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We at Autostraddle stand against the occupation of Palestine and the increased violence in the days since the tragic, horrifying attack in Israel that resulted in 1,400 Israeli people killed, 3,500 injured, and an estimated 200 still being held hostage by Hamas. We can grieve these losses and hurt for and with those families and communities while also recognizing that the response from the Israeli government, endorsed by the U.S. government, signals an act of genocide against the Palestinian people and this violence must stop. No person anywhere should be subject to any of this terror.
Gaza currently faces a humanitarian crisis beyond measure. In a situation the International Committee of the Red Cross described as “abhorrent,” Israel hascut off water, food and power supply to much of the 2.3 million residents of Gaza while also demanding 1.1 million people to move south in anticipation of a ground invasion. But there is nowhere for them to go. Hospitals are running out of supplies, and aid workers and journalists have been among the victims of Israeli air strikes. Pathways for delivering aid to Palestinians have also been attacked. We grieve for the 2,750 Palestinians killed and at least 10,000 wounded in the past two weeks. As we write this, Al-Jazeera is reporting that a hospital in Gaza where thousands of Palestinian civilians were sheltering and receiving medical care was just hit by an Israeli airstrike. (ETA: Israel and Hamas have blamed each other for the attack on the hospital, there is seemingly no official confirmation one way or the other as to whom was responsible as of this writing. Either way, the victims of the attack are in increasingly dire need of help.)
It can feel helpless witnessing these atrocities from thousands of miles away, so we wanted to put together a list of resources. If you have money, we hope you’ll donate it to the groups providing aid on the ground. If you have time, we hope you’ll protest alongside the groups fighting for peace and decolonization. If you have neither, we hope you’ll at least take a moment to contact your representative and urge them to end their support of this violence.
The current circumstances are beyond the point of silence or inaction — they have been for a long time. If you’d like to read more about the occupation, Drew has put together a list of pieces she’s read this week.
Action Aid: Action Aid has established an emergency fund to provide humanitarian aid to Palestine, deliver essential relief and sustain long-term disaster preparedness around the world.
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights: Gaza-based human rights center dedicated to protecting the fundamental rights of Palestinians and hold perpetrators of international law violations to account.
Anera: Non-profit responding to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Itemizes what certain monetary donations will enable (e.g., $100 to provide a displaced family with 7 days of food, $30 to provide Gaza’s Central Blood Bank Society with 16 blood bags.)
Baitulmaal: Provides humanitarian aid to underserved populations around the world and already has field workers providing emergency response aid in Gaza.
Doctors without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF): This group has been donating medical supplies and was providing medical care in the region until Israeli airstrikes made it impossible for them to safely coordinate humanitarian operations in Gaza. However, they still have Palestinian staff working in hospitals in Gaza and are preparing medical teams and humanitarian supplies to send into Gaza as soon as possible. You can read more about their work in Gaza here.
Gisha Legal Center for Freedom of Movement: An Israeli non-for-profit founded in 2005 with the goal of protecting the freedom of movement of Palestinians, especially Gaza residents.
If Not Now is a movement of American Jews organizing our communities to end U.S. support for Israel’s apartheid system and demand equality, justice and a thriving future for all Palestinians and Israelis. They have been organizing massive protests and also have opportunities to contribute financially.
The International Committee of the Red Cross: The ICRC is a neutral, independent humanitarian organization who are working to improve access to water and electricity in Gaza and support livelihood projects throughout the occupied territories. They’ve been delivering medicine and other aid to Gaza City and have declared “we’ve been in the area since 1967, and we intend to stay.”
Islamic Relief USA: Islamic Relief is working with local partners to provide emergency relief to families in Gaza including food aid, essential non-food items such as hygiene kits, and vital medical supplies.
Jewish Voices for Peace is the largest progressive Jewish anti-Zionist organization in the world. They are organizing on the ground and politically and have options for activism and financial gifting.
