Carrying Compassion
Quotes from a statement of Solidarity with Palestinians and Jews.
Today, I filled up my water bottle from the tap, walked out the door, and hiked to the top of a hill with my partner. While I caught my breath, I admired the peaceful city1 nestled in the valley and drank from my bottle, adorned with a “Free Palestine” sticker.2 My mind returned to Gaza. How will they survive with water supplies cut off? They can’t.
I’ve been consumed by the news, having trouble concentrating on anything else. Having so much I want to say yet having trouble finding the words. Doing what I can and it not feeling like enough.3 Do you know this feeling? If not right now, perhaps from a past experience?4 If so, what was it that drew you in?
I admit that it was personal connections to Palestinians and Palestinian Americans that first motivated me to better understand the view from Palestine. I learned enough to hold great empathy for Palestinians and Jewish people wanting a safe place to live, and enough to decide that “neutrality” doesn’t exist. Given that the US spends my tax dollars (~$29.89 of my $ in 2022) to arm the Israeli military, doing nothing still supports further colonization of Palestine and, essentially, the imprisonment of Gaza.5
In class today, one of the facilitators reminded us: Feel the pain, grief, and fear. And, when we can transform that into well wishes – wishes for the health, safety, wellbeing of others – something shifts internally. We can sustain that compassion for the long haul and use that energy to fuel our further engagement and action.6
I realized that I have been carrying well wishes for freedom for Palestinians with me daily. My water bottle sticker is a regular reminder:
Dear Palestine,
I care about your pain.
May your suffering cease.
May you be free.
May you live with ease.
And, today, particularly today, I wish for clean water for my friend in Gaza. Today, right now. May more humanitarian trucks get through. May he have water. May his family have water. May Gaza have water.
CeasefireNOW.
With love,
Sara
Notes:
1 I'm in Loja, Ecuador, home of the Palta people.🌎 Where I stand now and where I call home are lands violently colonized, despite armed indigenous resistance. My immigrant ancestors, and thus I, have benefited from unjust colonial practices that I now oppose in Israel. I wish we would learn from history to do things differently. I don't know the solution, but genocide can't be it.
2🍉About my sticker, from Native Threads: “Watermelons are a symbol of protest for Palestinians. In the years after the 1967 War, it became a crime to raise a Palestinian flag in Israeli-controlled Gaza and the West Bank. To subvert the ban on the national colors, Palestinians would carry sliced watermelons through the region in a sign of protest. The red, black, green, and white of the fruit and rind—colors that match those of the Palestinian flag and the flag of the Arab Revolt—tell the story of the plight and pride of the Palestinian people throughout generations.”
3 In the spirit of collective brainstorming of actions, here are the things I'm doing. I welcome additional ideas! ☎️As a US resident, I emailed and called my representatives to express my views and then again to support the Ceasefire NOW Resolution. The updated links made it easy peasy for me: bit.ly/StopGazaGenocide ✒️Signed bit.ly/Palestinian-Jewish-Solidarity & petition for humanitarian access. 👛Donated to Middle East Children's Alliance. 😁Wrote to Biden and asked for my tax money back. ✊I have bought Paliroots soap and boycotted SodaStream and Sabra. I have and will continue to: 😢Grieve. 🗣️Talk with people. 🫂Check in on people. 🥙Take care of myself. 📖Learn more, such as about grief for social transformation.
4 There are many problems in our world and we can't take them all on personally. Action and resistance look different for different people. And sometimes we're in survival mode without energy to engage outside issues at all. As I share where I am today, I welcome you to take what is useful or intriguing and leave the rest.
5 US involvement goes far beyond money. 💸Regarding US tax money, in 2022: $4.8 billion military, economic, and missile defense aid for Israel. /160.6 million individual tax returns in 2022 = $29.89 per taxpayer. USCPR estimates the average individual taxpayer gives $25.25 in weapons to Israel each year and offers to help you offset that.
6 I recently started The Next Economy MBA by the LIFT Economy team; Phoenix Soleil offered these words of wisdom and later an adapted loving-kindness meditation, which inspired my prayer for Palestine. I extend this prayer of loving kindness to Jewish people and all peoples.
P.S. When the world feels overwhelming, it helps to DO something in our control. 🧼🍽️🧽I have been washing dishes, sorting recycling, chopping potatoes, going on walks…according to Burnout this helps our body remember that we are not helpless. We have agency.
“You read a book, you meet a person, you have a single experience, and your life is changed in some way. No act, therefore, however small, should be dismissed or ignored.” -Howard Zinn
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