Switching My Language From “Israel Is Detaining Palestinians In The West Bank” To “Israel Is Abducting

Dec. 1, 2015 | Gaza City, Palestine

Palestinian schoolgirls walk in front of a rainbow illuminating the sky over Gaza City’s shore.

An elderly woman breaks down as she speaks in the north of Gaza as she mentions how 2 of her kids in this genocide were killed and another in a different bombardment.

'If you don't like graffiti look away like you do for genocide"

Seen in Austin, Texas

I was punched and pepper sprayed by cops that my university administration set on student protesters yesterday. Including once where a cop ripped my mask off my face, grabbed my jaw, and sprayed pepper sprayed straight into my mouth. The university sent out an alert in the middle of our protest canceling classes for the rest of the day, only citing “adverse conditions”. After protesters dispersed under threat of even more violence and three buses of riot police from all over the state with rubber bullets and bully sticks parked in front of one our school’s famous landmarks. I staggered over to a couple of friends who were watching on the sidelines. They gave me water and an apple and held a bag of ice on my very pepper spray irritated face. As they were walking me back to my dorm we ran into one of their roommates. She had taken cancelled classes as an opportunity to get crumbl cookie with her friends. Standing in front of her, happy in a floral blouse with her box of cookies, in my pepper spray and water soaked tshirt, keffiyeh sadly hanging off my shoulder, holding an ice pack to my mouth, felt like a slap in the face.

After putting my pepper spray soaked clothes, shoes, and keffiyeh in a plastic bag and taking an extraordinarily painful shower, a friend and I went for dinner just off campus. There we had a pot of green tea and ramen to soothe pepper sprayed throats. We got ice cream after (shared a cup with chocolate and raspberry pomegranate with strawberry pieces on top, it was very good). From our spot outside the ice cream place we watched a steady stream of groups of sorority girls in matching jeans shorts and blue bikini tops walking back to their apartments after some apparently raucous parties. The cognitive dissonance was insane. I really felt a little like I was going crazy.

Even this morning, waking up to the smeared sharpie of the National Lawyer’s Guild’s phone number on my arm, a black and blue chest from where a grown man straight up clocked me while I was held up by two other protesters in a wall, and a still sore throat and eyes from the pepper spray, life goes on like normal. I still have final papers to write and a math exam to review for.

I’m not sure I really have a point. But, this feeling only makes me want to fight harder for a free Palestine. So, fuck Israel for being an apartheid state and all of their crimes over the last 76 years. Fuck university administration for not disclosing their level of investment in Israel. Fuck university administration for not divesting from this genocide. Fuck Joe Biden for actively supporting this genocide. And fuck the police.

This is the same thing over and over again. Palestinians die every day, but it gets a lukewarm headline from mainstream media because death and destruction is inherent to Arabness. Then an aid convoy with white workers is obliterated, and now both the president of the United States and the president of Israel are making statements apologizing for “the poor protection of aid workers.” At one point we were seeing multiple reports a day of paramedics from the Palestine Red Crescent Society dying, but nothing. Crickets. Because they don’t care. And even in these “remorseful statements” there is a strategic reminder that white lives hold more weight than brown lives.

Jake: Are you busy today Isa?

Isa: I’m busy converting oxygen into carbon dioxide.

Jake: I thought trees did that.

Isa: That’s photosynthesis.

im fucking tired, ill do the rest tomorrow. also i have a new series coming up called Pancakes for Dinner so yeah. I think ill explain all that tomorrow

a million words would not bring you back, i know because i tried, neither would a million tears, i know because I cried.

Kai: Are you in love with Jake? Isa: *sweats* ....no? Kai: The why did you draw I + J in hearts everywhere? Isa: It stands for identity juvenile. Jake: *appears out of nowhere* She's totally in love with Kai.

Isa: I think it’s so unfair that I have to manage my anger just because people can’t manage their stupidity.