Soul & Soil Pt. II
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LISTENING: to a dog bark outside
FEELING: unsettled this october 7th
SEEING: my office stay messy
I am writing on the second anniversary of Israel's genocide in Gaza. The crisis in Palestine didn't begin two years ago, though. Did it begin with the Nakba in 1948? Or with the Jewish Holocaust that killed and displaced millions years prior? It's hard to know where a conflict this deep begins, but I do know what people are doing to end it. To free Palestine. To end the land's cycle of violence. To keep Jewish people everywhere safe.
On Monday, Israel released climate activist Greta Thunberg after it detained her and 478 others who were sailing to Gaza to provide life-saving aid to the millions facing famine. "What we aimed to do with the Global Sumud Flotilla was to step up when our governments failed to do their legal obligation," she said during a press conference.
These brave souls aren't alone. Across the globe, people are rising up. The olive harvest is approaching, and many volunteers are beginning their pilgrimages to Palestine to assist farmers across the West Bank. Today, I share testimony from one Dutch volunteer who wishes to stay anonymous.
Read Soul & Soil Pt. I featuring Palestinian scientist Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh.
Rossa Peters, their pseudonym, took part in last year's harvest after attending a virtual lecture from a Palestinian-led organization working to support farmers. Peters shared via email that he and a friend were scared before arriving; the violence had escalated. However, once they arrived, the fear dissipated.
It lingered in the background as Palestinians shared stories of the occupation — of bullets lodged in legs or family members wrongly imprisoned or murdered. "It was very impactful to see how the occupation influences everything and everybody all the time," he said. "How far it goes."
But seeing Palestinians continue to laugh and joke brought him warmth. Peters worried whether the locals would accept him, but they were happy to have support and allies. He saw how the people lived with the land, not against it as some Israelis did.
"Their villages merged with the hills," he wrote of the Palestinians. "Their way of life — agriculture and everything — revolved around using little water whereas the Israelis had huge straight settlements and farms using lots of water. It felt out of place to me."
This also struck me when I visited the West Bank in April. Some homes are literally built into hillsides, a seamless style of architecture. Water was precious. There weren't pools for swimming. Water was for drinking. For coffee. For tea. For the animals. For the trees.
Peters urges allies to visit Palestine firsthand: "Go to Palestine. The Palestinians are wonderful people, and Palestine is a beautiful country."
He's absolutely right. Go see the wall and apartheid for yourself. Go eat hummus for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Go take in the art. Go help with the olive harvest. Go tend the flowers. Go document and record history as it's happening. Ask organizations what they need and provide. Just do something. 🌀
I wrote my final feature for Atmos as its editor-at-large (they ended my contract prematurely, boo!) about this movement. There are lots of resources here.
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