Palestinian Voices | Global Connections Call 4.2.2025

Our community recently came together to listen. To listen to powerful voices of Palestinians–Kareem al-Fadi, from Gaza, Huda abuArqoob and Elias D’eis from the West Bank–who are enduring violence and oppression. We heard raw testimony and heartfelt appeals and left with a clearer picture of the urgency of the Palestinian plight and the moral imperative to act in solidarity. Listening, however painful it may be, can open space for deep empathy, connection, and taking action in ways that heal.

Below you’ll find helpful links including the call recording, calls to action, call nuggets, and the full written transcript.

Helpful Resources & Links:

Calls to Action:

  • Speak up for Palestine - advocate to your governments to end the genocide and occupation. Speak to your neighbors, friends, family. (Share this recording!) 

  • Be in touch with those on the ground - listen to and learn from those in Palestine about what’s happening. Create and open space for Palestinians to share their stories. 

  • Research - when you hear a story in the news, research facts and critically think about the role and influence of media. Listen to and read first-hand accounts.

  • Donate - contribute funds to organizations like Holy Land Trust creating and leading programs and support for Palestinians. 

Inspirational Nuggets: 

  •  sylvia murray, Euphrates' Head of Programs and Strategy, opened with a powerful poem about Gaza (see below in transcript!), and expressed deep solidarity with the Palestinian struggle, calling for collective liberation and condemning the ongoing genocide and occupation in Gaza and the West Bank. 

  • Kareem al-Fadi, a student from Gaza, spoke about the trauma he lived through in Gaza—the fear of constant bombings, the loss of loved ones, and the sense that nowhere was safe. He shared how much he had lost and how abnormal is the life of war, even though others try to normalize it. He described how his family helped him survive emotionally, and how those without support often didn't make it. Now outside Gaza, he feels helpless, knowing that offering opinions isn't enough. He urged the international community and peacebuilders to stop being passive—to stop justifying violence or staying silent—and to take real steps toward justice and peace. Palestinians are still resisting, not just to survive, but because they believe a better future is possible. It's time to act, not just listen.

  • Huda Abuarqoob, from Hebron, shared a powerful, heartbreaking account of life under occupation and war. She described the daily fear and trauma facing Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. As a lifelong peacebuilder, she expressed deep pain and betrayal, saying the world has failed Palestinians by funding violence and staying silent in the face of what she calls ethnic cleansing. She challenged the idea that peace can exist without justice and questioned the inhumanity driving the current crisis. Huda still believes in the power of love as expressed by Palestinian women, who continue to lead, care for their families, and show love in the darkest times. She stressed that real peace must include dignity, shared humanity, and new models of leadership rooted in love—not power.

  • Elias D’eis, speaking from Bethlehem, shared a call for justice. For over 75 years, Palestinians have endured not just military occupation, but a deeper assault on their spirit, freedom, and dignity. Elias says real peace won’t come from ceasefires or foreign solutions, but from healing the deep, generational traumas on both sides—Jewish and Palestinian. He calls for a shift from fear to understanding, from dehumanization to equality. Disillusioned with failed international efforts, he advocates for Palestinian-led, trauma-informed approaches to build a future where every person’s rights and humanity are honored.

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INTRODUCTION

sylvia murray: ‘My friend leaves the faucet running while they put the dishes away, and I think of Gaza. I wake up parched, and I think of Gaza. I open the door to my home, and I think of Gaza. I sit in silence, and I think of Gaza. I throw out the produce I bought that has gone bad, and I think of Gaza. I'm hungry, and I think of Gaza. I eat, and I think of Gaza. I'm full, and I think of Gaza. I can't sleep because I think of Gaza. I sleep, and yet I still think of Gaza. There are people who go about their day who don't think of Gaza. and I think of Gaza wondering how they don't do the same.’

Palestinian poet and editor Nikki Kattoura wrote and shared these words in December 2023. As an anti-Zionist Jew myself, these words captured my experience and feelings then, and 16 months later they are ever more present, resonant, loud for me, for Gaza and the West Bank. In all I do, my heart cries and yearns for and commits to the liberation of Palestine, knowing that that is truly the only way to liberation for us all. We have been and continue to witness genocide in Gaza, ethnic cleansing and a settler colonial apartheid state in the West Bank, detainment and deportation and punishment of those speaking and acting against it, and the weaponizing of Jewish safety.

And today we are here to listen and to be inspired by incredible Palestinian leaders for peace, and to take this inspiration to act for free Palestine, and in turn for our interconnected peace. My name is sylvia, and I serve as Euphrates Head of Programs and Strategy, and I am grateful to be able to welcome you all today to Euphrates’ April Global Connections call, Palestinian Voices. Together we will hold and cultivate an environment for compassion, understanding and healing, and I invite you to listen and to receive what you need to hear for your highest good.

In his final message before being killed by Israeli forces last week, journalist Hossam Shabat said, “I ask you now, do not stop speaking about Gaza. Do not let the world look away. Keep fighting and keep telling our stories until Palestine is free.”

Today we'll do just that, having Palestinian leaders share their own stories. We'll begin with Euphrates Founder, Janessa Gans Wilder, facilitating a conversation. And then we'll open to a question and discovery space, where we'll welcome questions for our guests through the chat, or by raising one's hand, and then we'll end with a closing word from our guests.

Thank you all so much for being here. It's truly a sacred and courageous choice to show up, to be curious, to expand one's heart, and to take risks for peace, justice, and for solidarity. I thank you all so much, and I'll pass it over to you, Janessa.

Janessa Wilder: Thank you so much, sylvia. I feel like you could read that poem over and over again, and that would be such a powerful thing for us all to sink into. And hearing it from you, a Jewish American…believing in that poem, seeing that poem as your experience, and seeing your own liberation as bound up with the liberation of Palestinians, is such an incredible context for this call. And this is an incredible way to open up one Euphrates’ dear values - the concept of oneness.

It's the idea as human beings and creatures on this planet that we are interconnected. We are interdependent, as Thich Nhat Han says. Thank you all for joining us today for another courageous conversation to really dive into and listen and be together as we support this idea of Palestinian liberation, and hear directly from Palestinian voices. I want to welcome our speakers. I'll introduce them all at once, and then we'll dive into our conversation. 

I'll start with Elias D’Eis. He lives in the not so little town of Bethlehem in Palestine. He's the Executive Director of Holy Land Trust, an organization dedicated to peace nonviolence, and addressing the wounds of the conflict at the deepest level of trauma.

If you're ever wanting to visit Palestine, which I highly recommend and strongly suggest. Elias is an incredible tour guide, which I've been able to profit from on many occasions, including a 3 month tour with students that somehow Elias filled with nonstop excursions and amazing things to do. So take him up as a tour guide if you're visiting.

