/Intro/ The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi

If you are desperate to learn and discuss social justice topics with like-minded people, you aren’t alone. My intention with this blog is to learn in public and encourage others to join me by exploring perspectives outside our own. This may take many forms, but I’ll start with a reading club where I share my thoughts on my week's reading and other relevant resources. As someone who is insufferable at parties and family functions, I invite you to join me in taking it to the next level.

I hadn’t intended to start this blog with the Israel-Palestine War, but nothing could be more relevant to this project, which is to educate myself on topics for which I know very little and for whom people or the planet are subjugated by the United States and other western powers. But even in searching for the correct terms for the conflict, I found myself frustrated. On major news channels, it’s labeled the Israel-Hamas War, as if the civilians dying in Gaza are agents of Hamas. The framing constructed for a Western audience strives to dehumanize and vilify Palestinians. To counteract this narrative, I want to better understand the Palestinian perspective so rarely presented to us in mainstream media.

I am coming to this conflict with intense ignorance. I knew little to nothing about the history of Israel and Palestine before October. So, I’m going to start the blog with The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi thanks to a TikTok recommendation from leen.

My focus is to better understand the situation and address the complicity of the United States and other western countries. I feel this is where my responsibility lies, in holding my country accountable, not to repackage and put a white face on other people’s experiences. I’ll be sharing my thoughts on the book and other media I’m consuming on the topic from Palestinian and Jewish creators.

I want to be clear, Israel’s actions do not in any way justify anti-Semitism. Israel does not speak for all Jewish people, just as Hamas doesn’t speak for all Palestinians. Jewish people are deserving of the same safety, autonomy, and rights we want for Palestinians. As Emma Lazarus said, “Until we are all free, we are none of us free.” 

I hope other people like me will join me in this educational process. If you subscribe to my newsletter, you’ll get my weekly posts discussing the book over the course of a few weeks–this is 100% free. I know I’m not alone, and I know there are others who aren’t sure how to stay in their lane while also supporting the Palestinian people and respecting the Jewish community while rejecting Zionism.

I’ll also be sharing music from Palestinian musicians, other books to read, podcasts, TikToks, and instagrams I think are relevant and informative. This is a heavy topic, but as a privileged, white American and a content creator focused on social justice, I will not look away when the people and planet suffer while I reap the rewards. 

So be insufferable and create change.

/Katie/