is the shame of our time and the collapse of the international legal order in this moment, not only for the Palestinians, but for all of us.”

 

In an October 2025 address to the General Assembly from Cape Town, due to U.S. sanctions preventing her participation in New York, Albanese said, “International law is clear: States must neither aid nor assist in the internationally wrongful acts of others, and must prevent and punish international crimes. This requires immediately suspending all military, economic, and diplomatic ties with Israel until its crimes cease, and pursuing justice for the survivors by holding perpetrators and accomplices accountable.” 

 

To close the perceived distance between us the Palestinian people who are experiencing the genocide perpetrated by “Israel” and the Palestinian people in the diaspora, fiercely advocating to the lives and the land of their people, it is important to listen to their voices. Their stories are the truth we need to hear and feel. 

 

Nour ElAssy

“Since becoming a journalist, my life has unravelled in real time. Every time I have found a new place to stay, the bombs have found me again. The signal bars on my phone flicker like a dying heartbeat, and when the battery dies, which is often, I scramble – desperately searching for even a whisper of electricity just to send a photo, a sentence, a single update. Sometimes, I have to walk for kilometres through shattered neighborhoods to find a generator or a hotspot. All while airstrikes roar above me.

 

“But I keep going. I take testimonies from mothers standing beside the corpses of their children. From fathers who haven’t eaten in three days and have nothing to give their starving kids. From children who draw tanks instead of flowers. And I send them out to the world, praying someone, somewhere, will read them and feel what I feel[…] Every time I zip up my vest, I remember the face of the photographer who was burned alive. The videographer who lost his family while filming the ruins of another. This vest is not armour. It is a shroud. But I wear it anyway. Because my people need someone to tell the world what’s happening. Because silence is complicity. Because if we stop speaking, no one else will.” 

 

Omar Suleiman

“Thousands of children are dead. Thousands of children are under the rubble. Thousands of children are missing limbs. Thousands of children are missing parents. Thousands of children are fighting disease. Thousands of children are having surgeries performed on them without anesthesia. Thousands of children have been starved. Thousands of children have been bombed out of their homes. Every single child in Gaza has been forever traumatized. All of the above are war crimes. We can keep letting human rights organizations count them. Or we can finally hold them accountable.”

 

Sumayah Abu Qas

“Ousamah begged me to let him go there to get food, but I refused. I was afraid of losing him. In the end, I gave in to my daughters’ hunger. On the morning of 19 June 2025, Ousamah went to the aid distribution center by al-Bureij R.C. in the Netzarim compound with my brother Ahmad and some other friends.  That whole day, I was scared and anxious. Then, at 11:00 P.M., my brother came back with Ousamah’s body. He was covered in blood and dirt. Ahmad told us an Israeli tank had fired a shell at them and hit Ousamah in the back, killing him and five others while they were opening boxes of aid. They all died on the spot.” 

 

Ahmad al-Ghalban 

“We started packing up our things with my uncle Iyad Salem, 33, and his daughter Hibah, 6. Around 2:30 P.M., as we stepped into the street with our things, the army fired shells, and one hit us. I was seriously wounded. Muhammad was dying next to me, and my uncle Iyad was torn to pieces. Hibah, my mother, my sister Alaa, and my brother Qusai were about ten meters away. I lay on the ground, bleeding. I looked at my legs and couldn’t believe what I saw. I told myself, “This is a dream.” My mother screamed and called for help. Five minutes later, a man arrived, and when he saw we were still alive, he put Muhammad and me in a tuk-tuk and took us to the Indonesian Hospital, along with my uncle, my mother, and the others.

 

“On the way, Muhammad recited verses from the Quran and the Shahadatain prayers [recited before death], but I didn’t realize he was taking his last breaths. At the hospital, I was taken into surgery right away. It lasted four or five hours. When I woke up from the anesthesia, I found out they had amputated both my legs and four fingers on my left hand. My right hand was also broken, and they put a metal implant in it. I had shrapnel all over my body. I stayed in the ICU for five days.