Huda Abuarqoob is here with us from Hebron. She's the director of search for common ground, Palestine, and before that served as the regional director for the Alliance for Middle East peacebuilding an extensive ecosystem of over a hundred and something. Organizations dedicated to peace in the Middle East. She's a recognized leader in grassroots initiatives focused on feminist inclusive political activism [FIPA]. I love the title - an advocate of a UN declaration, seeking to increase women's participation in decision making in Palestine and Israel. In 2017, Huda received the first ever Laudato Si Award from the Pope for her lifelong commitment to peacebuilding and conflict transformation.

What I most love is your upbringing, Huda, as the oldest of 12 children. When I'm with her I sense this palpable power and energy that makes it seem that anything is possible. Thank you so much for being with us, Huda.

And we have Kareem al-Fadi from Gaza City, who's like a little brother to me since he spent a year with my parents in our town of Redding from 2022 to 2023, and last spring we were able to help him against all odds and with incredible community support help him and his family escape from Gaza into Egypt.

He has now just arrived in Germany on a full scholarship to study at university. He wants to become a neurosurgeon. He's not only brilliant, but Kareem is a go-getter and an athlete and a trumpet player and an online business entrepreneur. But what is most amazing about Kareem is his resilience and perpetual optimism in the face of hardship.

PANEL DISCUSSION

I want to dive right into it. I want to start with you, Kareem. I'm just curious about your initial reactions to hearing, I don't know if you got to hear the poem that sylvia read, but hearing that poem [did you have] any reactions to that?

Kareem al-Fadi: Well, to be honest, first thing I heard when sylvia started this poem, I started actually living between those words like, I started actually picturing myself that what she says, that I've actually lived. And it's actually like, really real. And it did happen. And it just hit me so hard and made me think that - Oh, we've come so far out of this thing. I mean, it's been like 2 years happening. And those words made me think back to the first day it started, and how life was then, and how happy we were before everything just started and started to think of all the memories like friendships, the having all my life back then and that's basically like what made me think of. 

Janessa: Kareem, can you share a little bit more? I mean I as a bystander, you know we would be on calls together, and I would hear explosions in the background from your phone, and you'd be like, “Oh, that's another bomb. That's another explosion.” I want to know if you can put yourself back in that situation and share with us. What did it feel like for you to be under attack like, threatened in that way? Not only, you know, physically, but then the deprivation and so many losses. I know you lost your house in an Israeli airstrike. What did it feel like for you at such a young age, to be under that kind of threat?

Kareem: To be honest, every time I remember the kind of trauma that we had to live in Gaza doing all the bombings and demolitions out there. It just gets me thinking that sometimes I need to escape that feeling. But when I have to get back, it's just that I feel like there's not even a safe place out there. We lost a lot of things. We lost a lot of loved ones. Every time we hear the sound of the F16 and F35, we always wonder, even if we just hear from very far away. That is that gonna be us, or is that gonna be That was like pretty much the feeling every time we used to hear all those bombings, and sometimes it's way closer than we think. I heard from people saying that if you heard the sound, that means you're not dead. So that was one of the most relieving information I've ever gotten at that moment that you know. If you just heard the sound of that flight, you heard the sound of the rocket coming down. That means you're not the one getting targeted. And that was basically like a type of life out there. We were just 24/7 having to hear all those drones out there, and flights, rockets, people dying. It is like it's crazy to think about it, because sometimes I think that life is not meant to be like this. This is just so abnormal to us, and they're just trying to normalize [this] on us, and just make us think that this is what life is…this is the normal way of looking at life and seeing just bodies, seeing the dead people seeing them. They just try to normalize that and make and just call it a life which I think is so abnormal. We should not think that this is what life is. We should just think of the positive way, and just try to escape the trauma and the fear that we used to have out there in just an open air prison. 

Janessa: I want to acknowledge your family, and how loving they are, and how close you all were, and I'm sure that was a source of support for you or resilience…that you are all dealing with it together. Do you want to say anything about what role they played for you?

Kareem: Well, the family played, I'd say almost all the role for me out there…We talked together and said, no, we're gonna make it out because we always do as a family, we always work together. We're gonna try and see every possible way that we could actually help us leave that spot or actually try our best to get back to normal life, and not even. I'll not call it normal life, because there is no normal life without a country, without a, without home, without our beloved ones, without our memories, without our life like, I mean. I would say it would be. It would make it. It would make it sound bad if I said, it's a normal life, because there, there's no normal life without having to look for the memories and the people that you've always loved and been with, and even the places and all those kind of things, and having a family that just could share those kind of experiences and talks with them will make it way way better for for a person. If because I've heard a lot of people that they lost or their family members, and they were the only ones left out there, and they even died out of a heart attack or out of some sort of disorder, just because they just kept thinking about what they should do. They don't have a family. Don't have anyone to talk to about those kinds of traumas and stuff like this. And by the sound of those rockets and flags they just get so scared and that fear just can't leave them. And that actually gets into mental health issues, if they did not die out of it.

Janessa: Yes, and I want to just say, Kareem, that that 1st time when your family and you escaped from Gaza, and we're in Egypt altogether, and then we were all together. We were on the zoom, and you were on the zoom, and seeing your family intact and safe, we burst into tears just at the sight that you were alive, that you had survived. They were all there, like, okay. You had lived through it and remember that. Just so grateful that you're all safe and our hearts go out to the millions of those who are not. And anyway, we just love you, and we'll come back to you, Kareem. But we're going to transition. Now Huda I want to bring you into the conversation next. I'm thinking of you in Hebron, which is one of the most volatile flashpoints in the West Bank. And actually it's Hebron where I was the only place in Israel or Palestinian territories that I experienced violence. I had huge boulders thrown at me from Jewish settlers because I was on the balcony of a Palestinian home. I smelled tear gas from Israeli soldiers. On another occasion, I mean, I feel the palpable tension in Hebron, and I know you're there now. Happy Eid. By the way, Eid Mubarak, to both you and Kareem. And I would love to just ask you, how is life for you right now? How are you doing?

Huda Abuarqoob: Thank you, Janessa, and thank you for putting this together, and I am very humbled to be in such a panel with Elias and Kareem. This is the 1st time I see you, Kareem, and know you, but to me you are also every Gazan that I've never seen or heard from for 17 years. Hebron is a place of tension, was, still will continue. Unfortunately, this is the truth that we need to sink in now that the west bank is also being ethnically cleansed. Today in Haishi refugee camp there were raids in which they demolished homes and arrested people, terrorized people in my hometown. In Dura. It happens every night, almost every night, every day, every minute, every exit and interest to the town is closed.

