The Blackout in Gaza, The Unbearable Heaviness of The Heart, And A Sense of Community We Really Have to Seek

Due to current Israeli aggression and a 16-year-old siege that preceded it, the situation in Gaza was already catastrophic. Perhaps some of us thought it couldn’t get worse.

And yet since yesterday, Gaza has been in a communications blackout imposed by Israel.

It’s all completely terrifying and, I’ll add, heart-breaking.

But I want to say right away that this won’t be an in-depth analysis of what’s happening and what we need to deconstruct here. This is what my previous article was about and a whole podcast episode on exactly that.

Instead, I wanted to share something that I’ve been sharing mostly in private with friends, acquaintances, and concerned people who’d get in touch with me about Palestine.

That is an idea that is very simple and something I had known about and preached in theory for years.

But I am only truly getting it now.

It took me over three decades of my life to actually understand it.

Community IS everything.

It’s what has allowed me, too, to hang in there, albeit on a thread, for the past three weeks.

I really don’t know how I would have continued, done what I’ve been doing, and simply functioned as a human being without it.

And interestingly, that community isn’t necessarily made up of old friends, close friends, or all of my family members.

For me, it’s been a mix of people I’ve known since my time in Palestine (even if we haven’t been in touch much at all), acquaintances from different walks of life who, too, are very concerned about what’s happening, people with whom I’ve connected online, and newly discovered comrades because of my political work.

In short, it’s a mixed bunch.

And it’s exactly what gives me hope: that we are all coming together, now, and speaking out against the painfully clear injustice and brutality that not even the Western leaders can successfully deny and cover up anymore.

There is A LOT of us. Masses around the world.

So my advice for you is: Seek that community. No matter what its formats are, stay connected.

Just this week, I myself was invited to participate in a proper progressive podcast in Lithuania and an event where I was invited to be one of the speakers. The feeling that OF COURSE there are more people who care here, in a country whose government has been standing with Israel no matter what it does (it’s an oversimplification but not an inaccurate one), has been a relief. It has also given me a lot of hope, and that IS the hope I wanted to share with you here, in my project, in a time that is otherwise very very grim.

So thank you for being that hope.

I really really appreciate it and need it more than I would sometimes like to admit.

Stay strong, check on others, and keep your heart open.

❤️💔❤️

Justina

Listen to my latest episode on Gaza here:

Find all my work on Palestine here.

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