“I didn’t know Muhammad had died. I kept asking about him, but my mother said he was hospitalized in critical condition at a-Shifaa Hospital. She was afraid to tell me because I was in a very fragile physical and mental state. I kept telling her, “I want to see Muhammad.” And every time I asked, “Why don’t you go visit him?” she said the doctors wouldn’t let her. After two weeks, when I was doing better emotionally, she told me Muhammad had died. I cried a lot because Muhammad was a friend, too. He was my twin brother. I couldn’t believe he was gone. I cried nonstop for five days. I never imagined I would lose him, or that I would lose both my legs.”

Abir Hamza El-Khawaja

“We used to have lives and dreams. Despite the fact the Gaza Strip has long been besieged, right now, it’s completely desolate. All that exists is destruction. It’s become apparent that our dreams may not come true, such as the ultimate dream of visiting Jerusalem, or Akka, for example. But beforehand, we were able to enjoy simple pleasures: We could go to work in the morning; we could eat our favorite food; and we could quietly read a book. We could enjoy watching the sunset over the vast sea, and people could play with their children. We could then return to our families at the end of each night and to a warm bed, where we could enjoy a favorite drink, in peace. This security disappeared from that moment, and it seems it’ll never return.

 

“In previous Israeli military assaults on the Gaza Strip, most people would stay in their homes. We were inevitably suffering from all the death, destruction and incessant bombing, but this time, it’s not like that. It’s annihilation, displacement and starvation. This time, they’re really taking our lives.” 

 

Noura Erakat

“As a Palestinian, my heart is very broken that a genocide can continue, that Palestinian babies can be slaughtered and there is a debate over whether or not that’s OK or how it should be done better. As a Palestinian, I’m so frustrated that rather than take aim at the oppressive systems that placed us in these conditions, like prolonged military occupation, apartheid and genocide, that we are made into a problem to be resolved. We are not the problem. These conditions that oppress us are the problem and should be what the international community targets to destroy, rather than allowing us to be the target of destruction.”

 

Diana Safieh

“How do we handle this [survivor’s] guilt? Some struggle and do nothing, while others, occupied with their own struggles, cannot engage. However, many of us feel compelled to do what we can for those who cannot. Our activism is driven by the belief that our survival obliges us to fight for justice and the rights of those in Palestine. This constructive action is crucial for our own survival. And many of us, at home and abroad, seek comfort in those non-Palestinians offering their solidarity, through kind words, marches and other forms of activism. 

 

“I do not want to end on a pious note, and yet I will. It is one’s duty to take advantage of all the opportunities life presents to you to make the world a more hospitable place for all of us[…] We must use our privilege to work toward a day when life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness will be afforded to us all.”

 

Act to End the Genocide

Boycott, divest, and sanction. This is what we, who support human rights, abhor violence, and work for liberation, are called to do. It is as wrong as it is easy and lazy to assume a position of powerlessness. We can choose to seek information and use it to make decisions that, at the very least, minimize harm. The BDS movement is growing, and the organizers are providing easily accessible information to help participants to avoid giving money to “Israel” and entities that support it. Google, Amazon, AirBnB, and Disney+ are among the companies targeted by the economic boycott. More information is available at bdsmovement.net/campaigns#2. Make 2026 the year that you spend as if the lives of others depend on it. They do. 

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The genocide in Gaza continues

Yesterday marked two years since the beginning of a heightened awareness of the genocide in Palestine. This week, while discussion of a “20-point Gaza Peace Plan” take place, the genocide continues.

I continue to write about the genocide in Palestine, enacted by “Israel”, because the genocide continues. I write about it because it is far too easy to ignore it. I write about it because it is too convenient to leave it to someone else and to determine that it is the duty of someone else to speak up. I write about it because I know that relatively few people are watching news stories about it, reading the history for themselves, or engaging in conversations with other people about what is happening, why it continues, and how it is relevant to us.

Two years later, it may seem “normal” to see tents being bombed and people scrambling to collect what little they own before moving on to a still-unknown location, only to be pushed out again. What we are seeing, or refusing to see, on social media, day after day, is colonisation. It is the system we would like to believe is in the past, never to rear its head again. It is the systematic murder of a people, destruction of the land, and an attempt at erasing their culture. It is a series of acts of domination and the complete violation of human rights. It is a testing of weapons and tactics that will not end with the Palestinian people—certainly not if we remain silent as it happens to the Palestinian people.