We don't know what the next morning will bring. Should we send our kids to school or not? Should we get together on an iftar or not, should we get together for Eid or not, but that is not again. I would use Kareem’s words, this is not a normal life, and just remember that we, as Palestinians - I'm 54 years old - I was born to this trauma. I've seen it firsthand. I've seen the aggressiveness and violence practiced against us by the Israeli army way back in the early seventies, eighties. My dad was snatched out of the house in the middle of the night. Dogs were released on us. One of the images from this last war from this war, and I'm hoping that it will be the last war. This old lady, the Israeli army in Gaza leashed a dog on her, a search and rescue. It's not a rescue dog. It's an army dog that killed her when she was helpless, sitting in her bed alone, because everyone is dead around her, and the dog killed her. Also another dog killed a down syndrome boy in Gaza. And I'm always questioning the amount of hate that was instilled on these soldiers. To be that inhuman, to not see us as humans. And I wonder the world that was always questioning our educational system has, if ever, has a chance to look at the educational system in Israel, to look at how the army is being trained in Israel. This is not, this is not something that happened only because of October 7th. It can be just building up after October 7th and I don't think that it's, you know, it's even comparable to what happened on October 7th. 

One of the things that I've always felt very responsible for somehow guilty is every time someone mentions the Holocaust. People say that it was not witnessed, that the world did not come through to help us, that the world did not know about it. But this is happening. Live in front of our eyes. The amount of paralyzation that we feel is unprecedented. I've always celebrated Gazan's sense of resiliency. I don't think it's fair to keep killing children in Gaza and celebrate the resiliency. We are human beings at the end of the day. This is, I don't know if you can see it, but today it was the open page for Haaretz. I don't know if you can see it. But Haaretz's main page was 183 children who were killed in the last week in Gaza, children. And you know what. Sometimes I feel like maybe it's good that children are killed, so they don't live through the trauma of losing their parents. There was one child of many children in Gaza who literally buried his mom, dad, brothers, sisters, uncles, and he was all the time in funerals. And I'm wondering, what can we do if this war stops in order to save that child, you know the world is watching. 

Every one of us feels that no one wants us. We chose peace, but peace did not choose us. Peace became the curse that killed us. And now it's literally, ethnically cleansing us. It's very hard for me to say that. but I do believe that the world doesn't want us alive. The world wants us out of Palestine because there are maniacs in the White House, and there is a Netanyahu. I don't want to even name him a person who is obsessed with power, and for his political interest he is willing to kill Israelis and Palestinians, but he is enjoying killing Palestinians, and that in itself is so sick on so many levels. When you see the world doing nothing, the least that the world can do is not to pay for this maniac money in order to kill other people, and I'm afraid that one day we, the Palestinians, will be sitting there blaming everyone in the world for what happened to us. 

We have fought this victimhood mentality through peace building work for ages now 30 years. We try to humanize the other, and the world make peace with the world. I think the world failed us, and I as a peace builder myself, I feel that I was betrayed by the same people that I was, that I had faith in. And the only hope I see now is those Israelis who are in the streets being brutally beaten by the Israeli army and the police in Tel Aviv and in Jerusalem, because they want to say No to killing children in Gaza, and I'm just hoping that there will be other people in the world, just like the Jewish American people, whether they identify themselves as Zionist or not Zionist, they will point because this is killing the Jewish nation, and I don't know if we will be able to recover from that. I'm sorry that, Janessa, I'm not the kind of person that you are used to, but the pain, and there is a word in Arabic called qar. There is no English equivalent for it. It's deep in our hearts, and it's affecting us to be honest with you. Now, my biggest national aspiration is for my mom to die in dignity and not be dragged out of her bed into the streets. I stopped caring about anything else. And I feel again that I, as Palestinian, also betrayed the Gazans, and I have to pay for that at some point. Thank you.

Janessa: Oh, Huda. This is a different conversation, and I just appreciate you giving us your full heart, your full tears, and I'm breathing them in. This should be a different conversation, because these are very different times than we've ever had. And even us, you know, at Euphrates, are like, when are we going to call it like, you know? When are we going to say the word genocide. When are we gonna actually have the forum just for Palestinians, and not trying to always see both sides and balance everything? And it's just, you know, in my small way, I feel like I've betrayed the cause in so many ways, even losing. You know, we had our 1st Gazan exchange student, who we didn't speak for a year and a half because he didn't think I was doing enough to speak up. So this is just a tiny little drop to try to hear you, to try to feel what is going on, and I just bless you and thank you so much for offering your full authentic what is happening for you right now. And so of course I want to hear from you again. I want to bring in Elias; and Elias, I had a prepared question for you, but now I really just want to open it up and hear what's on your heart. How you're responding to Huda and Kareem, and what you would like to share about how life is for you right now.

Elias Deis: Well, thank you, and thank you, Huda, for sharing - nothing much to add. You know we are sharing the same pain, the same oppression, that Huda just said. It's something, you know, beyond imagination of 75 years of oppression of, we call it genocide, occupation, injustice that is affecting our daily life, you know, psychologically, physically, emotionally. It's an occupation that is not a physical occupation that is controlling the land. It's controlling the mind and the spirit of the people. But despite this, we still see there is an opportunity. There is hope coming. That's why we say, you know, that hope comes from, you know the ashes of the war, you know, and we should rise from the ashes. And this is actually how the Palestinian, if you look at the history of the Palestinian 76 years of oppression and depression. But we still teach life. We still have the culture. We still have the traditions. We have the power, the energy to keep giving, you know, giving and producing a lot of energy, creativity you find even despite the war in Gaza you see the creativity even in the war. How people respond, how people communicate to the international community, how they do instagram posts, Facebook reels, even, like, you know, sending the message in a creative way. This is a lesson. This is a teaching life. And this is how we say you always teach life there like, and because we are human at the end. We are not, we are not numbers, we are not just numbers. We are humans with dignity, with roots in this land. That we are, we are not, we are not people of equal you know, less equal, you know, worse. Like we are not, and we don't belong to a lesser God. You know we are the same. And this is actually the problem here that the conflict is giving an exclusive power to a certain group and dehumanize the others, not respecting the other people. And this is what we are witnessing, you know. 

As you know, I'm talking here from Bethlehem. I'm just from my office. I overlook the Church of Nativity, the birthplace of Jesus just a few meters away. Huda, she's a Palestinian Muslim, Palestinian Christian, Kareem I don't know, he's Christian or Muslim, I cannot tell, but this is you know, like we are here living Christians and Muslim connected to the land, and this land is not exclusive only for the Jew, and ignoring the rights of the others. And this is how I look at the conflict here, like we need to understand. It's time to understand the main causes of violence, to dig deeper into the roots of this violence. It's not about who's controlling what, it's not about who has the right and who's right and who's wrong. It's not. It's about the main causes of this violence. 

