Welcome back to this unceasing campaign that will not end until the continuing genocide is over. As I talk to you today, every moment that goes through Gaza, I lose many friends, professors, mentors, loved ones, and people who were a part of my life for the 25 years that I spent there until I moved here in 2021.
Every time I access social media, I find more and more obituaries for loved ones who were killed by a variety of awful Zionist genocidal methods, including bombing, sniping, starvation, and execution. There were other horrifying techniques of massacring, all of which claimed the lives of innocent Gazans. I will not hide from you that my psychological status has deteriorated significantly.
I have several difficulties and can’t enjoy proper sleep. I also frequently wake up scared while sleeping. But I will not bring it up in light of my people’s tenacity in the face of being without electricity for more than six months. For those of you who enjoy electricity around the clock, imagine what life would be like without power. Without running water, food, or medicine.
The fight against humanity in Gaza has escalated to unprecedented levels. How can we watch such genocide live on the media while going about our everyday lives? The last area in the Gaza Strip that is threatened day and night is Rafah, where my family lives, and where more than 1.3 million Palestinians were forced to flee from various areas of Gaza, making Rafah the last place they could reach, despite the fact that Rafah was already unsafe and was constantly bombed, and Rafah has now been invaded and stormed several times. How could we be right in the face of these threats to slay and kill around 1.3 million Palestinians?
We need to stand together as one. We need to state that we will not tolerate the continuation of this farce and insult to mankind in the twenty-first century (2024). We need to say enough is enough for this atrocity, and we must state unequivocally that Rafah is a red line, that the displaced people in Rafah must be secure, and that all of this needs to be ceased.
I ask you to keep up your presence and your beautiful commitment. You do a lot. Do not dismiss such marches. I cannot do anything to aid my family in Rafah, but my presence with you—your presence with me today in this march—means a lot, and perhaps little by little, it will push for change and pressure to stop Zionist terrorism.