Though more States have recognised the State of Palestine, there is little action to end the genocide. It is absolutely necessary for governments to end their diplomatic relationships and economic engagement with “Israel.” There is no utility in “recognising” Palestine while supporting, implicitly or explicitly, the genocide “Israel” is committing every single day, with money from governments and corporations all over the world.

This week, in Middle East Eye, Palestinian journalist Fareed Taamallah wrote, “Recognition, while important, will remain meaningless unless it brings about the permanent end of occupation and genocide through a serious, firm and effective challenge to Israel’s crimes. For decades, Palestinians have endured occupation while the international community failed to uphold its political and legal responsibilities, applying international law with a blatant double standard. What Palestinians need most are decisive measures: ending cooperation with Israel, imposing economic sanctions and prosecuting its leaders for war crimes.”

“This year, the timing of international recognitions coincides with the olive harvest – the most important agricultural season in Palestine, vital for sustaining thousands of families and deeply symbolic in our identity. My family and I should be among the olive trees in our ancestral village of Qira, near Salfit. Instead, we face relentless obstacles, not only from seasonal droughts or pests, but from systemic restrictions imposed by the occupation. For Palestinians, harvesting olives is more than an economic necessity – it is an act of resilience and belonging. Across the West Bank, however, families like mine are denied access to our groves by military orders and forced to watch settlers uproot and burn our trees,” Taamallah wrote.

Taamallah noted that the recognition of the State of Palestine is symbolic, and seems to be an easy way for governments to feign a moral stance when their true intent is to quiet the discontent in the public and quell any action. It should not be a single step that gives governments permission to look the other way, but lead to more decisive action to end the genocide. “[Recognitions of the State of Palestine] must drive us to establish a democratic, inclusive system based on freedom and justice, rather than one that excludes key political factions at the demand of foreign governments.” The Palestinian people need governments to end their complicity in the genocide.

Palestinian American human rights attorney Noura Erakat spoke at the Security Council 10011th meeting with a focus on women and peace and security on October 6. She grounded her statement in Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security which acknowledges the role of women in conflict resolution, peace negotiations, peace-building, and humanitarian response. It calls on States to “ensure increased representation of women at all decision-making levels in national, regional and international institutions and mechanisms for the prevention, management, and resolution of conflict.”

“Twenty-five years ago, when this body adopted Resolution 1325, the Security Council made an unabashedly feminist commitment to advance gender equality because you understood that women are critical agents for a just peace. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Palestine where, for decades, courageous Palestinian women have resisted dispossession, removal, apartheid, and now genocide, yet nowhere have the [Women, Peace and Security] tenets of equality, inclusivity, accountability and respect for human rights been more out of reach, said Erakat.

“In Gaza, one woman and one girl have been killed every hour for the past 730 days. Despite the recent enthusiasm to end this war, the terms of the current proposal are setting up Palestinians to live under permanent occupation and siege. The end of the genocide cannot come at the expense of accountability and justice for its survivors. The voices of Palestinian women have been notably absent from this chamber.”

Erakat noted that her participation was in representation of Palestinian sisters who could not be there due to restrictions on travel and the denial of US visas. “Others face reprisals for speaking out,” she said. “This Council should be doing everything in its power to recognise and support Palestinian women as agents of change, but when a people are enduring genocide, the first priority is life. Today, I will show how Israel’s ongoing Nakba in Gaza intends to destroy the Palestinian people in violation of the Genocide Convention.”

Erakat’s statement was specific to the reproductive genocide taking place in Palestine, and she listed four points to make clear goal of “Israel” to “eliminate the possibility of a Palestinian future”.

In the first point, Erakat stated that just surviving is a struggle. The destruction of buildings has left no room for intimacy. Engagement in sexual intimacy is made even more difficult, if not impossible, by the sexual violence enacted against Palestinian people including rape and electrocution of genitals. From 2022 to 2025, there was a 41 percent decline in the birth rate of Palestinians in Gaza.

Secondly, Erakat noted that even in cases where women were able to conceive, it has been difficult to carry a pregnancy to term. “In addition to the trauma of incessant bombardment, attacks on medical facilities, hunger, and disease, it is impossible for women to meet basic needs, let alone access their sexual and reproductive rights.” She shared the story of a pregnant woman having to flee a bombed shelter with nowhere to go. The woman was informed, one week later, that her pregnancy would end.