We have to dig back 75 years of conflict. What is the main causes of this? What happened in the history that shifted this relationship between Arabs and Jews from friendship to enemy? We need to address all these questions. The amount of you know, the intergenerational trauma that we inherited as a Palestinian and as a Jewish. We are traumatized, and you know the trauma is motivating fear, anger. And this is the continuation of the trauma - keeps motivating fears and anger, and we should actually think about the war in Gaza,  if the war of Gaza ends tomorrow - are we gonna live in peace? If Israel and Hamas and the Arab country and the US came to an agreement that tomorrow we're gonna sign a ceasefire – What is the next day will look like? And we should think, beyond that like, how is, how is the life look like after 20 years, those children who are witnessing the violence and the killing. They are like 3, 4 years old or 7 years old. In 10 years they will be 17 years old. What is their reaction? What is their, you know, respond to their trauma and to their fear, to their experience today. So we should actually address these core issues in the conflict, you know. 

And it's not about signing an agreement or bringing people together. It's about healing and transforming people's life, fulfilling the needs of the people's life. How can I live in peace if I'm living in an open air prison as a Christian? I cannot, you know - in 18 days we are celebrating Easter and I'm not allowed to reach Jerusalem and pray in the Holy Sepulchre. And you, as an American, you have the full access to go and travel wherever you want. But, as I, you know, I live here, you know, like 7 kilometers, like maybe 5 miles from Bethlehem to Jerusalem. I'm not allowed to celebrate Easter. And what kind of peace are we talking about? So for me peace is fulfilling the needs and responding to the needs of the local community and giving me the full freedom of movement, freedom of worship, freedom of, you know, access to wherever I want to have an equal right with other people. We are, you know, we are human, and we need to look at this conflict as it's not about an Israeli Palestinian conflict. It's about the human dignity of a human, you know. It's about humanity, and I think humanity failed in the last war, in this war humanity failed to understand the meaning of this. Yeah, so, I can share a lot of stories. But you know, like, I think Huda and Kareem already added, and a lot of things.

Janessa: Oh, yes, just for the purpose of everyone listening. Can you clarify again? You said it goes back 75, you know, we have to look at the roots and the cause of the violence. What for you is the root? What is the cause?

Elias: So the cause we are here talking about in this region, Jews and Arabs used to live together as neighbors, not only in Palestine, in Syria, Lebanon, all Arab countries. We used to have a mixture of, you know, diverse communities, Christians, Muslim, Jews, Druze, Baha'i, Samaritan. All kinds of people living in this land. But when the state of Israel was created was created as a response to the Jewish need and the Jewish trauma, which was, you know, the Holocaust. And if you look at the Jewish history, what happened to the Jews in the Holocaust was very painful, was very horrific, that the people they feel that they are, they need security, they need safety. And the state of Israel, the creation of the state of Israel was a response to their needs, that they feel. Okay, now we have a safe space to live in, and security is number one priority for Israel, because never, they said never again. And so they need a safe space, they need security. But in the same time, if you look at the Palestinian, what happened in 1948 and the Nakba, and the, you know, the massacre that took place during the establishment of the State of Israel and the refugees, the Palestinian, you know, been displaced from their home to refugee camps created another trauma, that they see the Jewish people as a threat to their existence, and they are. We started to see the Jewish people as an external threat that we cannot live with them anymore. And this is why all the Jews, being kicked out from their own homes in the Arab countries, because they are labeled as an enemy under the State of Israel. So we need to address this cause. 

You know the core, the main cause of this conflict, which is that we have 2 collective traumas. We have 2 generational trauma that we inherited since 76 years. The Jewish trauma that we need to respond to it. We need to heal and transport the Jewish trauma, so they don't feel they are the minority. They don't feel they are in danger. They don't feel that everyone is against them. At the same time, we need to acknowledge the Palestinian trauma that they need too, you know, safety and security, and also to get their rights that they've been taking since 76 years. And that's why you know the generational trauma. And this is why what we are doing now is we respond to this. We are addressing this trauma because trauma motivates fear and fear motivates violence, and the circle of violence will keep going on and on forever. Since we are feeding the field in both sides because we are labeled as an enemy, and we cannot. You know the Israeli. They are afraid from us, and we are afraid from the Israelis, and that's the circle of violence that will take us to unknown future.

Janessa: Yes, when not healed and addressed, you can see. Then trauma just leaks out onto another group and perpetuates trauma on another group. I remember hearing about how the conflict one of its tragedies is that it wasn't Palestinians who did the holocaust. It was Europeans and the Germans. And so yet, so the ones who are suffering or bearing the brunt, or paying the price for that are Palestinians, a population that had nothing to do. The Arabs in the Middle East had nothing to do with the holocaust taking place in Europe, and yet they're the ones bearing the brunt of that trauma. And then also, you know the brave souls I've met so many incredible Israeli peacebuilding groups that have the courage to acknowledge that it is their trauma that is being foisted upon and lived out, and, you know, leaked, poured out on others, and that they are having the courage to address their own trauma and to heal it so that it doesn't get perpetuated. And of course, you know Lesu and Sammy and Holy Land Trust is really looking deep at those wounds of trauma and trying to address those, and one of my questions for you. But I want to, just so you know, how do you balance addressing the acute needs of Palestinians right now, shelter the economic situation. Lively, you know, life as in like their safety, with the deeper needs, you know, holding space for addressing these deeper wounds is one of my questions that maybe we'll get to. But I want to go now back to Kareem, just thinking about, of course you can always share your thoughts as you're hearing this conversation, but also wondering now that you're sort of in this new role of bystander outside of Gaza, how has it been for you, you know, look watching the news, hearing reports from family? Are you just trying to tune it out and get on with your life, or how is that showing up for you in your current context?

Kareem: Well, to be honest, I'm trying my best to tune it out, but it's impossible, because it's a part of me, and I'm a part of them at the same time. So it is so impossible. Just not think of it, think about it, and when I just hear something it's impossible to ignore it and just be like so ignorant about it and go ahead and say, Well, yeah, maybe those kind of people deserved this thing. Yeah, happen and just have those kind of I would call it those opinions that that for the people that never actually lived in and just try and make opinions on stuff that I never lived and I never experienced, never seen, never stuff like this sounds like well, but but I can't be that type of a person because I live there. I know the situation. I know what's happening, and it just like for me, just being outside and hearing all those people all those opinions, and you know, like most of the time I tried to get out of the conversation and never discuss it with people, because I feel that it would just be 2 different kind of opinions when it comes to to this war, to this, to the situation right now. But you know, like thinking about it every day will not keep us go forward. So we just try our best. I try my best to actually be kind of peril and keep going with my life. And when I hear something, yeah, I just read about it. Take a look at it. Then I don't like react that much about it, and just keep going with my life, because there's I don't feel that there's something I could do. And I could actually provide with a good value in this situation, where I am actually outside of Gaza. And I don't think just by providing my opinion about things. This is not the value that people expect me to get. So people actually expecting something from the outsiders or the Palestinians abroad. Outside of Gaza, they expect something to give value to their life, to change their life, to actually make a difference by just giving opinions and given thoughts and try to talk about democracy and stuff like this would not make any change to the people who live under this trauma and fear all the time. 24/7 in Gaza. So yeah, that's how I basically run my life lately.