Medical Aid for Palestinians: A UK-based group already on the ground in Gaza, where they work to stock hospitals with essential medicines, disposables and other healthcare supplies.
Mercy Corps: A long established and well-known humanitarian org that takes a two-pronged approach of providing immediate aid while also establishing long-term, lasting aid solutions.
Middle East Children’s Alliance: MECA works to protect the rights and improve the lives of children in Palestine and Syrian refugees through aid, empowerment and education.
Muslim Around the World Project: MATW is an organization that has been providing life-saving aid in the form of medical aid, food, clean water, and shelter for the last five years.
Palestine Children’s Relief Fund: PCRF is the primary humanitarian organization in Palestine delivering medical relief and humanitarian aid. One child has been killed in Palestine every seven minutes since October 7th.
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights: The Centre is an independent Palestinian human rights org based in Gaza City. They were established in 1995 by Palestinian lawyers and human rights activists to protect human rights.
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel: PHRI provides services free of charge to people with limited or no access to health care–primarily migrants, refugees, and Palestinian residents of the West Bank and Gaza.
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East: This group that provides assistance and protection for Palestinian refugees is seeking $104 million to support a “multi-sectoral” humanitarian response covering food, health and protection needs for up to 250k people seeking shelter throughout the Gaza Strip, but with current funding can only continue to do so through the end of the month.
World Food Programme: The WFP has been attempting to deliver high-energy biscuits to Gaza.
Thank you for this.
Shame autostraddle refuses to hire Palestinian lesbians to write more for them. Why is it that we rarely see MENA(Middle East & North African) writers on this site. Maybe the best thing AS can do is let them speak more. Or maybe there is a reason why they don’t want to work here and half the ex staff here have nothing positive to speak about their time here.
It’s funny how you support the Palestinians as there’s a death sentence in Gaza and the West Bank for being gay. You guys wouldn’t last a day there. Keep supporting them though lol
Respectfully, get a grip. By your logic, “Not an idiot lesbian”, we should also stop donating or raising awareness for causes in red US states, since lots of people down there don’t like gays. We should completely transform everyone into a monolith based on small-minded ideas about their communities! Oh shit, how could I have been so silly? /s
It wasn’t an Israeli airstrike. There is a video of a rocker, fired from inside of Gaza, and instead of landing in Israel the rocket broke and exploded in Gaza, next to the hospital.terrorists from inside of Gaza fired accidently at their own people.
Here are some places that J Street lists for donations to help Israelis, including a fund run by the Democracy Movement in Israel and another supporting Bedouin villages hit by Hamas rockets: https://jstreet.org/ways-to-support-those-impacted-by-the-ongoing-crisis/
Even the IDF has taken down the video claiming this.
Are you also going to write an article with options to aid the families of Israelis? You say you decry violence on both sides, and yet the attack on Israel is “tragic, horrifying” while the attack on Palestine is “an act of genocide.” Are they not both atrocities?
When you say that Israel is occupying the land of Palestinians, do you offer a solution? Would it be better for Palestinians to be occupying the land of Israelis? Everyone in their right-mind wants a two-state solution. Have you spent much time reading what happens every time an agreement is made between leaders of both states? Extremists end up assassinating a leader and starting skirmishes. This is not a simple question of “bad guys vs good guys.” If you want to be balanced, great. Just actually be balanced. And provide links that are balanced.
When we feel a sense of self-righteous satisfaction for heroically standing up for what is clearly true, we should always question whether we’re missing part of the picture. I don’t know if I’m right. I don’t know what “right” means here. I just know that people on both sides are suffering greatly.
Of course, as someone who lost a lot of family in the holocaust, I do think it is important for there to be a safe country for Jews to call home. I don’t understand why Egypt refuses to open their borders with Palestine so that food and water can reach the Palestinian civilians without endangering a clearly shaken and vulnerable Jewish state. But I don’t understand a lot of things.