Thirdly, for Palestinian women who are able to carry their pregnancies to term, it is difficult to deliver. It has been almost impossible for Palestinian women to access prenatal care which increased the risk of postpartum haemorrhage. Palestinian women are delivering in deplorable conditions, including in hospitals where there is no anaesthesia.

Fourth, for those who manage to deliver living babies, it is a struggle to keep them alive. “Over 60 percent of pregnant and breastfeeding women are unable to produce milk due to malnutrition,” Erakat said.

Babies have been born and killed during the genocide which is severely impacting the ability of Palestinians to continue life. Erakat said, “This was always the intention.”

“Israel” is not just dropping bombs on nameless, faceless people. It has been taking aim at medical professionals and journalists—people who could save lives, and people who could report on the events. It targeted areas it had declared safe. It indiscriminately killed people, many of whom were women and children. It continues to create circumstance that threaten life. It is destroying the land and it is trying to control reproduction. The elimination of then Palestinian people has always been the goal, and States need to be at least as decisive and intentional in their resolve and their actions to save lives and support the Palestinian right to self-determination. The genocide will not end when the State of Palestine is recognised by all, but when all States withdraw their support from “Israel” and its genocide.

What are you prepared to demand of your own government? What changes are you prepared to make in your spending? Join the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Stop funding genocide.

Published in The Tribune on October 8, 2025.

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Flotilla defies Israeli blockade

THE genocide continues in Palestine. “Israel” continues its brutality. Yesterday, soldiers detained two children in the occupied West Bank for “spying.” When people suggested they let them go because they are so young, one of the soldiers said, “I don’t care.”

The Freedom Flotilla—more than 40 civilian boats with activists, lawyers, and parliamentarians—is steadily making its way to Palestine, carrying aid for the Palestinian people. At noon on Tuesday, September 30, it was 150 nautical miles away. Last week, the flotilla was attacked by “Israel”. A boat with medical professionals and journalists will join today. International journalists have been blocked, by “Israel,” from entering Gaza for the past two years. This dedicated boat aims to deliver desperately needed medical care and provide an opportunity for international journalists to report from Gaza.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition, comprised is “a grassroots people-to-people solidarity movement composed of campaigns and initiatives from different parts of the world, working together to end the illegal Israeli blockade of Gaza.” It is working to break the blockade of the Gaza Strip which has significantly contributed to the humanitarian crisis, denying Palestinian people access to food, medicine, and other health needs. It also aims to educate people all over the world about Gaza and the illegal blockade that increases the suffering of the Palestinian people, making Gaza more unlivable with each passing day. The Freedom Flotilla Coalition condemns and publicises “the complicity of other governments and global actors in enabling the blockade” and “[responds] to the cry from Palestinians and Palestinian organizations in Gaza for solidarity for breaking the blockade”.

After the flotilla experienced drone attacks and radio-jamming by “Israel,” Italy and Spain sent navy ships to accompany it. On Wednesday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said: “The government of Spain demands that international law be complied with and that the right of its citizens to navigate the Mediterranean under safe conditions be respected.”

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said, “Italian citizens, along with members of parliament and MEPs. To ensure their safety, the foreign ministry had already notified Israeli authorities that any operation entrusted to Israeli forces must be conducted in compliance with international law and the principle of absolute caution.”

“[…]We have now gone to a point where all of our human sensibilities are offended by the continuous and disproportionate attacks on the Palestinian people and the failure to allow access by the international community to the survivors for the provision of humanitarian aid.”

Yesterday, it was reported that Italy’s Defense Ministry would stop accompanying the flotilla at the 150 nautical mile limit to avoid “a diplomatic incident”. @globalsumudflotilla shared on Instagram that the Italian Naval Frigate would not only abandon the flotilla, but offer those on board the “opportunity” to return to shore. They said, “This is not protection. It is sabotage.” Expressing frustration with Italy’s decision, they said “[…]It escorts us only to the point of danger, peeling us away while Israel continues to slaughter and starve the Palestinian people with impunity.”

It is now more important than ever that everyone is not only attentive to the flotilla, but visibly attentive. Follow their accounts on social media, comment to help them show up in others’ feeds, and share their posts for wider reach. We do not need to be politicians or journalist to take action.