Janessa: Kareem, I did want to just point out, though, that even by you sharing your story is making a difference, even you being here and sharing with us, and all throughout, even you speaking out and sharing with me, and letting me write things up, and you being interviewed, and your courage to speak out and not just hide away and try to move on like you are a voice. And I just want to thank you for sharing your story and your experience with us, that that is part of the role that you can play

Kareem: Yeah, of course, that would be an honor to do that.

Janessa: Huda going on to you. Well, I'll just put out my question. I'd love to hear your response, because another time I interviewed you, this was years ago, before all of this, but I was so struck by the way you talked about power and acknowledging the unequal power dynamics in this conflict, and any conflict but you holding fast to a different power that is unacknowledged, and that women so often bring to the peacebuilding field, and it was the power of love. And you know, Gandhi says the law of love is works as surely as the law of gravitation. Even if we don't think we're taking advantage of it. It is operating. And one thing you said was, you know, we talked about how it always seems like the side with more muscular strength. You know the weapons, the army, the the media. You know that they always win. And you said we need to redefine power. It's always defined by the gun. What about love? People would laugh at you if you say that there is power behind love. And it made me think of Martin Luther King, Jr. Who said that true pacifism is a courageous confrontation of evil by the power of love. And Gandhi said, even one person who can express. Nonviolence in life exercises a force superior to all the forces of brutality. But I guess when it comes down to a situation like this, you know and where. Yeah, I just wanna, I want to know if you still believe that, and how do you hold to that? If so, and how do all of us, when faced with overwhelming odds and atrocities? And you know, how? How do we make sense of this?

Huda: I still believe in it, because it's the only thing that actually help us, you know. Again, I am biased to the Palestinian case and I see women in Gaza every day teaching us what it means to love your family, your children, your land; displacement is for them is an act of love also. The way they nourish the way they make food out of nothing. And I wonder if one day all of us look at how the world failed. In so many ways. Communism failed. Secularism failed. You know every form. Democracy even failed like I look at the United States now, and I'm thank God I don't live in the United States now. And I wanted to tell Kareem not to be that open. You know you are not in the America or the United States that you are used to. Unfortunately, and I'm thinking capitalism also failed, I'm thinking. Is there a way to try something different? Is there a way that we can? You know it's not about gender? It's not about putting women in the White House, because we've seen, and I'm sorry to bring that example, Margaret Thatcher and Hillary Clinton were not women to me. They didn't lead in a feminist way. They didn't lead with love and reconciliation in mind. No, they wanted to be men in their world. So I think it's important for us to think of models of leadership in the world that is rooted in resiliency and survivorhood rather than victimhood. 

I think the biggest strength of the Palestinian people is that for years they did not give in to that victimhood mentality. We've always managed to find a way to survive, and in the Arab world we are infamously known for being very stubborn. I heard from many Arab men that I used to meet in different conferences, that you know they feel sorry for the Israeli occupation, because they didn't do the job. So far other nations wouldn't have taken the amount of violence, but also meeting it up with the biggest compromise, accepting Oslo, accepting the two-state solution, believing that there will be one day a horizon for peace and coexistence, getting thousands of Israelis and Palestinians to march together in order to call for equal existing and sharing of the land, because we cared about the land. I think what makes the Palestinians strong people, and very stubborn people, and people who know how to survive is that love for the land that love for family? You know I think we are the very you know, one of the very last nations on earth that still believe in family. You know again, it's all the odds in Ramadan we've managed to get together even during Corona, when Corona was another enemy for people getting together. And I think that you know, when I go back to times when we were sitting all together after Iftar and the fighter jets hovering over our heads, going to Gaza. We, you know, we will take a moment of silence and pray and our prayers come from a place of love for the people who are going to receive these bombs now. And we as women in the family, think of the woman who's going to survive this in order to bury kids, and then give some love to the ones who stayed. And you know this is to me defines my existence, and being brought up under Israeli military occupation. If it wasn't for my mom and dad and the family love, I wouldn't have survived this. I would have grown up to be a hateful person. It's the easiest way actually grabbing a knife and a gun or a stone is the easiest way to express your anger, and it's, maybe, most of the time it's the immediate reaction. But the biggest jihad, the biggest love that we do for ourselves is that we fight ourselves out of that hate because we care about our existence and survival. We care about our children growing up. And the sad fact, Janessa, is that we've never been recognized for that. We've always been hammered by accusations of women in Palestine send their kids to death. They celebrate their son's death, and no one, no one just took a deeper look on why women do that because they have others to care about. They don't want their kids to get into that revenge mode. We tell ourselves that our loved ones are in heaven. They are alive in heaven, you know. 

I spent the whole month of Ramadan contemplating this idea of love through Quran and the text and I've seen many evidence of it. But again, we've always been accused of being violent, because Islam hate us, Trump said that Islam, hates us, and no one took the time in order to acknowledge that Islam is just like Christianity and Judaism. Human life is more important than the shrine we pray in. But look at the world run by men, whether it's Zelensky, Putin, Netanyahu, Trump. Unfortunately, these are the examples or the models that we produced as a collective of humanity. Trump did not win alone. He had people voting for him. Should we blame those people for voting for him, or understand why they vote for him and try and acknowledge these grudges among Americans that made them decide that Trump is going to make America great again. If I, as a Palestinian, as a Muslim in many ways. I am also Christian and Jew, because if I don't believe in Judaism and Christianity, I'm not a Muslim, and I do believe in that wholeheartedly. I don't see these names and labels. I don't see colors when it comes to human beings. At the end of the day it's the love that I have for the people that God created on this earth to be the ones who bring peace and prosperity for the land. Unfortunately, we failed even in that. 

So I think it's important for us to rethink all those leadership models and make sure that women are present in every room. And, Janessa, yes, I feel down now, but maybe Elias knows that I didn't stop even one day. Even after the war, even after all, fired me because I used the word genocide. I wouldn't stop. I managed to get women in policy circles. I've managed to put forward a number of policy recommendations addressing the humanitarian aid. I have thousands of women who are willing to go to Gaza tomorrow if the corridor between the West Bank and Gaza is open, and we will be able to help and rebuild Gaza hand in hand with the women who were left with nothing, because every day we learn from women in Gaza that love is the secret for survivorhood.