Maybe we can all at least agree that Netanyahu sucks, Hamas sucks, and a lot of Muslim and Jewish brothers and sisters are paying the price for a lot of extremist bullshit and refusal to reach a two-state compromise.
Israel has received more foreign aid from the US than any other country since WWII. The United States committed over $3.3 billion in foreign assistance to Israel in 2022, the most recent year for which data exists.
Do you know how much aid has been directed to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), globally? (I don’t. Sincere question.) Vs aid going specifically to the families of the victims of Hamas’s terrorist attack?
Obviously talking about military aid to Israel is not relevant, unless autostraddle is proposing sending military aid to Hamas (don’t think we’ve reached that point yet even among the most extreme of us. Right? RIGHT??!! Lol. I’m joking but also crying.)
Anyway, if your implication is that autostraddle should be one-sided to balance out the national conversation, that is an interesting point. (Note: I still disagree, but maybe that is because I don’t understand how autostraddle conceives of their role on the “offering a balanced perspective” vs. “offering only the [USA-relative] minority perspective on an issue” continuum).
I’m sure the answer to your question can easily be Googled but the US and UK administrations have been very public about their steadfast support for Israel, both financially and militarily. Hundreds of millions more dollars in aid was announced today on top of the $3 billion that has previously been announced. So IDK what more you want on that front. As for how much more that is compared to Palestinian aid, ask yourself why that matters. And I doubt it’s more since we can barely get damn near any administration to give a fuck about their humanity at all in this as it is. Believe me Israel is wanting for assistance right now they are getting plenty of it.
As for Autostraddle proposing military support for Hamas, why would they do that? Hamas is a terrorist organization. Two articles in support of Palenstians right to exist is not Pro-Hamas or particularly one-sided to me. Unless you think Hamas equals Palestine and Palestinians deserve no support. It seems like that is the stance of a lot of people this past week and not just on this site.
But IDK what to say to convince anybody to give a shit about people being blown up in a hospital(mostly children)or refugee camps or residential neighborhoods and why starving them and cutting off their electricity is not okay for any reason so…well..here we are. I just know the spirits of my ancestors would probably beat the fuck out of me in my sleep if they saw me making excuses and justifications for any of that shit and I would deserve it. Couldn’t be me. I know THAT MUCH.
When I lived in Jordan in 2006, Jordanians (many of whose families were originally displaced Palestinians) joked that Israel was the 51st state, and Jordan was the 52nd — due to the sheer scale and consistency of the US’s material support, both monetarily and in the form of militarization (tanks, planes, weaponry).
The violence, precarity, and civilian targets in both sides are atrocious, but as others here have commented, the scope, impact, and devastation in Gaza is distinct. Thank you Autostraddle for writing about this.
“Maybe we can all at least agree that Netanyahu sucks, Hamas sucks, and a lot of Muslim and Jewish brothers and sisters are paying the price for a lot of extremist bullshit and refusal to reach a two-state compromise.”
Yes. Thank you.
Thank you for this. I am glad to have something I can do in the form of donating to these organizations, this has been absolutely horrific to watch and it has hurt to see so many ignore and deny the atrocities that Palestinians are facing.
Thank you for this
And help for Israel?? What is going on here?
The US has been sending taxpayer money to fund Israel’s military to the tune of several billion a year. They’re good, I think.
With the exception of the hostages who are being bombed by Israel, Israeli survivors are currently physically safe, with enough food, water, and shelter to start the process of healing.
Palestinians are currently trapped in a sacrifice zone without water, food, or electricity in a place where infrastructure has been bombed for the last 20 years and not been allowed to be rebuilt. There is a difference of scale, power, and immediacy.
In Gaza, people have started drinking salt water. Physicians fear epidemics will begin because water is contaminated and cannot be treated without Israel lifting the blockade. The hospitals do not have water for basic sanitation, let alone medical supplies.
Consider mercy.
Thank you for this. As an anti-Zionist Jew, it’s heartening to see Autostraddle take this stand and offer resources. I hope to see more writing from Palestinian and SWANA/MENA queer writers here.