In her speech at the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley referenced the violence in Sudan and Gaza. She said, “The survivors are entitled to use the words of Bob Marley – “How can you be sitting there telling me that you care? When every time I look around the people suffer in the suffering in every way, in everywhere.[…] The real tragedy of war is that these children, when they become grandparents will still be answering the innocent questions posed by their grandchildren as to how they lost their limbs. “Granny, how did you lose your leg?” And when they answer, we run the risk that the violence and hate will be perpetuated for another two to three generations. This is NOT good.”

Mottley noted that there are multiple crises in this moment, referencing the COVID-19 pandemic and human trafficking. She explicitly stated that the “bigger more insidious crisis” is “the crisis of truth.” Without shared truth, she said, scoring political points becomes a priority and “political tribalism” is the result. Mottley pointed to the loss of trust on various levels, from neighbours to international governance. Before drawing attention to the United Nations Charter and the need to reassess values, she talked about that way violence and hate are passed on from one generation to another, over and over again.

“It is happening now on our watch. We can and must do better to secure the peace – in the name of the children,” Mottley said. “At the very least the international community must immediately find the funding to support the children of Gaza and the children of Sudan for the next three months. In Gaza it is $66m that is needed and $200m for Sudan. This money is mostly nutrition related, to reverse or mitigate famine and also to provide water and sanitation and health interventions.”

“A lasting peace can never be achieved through violence; it can only be achieved through justice and dialogue – talking. And lest we forget, where others are seeking to build the peace and preserve humanity in Gaza, the international community must not condone the bombing of those states who look to facilitate peace.” Mottley continued, “The world is still in need of a reset. We must first and foremost decide whether we still agree on the same set of values that inform the Charter. As simple as it seems, this is a necessary step in any reset. For values have changed in many of our countries over the last 80 years. We cannot assume that it is business as usual.”

Published in The Tribune on October 1, 2025.

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The fantasy of the two-state solution

In recent days, multiple states have announced that they now recognise the State of Palestine. This comes after years genocide, forced famine, and continued violence and horrifying conditions, all imposed by “Israel”. It also comes on the heels of the new report that tells the world what we already know, having seen it for ourselves: “Israel” is committing genocide in Palestine.

Established by the Human Rights Council on May, 27, 2021, Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel (the Commission) collected and analysed evidence related to the occupied Palestinian territory and alleged violations of international law. Its report, “Legal analysis of the conduct of Israel in Gaza pursuant to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide: Conference room paper of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel”, was published last week.

This is not the first report by the Commission. Previous reports “found that the Israeli security forces have committed crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza, including extermination, torture, rape, sexual violence and other inhumane acts, inhuman treatment, forcible transfer, persecution based on gender and starvation as a method of warfare”. It was also found that Israel “destroyed in part the reproductive capacity of the Palestinians in Gaza as a group, including by imposing measures intended to prevent births” and “deliberately inflicted conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians as a group”.

The report notes that when a genocidal act is committed, there is a duty to punish the act. It references the Genocide Convention and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, both of which define genocide. “The Rome Statute that established the International Criminal Court gives that Court jurisdiction to prosecute and punish individuals for the crime of genocide if committed on the territory of a State Party, regardless of the nationality of the perpetrator, or by a national of a State Party, wherever committed.”

The five categories of genocide, as laid out in the Genocide Convention and the Rome Statute are killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, inflicting conditions to cause physical destruction of the group, in part or whole, imposing measures to prevent birth within the group, and transferring children of the group to another group by force “with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”.

The reports noted that at least 47 percent of Palestinians killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023 were women and children. It also found that 83 percent of Palestinians killed in Gaza were civilians. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported 498 attacks on healthcare facilities, killing 747 people in the Gaza Strip. It was found that women and children were specifically targeted and killed by Israel. “In all cases analysed by the Commission in relation to the attacks along the evacuation routes and within designated safe areas, the Commission found that the Israeli security forces had clear knowledge of the presence of Palestinian civilians along the evacuation routes and within the safe areas but nevertheless they shot at and killed civilians, some of whom (including children) 52 were holding makeshift white flags.”

The Commission reported on deaths resulting from the blockade on humanitarian aid, the increase in maternal mortality and neonatal and intrapartum deaths, and at least 1,373 people being killed while trying to access food. It stated, “Palestinians in Gaza were attacked in their homes, at hospitals, in shelters (including schools and religious sites), during the evacuations and in designated safe zones. At times, civilians, journalists, healthcare professionals, humanitarian workers and other protected persons were directly targeted and killed.”