Janessa: Oh, oh, Amen, Huda, wow! 

Huda: I've managed to get many Palestinians to believe in the importance of working together. I am still faithful, but when we, as Palestinians, are asked to be censored, it's very, very, very difficult for us, because, other than feeling guilty, we are always being accused of being normalizers. We equalize the pain between Israelis and Palestinians. And I had American Palestinians attacking me for saying that pain is the, you know, it's the same deep pain that women feel anywhere in the world. Some women in the United States attacked me, normalizing the Israeli Palestinian pain, as if war is normal, as if genocide and ethnic cleansing is normal. What's normal is those Israelis, some of them who lost their children, are demonstrating in the streets asking not to kill Palestinian children under their name. These are our partners, and I will never give up on them.

Janessa: And you know you just pointing to the love you know, when we throw around unconditional love. But that is what mothers do, of course and fathers, but like that's nothing can annihilate that love, nothing can eliminate it, nothing can put conditions on it. It is incredible, it is all powerful. You can't do away with it. It is always there, and it has been there throughout all these generations, supporting the Palestinian communities and the families, and, as Kareem mentioned, you know, to his family that got him through that. We just have 2 more minutes, Elias. I'm so sorry before we're going to turn it over to sylvia to open it up for questions. But I want to give you 2 min. Just what's what's on your heart. You can address that earlier question. I had one other for you about nonviolence, and you know, it seems that young people especially are attracted to violence because it's perceived as like, look, I'm doing something about it. I'm reacting. I wanted to hear from you if you think that there's more of an openness to it now because the results of the war were so atrocious? Or are people worn down? And there's no room for nonviolence, or the earlier question, or anything that's on your mind. But, Elias, please let's hear from you for the last couple of minutes.

Elias: That's what I've you know mentioned before that we've been betrayed by many of our friends. That in the last I spent 18 years of my life, dedicating it to the Holy Land Trust and the peacebuilding. Because for me this is the call. And we've been working with some Israeli activists that they believe in the rights of the Palestinian, and they believe that we need to do something to end the occupation, because our main issue is ending the occupation. The direct Israeli military and all the injustice policy that is implemented against the Palestinian in the West Bank that is taking our rights, there is no equal right, so occupation for us means taking the right of the Palestinian and dealing with the Palestinian, as we are less war than the Israeli and we've been working on a joint Israeli-palestinian resistance, using nonviolence because we believe in the power of nonviolence as a tool to stand against the injustice, and we had a huge number of Israeli activists that they believe in it, and they joined the Palestinian resistance. And after October 7th it was, you know, like a time when we've been reconsidering what we have been doing in the last you know 20 years that those Israeli, some of them, they responded to the call of being to join the Israeli military in the war of Gaza, you know. So it was, and actually it gave us a question like what shall we do? What is the next step? You know? Again, because I think the trauma is there. The fear is there, and anything can trigger this fear and motivate the violence, and we should redirect our work toward the trauma again. I always say trauma because we need to take an action. And now we are in a phase of developing a trauma informed transformative methodology to deal with the Palestinian trauma, because we cannot take the American or the European methodology and implement it in the Palestinian trauma. We need to develop a methodology and tools from Palestine to Palestine, like, because the pain and the oppression that we are passing through is not, we cannot compare it with any other nation. The pain that is huge here, and the children of Gaza are facing, you know, a very painful experience that we need to develop a tool that can fit this context. And this is actually, what is the emergency? This is actually, what is our emergency response now is developing this methodology with social workers, with psychologists without any international intervention. Sorry to say that, but the Palestinian lost the trust of the international intervention in this conflict. Like many international leaders, they come and give us training methodologies. And now it's needed. Now, like, now, we need to see these actions. We need the International to take action. And I think the Palestinian now they lost the trust that they need to develop their own methodology and their own way to for resilience and for a better future.

Janessa: Powerful, Elias. What an amazing program! And even if the international community isn't involved, I hope you'll share the results with everyone. I'm going to turn it over to thank you all so much for your heartfelt sharing. The time flew by, as I knew it would, but just so grateful to be here with you all, and we're going to turn it over to sylvia, so we can hear from questions from the room.

QUESTIONS & DISCOVERY

sylvia: Yeah, the time does go quick, but we're not done. So, thank you all for being here. We'll stay for another 27 min for questions and closing, and I'm sure there's a lot of questions. Please feel free to use the raise hand feature or to put your questions in the chat. And just please keep your questions directed to Kareem, Huda, and Elias, which, if you 3 are okay with it, I'm going to keep you spotlight on the screen, so we could really just be with you in this space. Thank you for nodding your head, and thank you so all so much for your courage, your heart, your leadership. It's just an honor to be in this space with you and to listen, and so we'll open it up to questions, and to raise hand or put in the chat.

Raghad: Hello, everyone! How are you? I am Raghad and I live in Gaza. Since October 7th our lives have been turned upside down, and the basic necessities of life have become almost non-existent. We lost access to education, and water has become extremely scarce, and when available we must carry it from a long distances. Water also is expensive and difficult to find for all. Here we have been distances every day to charge my homework. Every night we sleep to the sound of explosions, and living in a context here, and in the last year in the war we leave our home and go to the hospital and schools to live in it, because our house it was so dangerous to live in it. And today and now we not feel so better. It's not not changed, but it. We have a conflict between each sides and we hope to stop this war. Thank you so much for your listening

Huda: Thank you. This is, it's just another reminder of what normal people are going through, you know, abnormal living. Thank you, Habibti allahmiq.

Lamar: Hello! I'm Lamar Abuzzed. I would very much like to share with you the hard timings that we lived, and we are still currently living. I'm still in Gaza. By the way, I didn't leave home during the war in Gaza. It was since October 12th 2023, we left our house and went to stay with other people, and after we got to know them, and knew how their traditions went to, and cultures. After we got used to the people we were staying with, we were ordered, we were ordered to evacuate again, and we have been displaced from the places that we that we went about 9 times, and as for the filtered water, it was rarely available and it was expensive and sometimes unavailable for several days, and if it was found you can't clearly go to it, and it would be found in dangerous places and food was also a problem, since we lived on canned foods, which is harmful to our bodies as we are children and still growing and needing vitamins and when we moved to many places, and we have been evacuating to many places the bombing we didn't know where it was coming from, and even now I used to be the kind of person who loved to sleep a lot, and now I only sleep only to 2 to 4 h, the fragment of 2 to 4 h, which is that really stitch together my sanity. The sound of the planes is very annoying, and it keeps us very disrupted and feared. When they are around we feel scared, and even their absence we remain afraid. 

