Hi friends,
As many of you know, I have spent the last year actively organizing for the end to Israel’s genocidal violence against the Palestinian people, and advocating for a free and liberated Palestine. It has been twelve long months (and far too many decades for many Palestinians) of protesting, marching, calling, emailing, and even visiting elected officials week after week after week. It has been twelve long months (and far too many decades for many Palestinians) of organizing actions aimed at pressuring these elected officials to end our country’s complicity in this genocide and enact a two-way arms embargo immediately.
It has been all too easy to fall into despair watching the horrors of genocide live-streamed on our social media feeds while world “leaders” gaslight us into thinking that this is what justice is supposed to look like.
But the truth is that while, of course, my blood pulses with rage watching our world “leaders” cowardly sit back and operate business as usual in the face of genocide, despair has not been my go-to place. Quite the contrary. If anything, this past year has been the most hopeful I’ve felt in a very long time. This past year has solidified my belief that a new world is on the horizon. This past year has been deeply transformative as I have witnessed and experienced the miraculously connected and caring ways we can choose to live with each other.
My spirit has been lifted and energized as I connect with a movement of people lovingly labouring toward our shared liberation. People who are clarifying the connections of all of our struggles and unravelling the once seemingly inextricable threads of colonization, imperialism, and other systems of oppression. People who are moving beyond the language of resistance and towards living the visions of the world we want.
I anticipate that we will all feel a particular kind of heaviness this week and as we move through it all, I also want to share the beautiful possibilities – the realities, really – that have emerged from our collective grief.
Community Building with My Neighbours at Gaza Square
Davenport for Palestine - formerly Davenport for Ceasefire - is my neighbourhood group that was formed in November 2023 with the mission of influencing the Canadian federal government, specifically our Member of Parliament (MP), to call for a ceasefire in the Israeli state’s assault on Gaza. Over the past few months, we’ve also demanded that our elected officials push the government to call for and enact a two-way arms embargo against Israel, as well as to comply with the July 19th International Court of Justice ruling that concludes that Israel’s continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory is illegal and must end as quickly as possible.
While we originally came together to influence capital P Politics, our mighty riding made up of ordinary neighbours has become so much more than that. We have become a community in the true sense of that word. Every Sunday, we gather at a local footbridge that we have reclaimed as “Gaza Square” where we put up posters, create art, share snacks and educational materials, and simply get to know each other to strengthen our relationships as we struggle together in this cause.
Over the summer, many community leaders hit burnout after months of endless organizing and action and, so, we switched tactics, pursuing community-building efforts to keep ourselves and each other connected to the cause. We began planting a healing garden. We organized a weekly movie night for children, playing films with core messages of liberation (think: A Bug’s Life, Chicken Run). We started a mobile children’s book library with books focused on justice and equality. We organized a dabke (a Levantine folk dance) workshop. We are leaning into joy, connection, and curiosity. Together.
“If we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.” – Howard Zinn
Protests are important. Pressuring our elected officials is important. Direct action that disrupts systems of oppression is important. Building these connections and cultivating community is important. We need each and every single one of these entry points and more. This is how change happens.
Channeling our rage and grief into sustained action and building community rooted in love and care is no easy feat, but my neighbours have been doing it with such grace every single week. Together we are creating the world we want to live in.
World Building at the Student Encampments
While I was in British Columbia earlier in the spring, I had the chance to visit the student encampments at UBC to bring supplies and show up in solidarity with the courageous youth demanding that UBC disclose and divest from the Israeli occupation and ongoing genocide. I also spent some time at the student encampments at my own alma mater at the University of Toronto where students were similarly demanding that the institution disclose, divest, and cut ties with Israeli academic institutions.
Like so many universities across the world, these supposed bastions of education and knowledge are investing their student’s tuition money into weapons manufacturing and fueling war crimes.
“In order to build the movements capable of transforming our world, we have to do our best to live with one foot in the world we have not yet created.” - Aurora Levíns Morales
Beyond calling for the divestment in a genocidal regime, these encampments were living and breathing examples of radical ways of living and being in right relationship with each other.
From outlining community agreements clearly and unequivocally upon entering to sharing books and resources in an outdoor library, from holding a sacred fire to growing a community garden, being in that encampment was to be a part of a just and equitable world that lies not in some far and distant future, but in this very moment.
The grace, the dignity, and the deep, deep purpose, with which the students carried themselves and each other throughout the encampment was more than anything these institutions could ever offer. If you want to know what leadership looks like, look not to any institution but to what these students did during these encampments.
Breaking Generational Cycles of Trauma
Over the last year, the mainstream media has hidden and diminished the unbelievable courage of so many in the Jewish community who have been standing up against a genocidal government that weaponizes their name and their faith. Mainstream media continues to conflate the condemnation of a colonial state with antisemitism and they have ignored the countless Jewish activists who have been at the front lines of every protest and every action over the last year.
In the spring and early summer, I often visited the student encampments on Friday evenings when Jewish students and activists shared Shabbat with those of us of varying faiths. I will never forget sitting on the grass listening to the Kiddush and eating challah while children played around us, while artists painted murals. This is radical imagining come to life and it is a world well within our grasp.
The fierce solidarity between Palestinian and Jewish activists in Tkaronto has been the most powerful manifestation of love that I have ever witnessed. It is a profound demonstration of what allyship looks like. I am in awe of those who are doing the deeply sacred and difficult work of breaking generational cycles of trauma and violence when so many have chosen to dig their heels in.
I’ve said this before and I will say it again, I am who I am because of the teachings of radical Jewish progressives. I started my career working at a small nonprofit organization dedicated to educating youth on intersecting social justice issues around the globe. The organization was founded and led by young Jewish leaders in the city who are some of the fiercest, wisest, and most intelligent people that I have had the privilege of learning from and the deep honour of calling my friends.
As I continue to march on the streets of Tkaronto and to speak out against injustice, it is important for me to emphasize and name where my knowledge of the struggle for liberation lies. Even today, I continue to learn about what solidarity looks like in action from my Jewish neighbours and friends.
Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.” – Arundhati Roy
As we grieve the unnecessarily collosal loss of life, I hope that we find new ways to channel that energy to re-order the world, to imagine and enact our freedom. We don’t have to look far for these models of living, they are already all around us.
In loving solidarity,
Justine
Take Action for a Free Palestine
Stand in solidarity with the goals and aspirations of Palestinian liberation. If you don’t already, follow the Palestinian Youth Movement on Instagram and find their local chapter to get connected to local events and actions.
Learn more about the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (BDS) movement to put economic pressure against Israel until it complies with international law and universal principles of human rights.
If you are in Toronto and want to connect with your local riding to take action, check out the Toronto 4 Directory on Instagram. Find your riding and get connected with your neighbours!
Don’t know what you don’t know? Check out Decolonize Palestine, a resource founded by two Palestinians living in Ramallah that is full of helpful articles, books, and other multimedia.
This was incredible to read, Justine. Thank you for your activism and your words.