The details in the report are damning and there could only be one conclusion. It concluded that “the Israeli authorities have committed the crime against humanity of extermination in the Gaza Strip by killing Palestinian civilians”. It stated that “the Israeli authorities intended to kill as many Palestinians as possible through its military operations in Gaza since 7 October 2023 and knew that the means and methods of warfare employed would cause mass deaths of Palestinians, including children”.

On page 16 of the 72-page report, it says, “The Commission concludes that the actus reus and mens rea of ‘killing members of the group’ under article II(a) of the Genocide Convention are established.”

The full report is available online, searchable by its title. It give a clear account of what has been taking place in Palestine and the irreparable harm caused to the Palestinian people. In the face of genocide, it is absurd that there continue to be calls for a two-state solution by anyone who is not Palestinian. Tremendous reparations are owed to Palestine and the Palestinian people, and it will take generations to repair the damage done to the land and the people.

As Rabea Eghbariah wrote for The Guardian: “The two-state solution has not only become detached from reality, but for too long steered the discussion away from reality itself[…] Just last month, Israel approved a plan for 22 new settlements in the West Bank. These decades of settlement expansion and de facto annexation have effectively gutted any viable basis for the two-state paradigm, even according to its own metrics.”

Eghbariah added: “The truth is that the two-state solution has become a delusion – a mantra repeated to mask an entrenched one-state reality[…] This mantra continues to prop up the illusion that Israeli occupation is on the brink of ending – if only more states recognize the Palestinian state and if only Palestinians and Israelis would just sit down and talk.”

Eghbariah clearly states that the two-state solution is fantasy and misdiagnosis. It ignores the foundation of what we see happening today, which is not a crisis, but a genocide. That foundation is the Nakba of 1948 and continued destruction of Palestine and displacement of the Palestinian people. There are questions that begin with the Nakba, including and not limited to its legal implications. The fantasy of the two-state solution comes from the idea that the “two sides” need only talk and come to an agreement, never having to reckon with the history of violence inflicted upon the Palestinian people and the justice due to them.

Opinio Juris shared commentary, in response to States recently recognising the State of Palestine, by scholars. Below are four excerpts.

“While two-state solution pontification is presented as pragmatism, it functions as a form of necropolitics, whereby one has power to dictate who is worthy of living. Salaita demonstrates that, when zionism is given oxygen to live, Palestinians are, by necessity, awarded the death penalty. Zionism can only thrive on the ruins of Palestinian villages and through the eradication of Palestinian natives, from the 1948 Nakba until the genocide of Gaza.”

– Bana Abu-Zulu

“Most obviously, the space between recognitions of the State of Palestine and the reality of Palestinian devastation, genocide, and catastrophe is so gaping as to swallow any declarations whole. It took declared famine for the recognising governments to speak at all; it is hard to imagine what would be needed to make them act. “

– Zinaida Miller

“As a child, I wondered why Europe didn’t see us and I would have been elated with this week’s declarations. As an adult, I understand that Europe still does not see us for us, but seeks to absolve itself of the guilt of having helped Israel’s extermination campaign. However, as a Palestinian, I know that our survival, resistance, and will to live provide all the recognition we ever needed.”

– Nawal Hend

“How can a state recognise Palestine without calling out Zionism for what it is? The two are clearly incongruous. A sincere recognition would entail all of the following: a) the creation of a multilateral conference for the consolidation and drawing of definitive boundaries of a Palestinian state; b) the establishment of an immediate peace-keeping mission for the inviolability of said borders and safety of its people; c) the imposition of intolerable sanctions on Israel and its isolation until at the very least the genocidal elements in its government are removed and meaningful relations with the new Palestine entity are restored; d) provision of unequivocal support to the International Criminal Court in its pursuit of justice; e) restoration of the life and dignity of the Palestinian people, both in Palestine proper and its diaspora.”