I remember one of the nights I counted in my mind 2 h and 36 seconds where the planes were absent, and there wasn't a voice available for them until I was surrounded by bombings. Thinking that I wouldn't be be next place, that it will be bombed, and I would be dead. That's what I was after. I was thrown up to keep going in houses. We moved to tents and stopped going to houses. We were still scared of the rockets we became. We weren't still scared of the rockets, but we became afraid that with drazen Hello! Moreover, we saw well, drink was waste in childhood was something broke our hearts, and we did, and seeing their childhood all of their that they kept in their mind is just searching for water and searching for wire wood to fire to cook. Is this their childhood? This isn't this. This isn't a right childhood, and, to be honest, I believed that the Security Council and the United organizations were supposed to organize relations between all countries of the world with freedom. There's but unfortunately, the UN and the Security Council have organized this really. I'm sorry, like, why, where is the justice and democracy. I call in the Security Council to resort the law as approximately 160 countries agreed that there should be a Palestinian State, and when the resolution was reached to the Security Council. One she rejected it. Where is the democracy? You think about over a year and a half entire neighborhoods in Zari and completely destroyed. Where is the nations that are going to live? Are they going to be right back in the centuries, and they will live in tents again, and more than 90% of Gaza and Khan Yunis were devastated. Entire neighborhoods were destroyed and the number of martyrs has reached nearly 70,000 people that died with 70% of them being women and children, and over 150,000 injured.

 Where is the humanity in the world over a year and a half a river of blood and killing flowed, and the world remained silent. The world that sings about freedom, democracy, and justice has been silent. Why, why is that? I'm so, I truly apologize. This kind of turned into a therapy session for me. But I really want this to - I need people to hear us and to believe that we are suffering. We're still suffering. And sadly, people aren't really caring about this or like. Let's say they care. I'm not talking about the nations that they're standing with us. I'm talking about the politicians and the United Nations that they think that they are making us as a 1 united nation, as it's called. This isn't a 1 united nation. This is a lie. I'm sorry I was a person who I've always dreamed to be a doctor in international law. Right now I'm thinking about it. This is truly a lie, and I'm sorry this kind of turned to a therapy session, and I would like just to thank you all for listening to us, and I hope everyone stays safe, and I really hope I can stay safe, so I can still be able to contact you and to still spread the word. Thank you so much, and I would very much like to thank my school for giving us this opportunity. I'm really sorry that I took too many and too much time, which is, I don't really think that I'm allowed. But this kind of turn to therapy session. But thank you so much.

sylvia: Yes, thank you, Lamar, absolutely no apologies. We are here to listen and to be with you. Thank you. Thank you. Yekinan. I see your hand next, and then I see if we have time, a question in the chat. But, Yekinan, if you could unmute, we'll go to you next for a question.

Yekinan Mathew Duut: Okay, thank you so much. For giving me the opportunity I speak from Ghana. and I always just feel like, Oh. what is really happening in this edge. If train are killed every day, have a morning ever you've been in, and you've been like then what is the work of we as these builders. What are we doing differently? That what we are experiencing now we're not going to experience in the future. It's so sad. It's so sad. I just feel like how so in Ghana. Here we also experiences, like a lot of conflict in the northern part of Ghana, but a situation where children are being cured, the future is cured. Oh, so sad! So I'm just asking myself - what can we do as these builders in making sure that we will never hear or even experience these issues as means just narrate it. Just look at it. How? How?  So, thank you.

sylvia: Thank you, Yekinan. Yeah. It's a great question - Elias, Huda, Kareem. Any thoughts on what we could do as all over the world as peace leaders? And I'm going to add on also a question from Janessa of international support, like, what can international community - people on this call the 77 folks here - do for you? 

Elias: Yeah, to be honest, you know, as I said. Unfortunately, Palestinian lost hope in the international community. Like, because now today is marking the 543 days since the war started and no international action was taken against this war to stop. We've been leading, you know, delegations coming to Israel and Palestine. You know the last delegation we led like 2 months ago from Congressional staff, from the US, coming and seeing things with their own eyes, going back. I don't know. There was nothing that they can do. I'm just reporting to their administration what we need to do, you know, like we are happy seeing all these massive demonstrations that are taking place in the American universities, in the streets and the international community. It gives us hope that we are not alone, and our voice is heard. But I think we need more than that, we need more action that need to be taken in the, you know, international policy that they need to come and and do different intervention in the Peace Building here that they need to recognition the right of the Palestinian not to keep claiming the Palestinian and cornering the Palestinian, that if we are the problem it's not about, you know, who's right. As I said, who's right and who's wrong. We need to dig into the deep cause of this conflict. And I think we need an international administration like American administration, European, to come and just to listen and to give us our basic right, you know. And we need more pressure from you to your governments - to send our voice, I know, like we've been sending our voice, you know, the last years, but no action is taken. And I think now it's a test for us that either we fail or succeed, And giving the right for those who are seeking the right, which is, you know, the Palestinian rights, the equal rights that we are seeking. And also to, you know, just to communicate, to support, to connect with Palestinian, more, to connect with civil society, with individuals, to hear more, to give us more space, so maybe hopefully, that this will help that when our voice is heard, maybe the policies will change.

Kareem: Yeah, I would like to respond. I actually would want to call the international community. Because after the multiple failures, they've actually felt the humanity and to the Palestinian people that people always told me this, Janessa, and you taught me this sentence, if you don't want to be a part of that solution, just don't be part of the problem. And this is basically what we want to call those peace builders. I mean, if you don't think you can be a leader with just feeling, the empathy and the sympathy of somebody else. Just this is probably not your thing, just you don't have the right to give an opinion against it, and just be a part of the problem and just go ahead and say, ‘well, maybe, but you did this and that.’ So this is a normal reaction, like, because 2,000 people died on the October 7th you kill another 100,000 people on the ground, and you go ahead and say, ‘Well, yeah, this thing justifies the other, the other action.’ So I just tell the international community if you don't want to just be a part of the solution and have just help us build that two state solution and this in this area and just have those, I mean have the Israelis and the Palestinians live together, and without, you know, we'd have to go through all the trauma sessions, and on both sides, as Elias was saying that they both have causes, fears, traumas, and stuff like this, that we would have to go through and fix on both sides before we go actually to that, to the one State, the shared state solution would just want to have the international community and call them out and just say, Well, if you want to, just step and step in, and you do good about the both in the situation and not just take a side on each one, or just never bother. That would make it better for us and easier for us to fix if a lot of ignorance just were not involved.