Thank you for your unequivocal statement and the roundup of places to give. It means a lot to hear organisations I respect, like Autostraddle, being very clear about the need for an end to the occupation of Palestine, and, very urgently, an end to the current genocidal actions of the Israeli government in Gaza. I have a dear friend in Gaza right now. He’s from Gaza and spent a lot of time in the UK. He was back home with family, and when this violence started, he made a conscious choice to stay. He’s seen his childhood neighborhood destroyed and has had to move half a dozen times to try to avoid the bombing. It’s terrifying to watch from a distance, knowing that he may not be able to get word out, but also knowing he’s in such immediate danger. I’d been feeling just paralysed by fear, grief and anger, but this roundup did prompt me to get my wallet out and donate to Medical Aid for Palestinians, an organisation his family is active with. It is not possible to stand up for Palestinian rights without getting flak, and I’m grateful you had the courage and decency to do it anyway.
Thank you for this.
Praying that Palestinians get food, water, fuel, safety, and freedom soon.
this sort of hipster caterwauling is why this site has become unbearable in my opinion. I came here to read about my community and what is going on. Right now, we are talking about war, politics and clearly taking sides. it’s not fun to come here anymore.
this is not why i fell in love with autostraddle. frankly, this is why i frequent less and less and am thinking of pulling my membership. unless any of you are qualified to discuss this war in more depth and nuance (which i feel you’re not, given this post), i think this should have just remained a safe space for LGBTQ subjects.
thin ice, guys. not that you care or need my support, but this is quickly becoming a space i don’t trust.
if you’re really upset that your fun gay space is taking a moment to advocate for people in extreme suffering ….I don’t know what help there is for you. the lack of empathy is astonishing. there are things much more important than you having fun.
Came back to say that I think I reacted too harshly to this, we are all stressed and grieving. I understand it’s hard to not have any space away from what’s happening – but also, it is really important and I personally feel thankful that Autostraddle is taking the time and space to speak up, and it helped me to have places to donate and an article to share.
I appreciate this article and the deep care for Palestinian people it holds. I share that care for Palestinians, but cannot donate to the linked causes because the vast majority of aid money sent to Palestine never reaches Palestinian civilians. It is funneled out into Hamas leadership hands, with the top living in wealth and safety outside of Palestine and leaving Palestinian civilians suffering. The same brutality Hamas attacked Israel with it inflicts on its own people.
There are no easy solutions to end this war, but I choose to donate to projects that invest in long term peace. It sometimes feels too slow or too hopeless to invest in peace in times of crisis, but that it when it is needed most.
This week I sent money to Hand in Hand, a network of schools that teaches an equal number of Muslim and Jewish students, in both Arabic and Hebrew, with a Muslim and Jewish teacher in every classroom. The students learn about one another’s language, culture, holidays, and histories. The only way we have any chance of peace is if our children know and love each other, develop empathy for one another, grow up beside each other.
Neither Palestinians nor Israelis are going to leave a land that for both is home. May we learn instead to live in peace beside one another.
https://www.handinhandk12.org/donate-october-2023-2/
Thank you so much for posting this. Donated.
Cryptocurrencies are the future…Although I would even say that cryptocurrencies are the present. I think in just a few years 5-8 years cryptocurrencies will be accepted as a means of payment in many countries. So I recommend to study them and read for example what does blockchain do for bitcoin. And so on…Cryptocurrencies are a very difficult mechanism!
You know, I can understand people who didn’t try to invest in cryptocurrencies when they were unpopular. However, the current time is the most comfortable time to do so. Anyway, when I found a great site here and I realized that investing in cryptocurrencies has many significant benefits and will definitely try to make money from it. I think you can learn more and become a little richer)
No matter how much I’d like to support someone, I first of all understand that it is worth doing when there is enough money. My financial situation doesn’t allow me to help anyone right now.