– Ilias Banters

The genocide is not deniable. It is happening, and it is being documented in realtime. The photos and videos give us imagery and the voices of the people reporting and sharing their stories give us limited insight into the way it feels to live through aggression, destruction, and murder. Palestine may seem geographically distant, but our struggles are connected. Colonialism, racism, and capitalism are known to us too. The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement needs more attention and greater, more dedicated participation. Visit bdsmovement.net to see the list of targets. Make the decision to stop spending money with corporations that fund the genocide. Stop enabling Israel. Stand with the Palestinian people.

Published in The Tribune on September 24, 2025

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The Network of Caribbean Feminists Statement on Palestine

The Network of Caribbean Feminists released its statement–calling on CARICOM to support the Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel) case at the International Court of Justice for measures to be taken against genocidal actions by Israel–on the ongoing genocide in Palestine on Monday, May 7. This post has excerpts from the statement.

“We affirm the humanity and dignity of the Palestinian people and we rebuke the violence enacted against them, including bombardment, starvation, sexual violence, ethnic cleansing, and the intentional destruction of educational, cultural, healthcare, political, and religious institutions. More than 35,000 Palestinian people have been killed since October 7, 2023. Most of them are women and children. More than 80,000 Palestinian people have been injured. Over 8,000 Palestinian people are missing. Almost 2 million Palestinians are currently displaced in Gaza, and 1.1 million are facing catastrophic food insecurity.”

“We reiterate the Human Rights Council resolution on the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination which “calls upon all States to ensure their obligations of non-recognition, non-aid or assistance with regard to the serious breaches of peremptory norms of international law by Israel.” We grieve the Nakba of 1948 and support Palestinians who reject the two-state solution. There can be no peace without justice.”

See and share the full statement at tiny.cc/caribbeanforpalestine

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We should take a stand when there is a crisis

THERE is always a crisis somewhere, and when there is a crisis anywhere, there is a crisis everywhere. This is the nature of the world, given the way that the global economy, geopolitic, and interpersonal relationships work on their own and are connected with each other. Crises, however discreet they may appear to be, are also interconnected. Discussed as though they are about one issue or another, armed conflicts are usually started to gain control of resources, destabilise economies, and/or oppress and subjugate people. The latter two are usually connected to the desire to steal, control, and profit from resources.

Some crises make it to the news while others are ignored, deemed less important, impactful, or relevant. Sometimes it is about the direct effect of crisis in one or two countries on the rest of the world and how much we depend on them for necessities. Sometimes it is about the people involved and how human the rest of the world considers them to be.

Everyone knows that there is a conflict in Ukraine, though everyone who is aware of it may not understand and discuss it as a war being waged by Russia.

We have seen footage of the violence against people and destruction of property. We have heard from the people who fled of the absence of choice and the will to survive which led to the separation of families. Ukrainian people have been forced to go to other countries that, thankfully, rightfully, accept them as refugees. They, in many ways, have to learn new ways of life, and they face the difficulty of deciding in which ways they should assimilate and in which ways they can and should maintain their culture. They balance the maintenance of their collective identity with living as comfortably in community with a receiving country. Language and food, of course, are integral to cultural identity, and are both the easiest and most difficult aspects to maintain when a minority in another country. Many have pointed to the targeted destruction of museums, galleries, and other cultural sites — clear attempts to wipe out every trace of Ukrainian cultural. This — all of it— is genocide. This is a war on people, on their culture, and on their history.

Everyone knows that there is conflict in Palestine, and particularly in Gaza, and there are different narratives about it, so not everyone acknowledges that it is genocide.

Some understand that Israel has inflicted violence upon the Palestinian people for decades, displacing them, trapping them in open-air prisons, and killing them. Some are unaware, and maybe uninterested, in the history of this crisis and the human rights violations by Israel against Palestine.

The same must be said here:

We have seen footage of the violence against people and destruction of property. We have heard from the people who fled of the absence of choice and the will to survive which led to the separation of families. Palestinian people have been forced to go to other countries that, thankfully, rightfully, accept them as refugees. They, in many ways, have to learn new ways of life, and they face the difficulty of deciding in which ways they should assimilate and in which ways they can and should maintain their culture. They balance the maintenance of their collective identity with living as comfortably in community with a receiving country. Language and food, of course, are integral to cultural identity and are both the easiest and most difficult aspects to maintain when a minority in another country. Many have pointed to the targeted destruction of museums, galleries, and other cultural sites — clear attempts to wipe out every trace of Palestinian culture. This — all of it — is genocide. This is a war on people, on their culture, and on their history.