Huda: And I just would like to urge you not to be part of the system that discriminates and teaches hate and engages in conversations about who's right and who's wrong or prefers one color over the other. Don't be part of these systems, because these systems are the problem and the solution is within us and within our hands. Speak to your neighbors. Speak to your friends, I know one of the most polarizing issues among the Jewish community in the United States is Israel and Palestine, don't. It's not. It's a matter of human lives. We need to save lives and period. That's it. We need to get rid of the systems that support wars. You know. I wouldn't envy the American people who are standing against the cartels of weapons, but many people are benefiting from that. Make it costly for Israel to keep and maintain its occupation, military occupation. Speak to everyone that you can speak to in order to change their minds about Israel and Palestinians. There is no evil in the region other than the weapons that are used against people, and those who are using them are also victims of the systems that created that fight these systems. It's the power in your hands. Don't feel despair. If the Palestinians, if Lamar and you know, the people who spoke to us from Gaza still have faith and they want to live and still believe in peace, still believe in 2 state solutions, still believe in human dignity, you shouldn't give up the ones who are not having bombs dropped on their heads every minute. We rely on you. You have to be our voices, because it's very, very difficult to have our voices out there, and thank you, Janessa, for giving us the chance to bring our voices out there. It is not easy, and it's not. Sometimes it's life threatening to bring your voice out. So thank you for the opportunity. And please always think of organizations like Holy Land Trust, like the Euphrates, even Search for Common Ground that has been hit by the cut in aid for peace builders all over the world through USAID. It's time for the American people to step in and, you know, rectify the unforeseen or foreseen damage that is going to happen to the entire world, not only to the American people. Because of these policies and these systems, we are against the tough man mentality. We are with women all over the world. Women who fight with their hearts fight the good fight, women who care about children, women who cry for everyone's children, and women who don't discriminate. Women who see all the children of the world are their children. We are all mothers, even men are mothers in their hearts. It's time to bring that kind of energy to the world and stop damaging and deconstructing and destructing this world. It's in our hands. It's in the people's hands. Otherwise this world could have been, you know, destroyed ages ago. Thank you.

CLOSING

sylvia: Thank you. And I want to be respectful of everyone's time, and also the energy of our, of you, all our guests. And I know that I'm sure there's so many questions. I do see questions in the chat, and I know there's more hand raised, and I do just want to honor that we want you 3, Elias, Huda, and Kareem, to have the final word, and anything more that you have on your heart and to share. And so we won't be taking any more questions at this time. I really just want to invite the space for everyone here to just take a moment to take a breath, to absorb, to feel in your body and in your heart what is coming up for you in this moment. Absorb what has been shared. And when you're ready, Elias, Huda, and Kareem, I invite you to unmute and share anything. Ah Kareem, we could start with you for sure – anything that is the final word to share in this space, at this time.

Kareem: I want to say, like, in the face of imaginable hardships, we are, as the Palestinian people, continue to live and love and resist, not just for survival, but for the hope of a just and peaceful future. And all the stories for those girls that we just heard from Gaza right now are not just about suffering. They're about the resilience and the dignity and the unwavering belief that justice is possible. And as peacebuilders, we were called not just to listen, but to act, to stand in solidarity, and to change injustice, and to work towards a world where no community has to endure occupation, war, or fear. And the path to peace is built on the truth, dignity, and the courage and the courage of demand. Better. And yeah, hopefully, we could just work together on that. And they just create a community. And or we already have a community on this zoom call and get forward on planning, on actually making it happen on the ground and making it real. And I actually 1st time me getting to know Huda and I love, and I admire what she does. And she actually made those goals that we always talk about, we want to do, and we want to do this and that. And she actually made them happen and on the ground. And I, we really appreciate everybody who's trying to make this goal happen. We always live to build peace.

Elias: We will give Huda the final word. So I just want to thank you for giving, like you know, one and a half hours of your time to hear the Palestinian voices, which is very, you know, appreciated. We highly appreciate that. That is something. Also give us kind of hope and part of our healing is, you know that seeing international community that they are willing to hear and willing, you know, part of our healing is also sharing, so sharing our pain, sharing our suffering to someone that we are not alone. And I really have, you know, appreciate this, and just a friendly, you know, like just a reminder that when you hear the news about Gaza do not fall in the trap of the media, do not believe everything that you see in the media. Try to challenge yourself and connect with the people here in the ground, what we call the living story, and get firsthand stories because it didn't start in October 7th. You have to ask the question, what happened? What is happening since 76 years? It's not about October 7th. It's beyond that, as a daily oppression there, in violation of the Palestinian here, that, as I mentioned, we are living in an open air prison. And thank you for giving us even the small space to connect with someone from Gaza, I’ve never been to Gaza, I wish my dream to be in Gaza, like we as a Palestinian living in the West Bank. We are totally disconnected from Gaza, and we feel that they are far away, even though they are like 2 hours away from here. But we are not allowed, and thank you for the screen and Janessa for connecting me with Kareem, and it's the 1st time I meet him, and hopefully that we can meet in Gaza one day, and Huda is like, you know, like an hour away, but it's been long time to see you. But yeah, it's also connecting the Palestinian together in one screen. Thank you.

Huda: Thank you. Yes, Kareem, sylvia, and Janessa. It is important to remember that we still have the power as human beings to save ourselves and save others. We live in a world where a Holocaust survivor is being arrested for standing in solidarity with Palestinians, which means that the system did not change and if we don't change the system now and turn these words into actions, we will still witness that years to come. I think it's important for us to do our duty as human beings, and stand for life and love and peace everywhere in the world. We should call for justice and fight double standardism, and stop naming and labeling people. At the end of the day, we are all from earth and going to earth. Whatever God or universe we believe in there is no call for injustice. We do believe in our hearts that justice is the balance that we need to have on this earth in order for us to live in peace and in dignity. We love you as Palestinians. We still believe in the power of love. And we also thank you for the opportunity. What we need now is a community to surround us, to hug us, to comfort us, and to give us a chance to bring our voices forward against all the systems that want to make us the devil. We are not the devil. Thank you.

sylvia: Thank you all so much, and when words fail me, I turn to poets. And another Palestinian poet wrote that “if I say I can't stop crying for this world. I only want to hear me too, me too, me too.” And Huda, Elias, Kareem, please know that we are with you and me too, and we love you and are with you and everyone. Thank you for being here. And as Elias, Huda, and Kareem have all asked us to do, and I encourage you too, when you step away from this call, you absorb, and you reflect, and you think about it, and you act. And we all need to be in this collective action and love together. So, Elias Huda, Kareem, thank you for your time, for your words, for your energy, for your love, for your example, your leadership, your courage, your whole presence and being, and we could not thank you enough. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And all of our love with you, and thank you everyone for being here, and we will be together again in a month, and together we'll continue to practice peace. So thank you. Everyone for being here. Feel free to unmute to say goodbye to everyone, and thank you all again.

Hollister