What does the repeated use of these tactics tell us about these wars and the people waging them? What do they say about the intent of the people behind them? What about the common suggestion that it is “just about land”?

It is easy to throw our hands up. We can come up with countless excuses that amount to:

  • We are too far away.

  • We do not understand.

  • We are suffering too.

Whatever the excuses we can find to absolve ourselves of any responsibility for each other, within and across borders, global solidarity is critical. This has been rather difficult to build, but it is happening. One of the main gaps is the low capacity to care.

It is not always that people do not care. Sometimes people do not want to care, so they choose to ignore. Sometimes people do not know why they should care, and they actively work against the human instinct to be interested in the welfare of others. So many of us are tired, struggling, and tired of struggling. Moving from one day to the next can sometimes feel as though we ourselves are turning the massive, heavy hands of time, and that our running feet are what make this planet spin. The burden heavy, the pressure tall, we press on in our daily lives, concerning ourselves with what is immediately in front of us. Sometimes, being asked to care is taken as an affront. It is not that we should be blamed for these circumstances, considering that we are operating within a system that has been designed and maintained for this purpose — self-destructive individualism, hyper-focus on survival, perpetual exhaustion, and a seemingly necessary disinterest in what takes place outside of our own bubbles.

Our pushback against this system, while we are in it, has to be intentional, collective, and unrelenting. We have to choose to be attentive —watching, reading, and listening to the news. This on its own, of course, is not enough. We have to be media literate, assessing the credibility of our sources of information and being critical of the way the information is a delivered. Does the source have a clear position on this issue? What does the source want us to believe? Who has been quoted, and what other sources have been mentioned? What do the people behind this piece want us to do, and why?

One source is not enough for us to be able to make a decision on an issue. It is important to go to multiple sources, draw comparisons, note the contrasts, and verify the information. Are the stories firsthand, coming directly from people who have directly experienced the event? Is it a retelling of someone else’s story? Is there evidence to support the secondary data? What do the photos, video, and audio indicate? Could they have been manipulated in any way? Separate the facts from the opinions and apply the evidence.

After accessing and assessing the information for credibility, it can be helpful to discuss it with others. What do other people think about the news? Have others found other sources of information or completed assessments that we have not yet done? Do people tend to take one side over another? Why?

There is often one side that gets more support, and this does not necessarily mean that it is the right side. In many cases, the conservative viewpoints get more attention, both from media and from the people around us, because their talking points are generally the same and their positions are often so divisive that the media wants to run multiple stories over a long period of time, if only for the shock value that leads to more purchases and clicks. The people who call for human rights, dignity, peace, and equality are often left to play catch-up, responding to the hateful rhetoric and misinformation spread by other people. It is important to pay attention to what is being said on all sides and to identify the intent behind all of the messages. It is not sufficient to know the opinions people hold. Find out why they think, say, and do whatever it is they do. Assume less. Ask questions, challenge positions, and determine why you stand where you do.

Where are people being valued, championed, and protected? Where are systems and institutions being held up as more important than human life? Who is expressing concern and demonstrating care for the people most vulnerable to violence, destruction, oppression, and murder? Who is dehumanising people, using gender, race, socio-economic status, age, and other identity markers to “excuse” what is happening to them?

With information, opinions, and the intent behind them, we are better equipped to find our own positions on issues. Once we do, in order for it to mean anything, we have to take action. This does not mean we need to enter conflict zones or become participants in wars. Being relatively safe, we are able to speak up. We can talk to family members and friends about what is happening elsewhere and help them to understand who the victims are and how we can support them. We can make donations to organisations that are activated, especially on the ground and in receiving countries, to meet immediate needs, including food, water, and medical care. We can engage political leaders and other people of influence, sharing our positions and our expectations of them as they participate in conversations and decision-making processes with regard to the crisis. We can use our platforms, including social media, to share information and encourage others to act. Small acts matter. What is most important is that we take action based on our own capacity, and that we seek to increase that capacity by challenging ourselves and the systems that limit our ability and willingness to participate.

Interested in learning more about Palestine? Check out the list of 40 books at https://lithub.com/40-books-to-understand-Palestine. 

Published in The Tribune on November 15, 2023

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