Dear Palestinians

Please read on Substack (not email) in order to not get cutoff

Dec 03, 2023

Sunday, December 3rd, 2023 @ 12:46 a.m

Dear Palestinians,

I was going to publish a different post today. I had the intention of participating in the tradition of letter writing to an ancestor I needed guidance from. In the introduction to this post, I wrote the following statement.

“Writing letters has been a part of abolitionist & Black Feminist praxis for a long time. Although some may consider the letter-writing practice outdated, I prefer the word ancient. Writing letters requires one to set aside time in their present to pen their thoughts, catch up, & queries for the recipient to read in the future. Perhaps the most intriguing of the process for me is that organized letter recipients preserve these correspondence in their archives (or make them public). Whether I’m reading Toni Cade Bambera’s 1980 letter to Octavia Butler or James Baldwin’s An Open Letter to My Sister, Miss Angela Davis the care & respect in the letters is my favorite thing to note. I often journal to people, alive or who are ancestors, whose life experience I feel will guide me the way I need to go. “

These words will be re-published when I post the original piece at a later date. Truthfully, something else is at the forefront of my mind & that is you all. You are not an afterthought even though this world has proven through its actions that it believes you to be. But it is now 12:52 a.m. & I still can’t sleep because my heart is with you in Gaza & the West Bank. The very first piece I published was about how I only respect Poets with a backbone. This backbone requires taking a stand for the liberation of all oppressed people. Now, over two months later I am writing an open letter to you (all Palestinians). This letter is for Palestinians in Gaza, in the West Bank, the millions of Palestinian refugees around the world violently forced from their homeland. I am writing to you all, early in the morning with no edits, because you teach life.

Yet, I know all too well the burden of being the backbone upon which people believe you will save the world. Especially when your focus is on surviving the day-to-day. Yes, I know all too well the level of annoyance hearing that it is Black women & indigenous ways of knowing that will save us. It is not an annoyance because it is a false statement. This statement is a nuisance because it evades accountability on behalf of the ones who attempted to destroy us. This statement is a way for the small beneficiaries of violent settler colonialism to wash their hands of the mess they have created. Perhaps they even feel good about this cleansing because, in their minds, their dirty hands led Black & Indigenous folks to the knowledge needed to save us all. Please believe me when I say, I know the forced burden of being put to the task of saving a burning world. Especially, when you wake up one day in your homeland surrounded by sea wondering how fire ignited in the first place.

In the excerpt of the introduction I quoted above, I emphasized the word ancient. This specific word choice is important because the world was not always like this. Palestine was not always occupied. The prison industrial complex did not always exist. The Congolese were not always buried underneath mineral mines. The Sudanese were not always forcibly displaced people. We did not always claim ownership of rainwater, land, & sea borders. I know these things to be true within my body. This form of embodied knowledge is not one that I need to have verified by anyone else but my ancestors & me. Therefore, when I say you woke up one day in a burning homeland—what I mean to say is that the life you have been forced to live is not ancient. Israel is not an ancient sacred nation it is a settler state. I have to believe that anything not rooted in the ancient ways of being, without any additional translation/instructions on how to simply be, will not be sustained. I know many could make the argument that the current world exists because it has been sustainable. But sustainable to whom? The world is ending & a new one is breaking through. I am writing to you who are currently alive, barely breathing underneath the rubble, & those who have become martyrs whose lives can teach us so much about the human spirit's capacity to resist, believe, & love. I know the olive trees are ancient, the rain is ancient, the watermelons are ancient, and human beings at are core are ancient. Then some people have become obsessed with doing things by manipulating all that is ancient. These people began to associate trees with the potential to make money, saw watermelons as models for bulbous bombs that could one day explode, & witnessed rain falling from the sky & wondered how to rain phosphorous instead. It is impossible to masquerade morals & empathy present in the human spirit. I am writing to you because you are not an afterthought.

Yesterday, many of the Palestinian journalists/press I engage with daily for accurate information have resigned. Among these journalists are Bisan, Motaz, & Muhammed . There are most likely others whose names I am unaware of but remain grateful for their work all the same. Bisan, Motaz, & Muhammed, you three are the people I have been interacting with the most. Although your statements read that you have given up hope there is a vast sea of people who haven’t. I had the intention of publishing a different letter but this one came out on the page instead. In my last post, A Salve for Black Folk Shammed for Resting, one thing I touched on is the instinct to preserve interactions/communications. In this piece, I shared how I have always been an archivist because if not someone will try to convince me of a reality that did not exist. As a Black woman, I am constantly trying to balance being present in my life while being anchored enough to the emotions that I experience in the moment to preserve it. I wasn’t sure what to do after reading Bisan, Motaz, & Muhammed’s statements. Then I remembered my last piece & two tweets I saw a while ago pictured below.

And so here I am doing the only thing I can do at this moment I find myself in. What I can currently do is share the archive I have been creating. The very first thing I do when I am utilizing social media to keep in touch with you all is save what I am looking at. I always screenshot, screen record, save links, etc. to anything that strikes me. I do want to make two things clear about the sample archive I am sharing with you all & the world. This archive is a collection of informative posts & updates on the amplification of the genocide starting in October. I want you all to know that even though the world has made you feel like an afterthought you have been the first thought on people’s minds in the morning & at night. You all are loved, cared for, respected, admired, beautiful, & in community with millions of others who support you. I hope these preserved archives remind you of that. For those who disagree I hope this archive serves as a reminder that they are in the minitority. As well as the fact that the love & intention of a free Palestine continues to vibrate through the coil spines of millions. The second clarifying point I want to tell you is that I have also archived moments of accountability for people who want to wash their hands & move on. Such as this video of Americans charging President Biden with genocide and being silenced by the Christmas carol Here Comes Santa Claus on speakers (original link to the video can be found here). Just as those who believe themselves to be free & powerful tore down ancient olive trees, prohibited collecting ancient rainwater, & at one point banned the Palestinian flag they will try to make this digital evidence obsolete as well. These preserved archives are a way to hold accountability.

Today I also witnessed Israeli settlers singing Break My Soul by Billionaire Beyoncé at the premiere of her new film (link to original tweet with video can be found here). It is impossible to masquerade morals & empathy present in the human spirit. To quote Bisan, someone the same age as myself, “history will never forget.” It did not have to be like this. Movies do not have to premiere worldwide except when the people involved are more concerned with profit than human beings’ lives. These are the likes of the people who have failed you.

What if during the energy mute challenge, Billionaire Beyoncé had transformed that moment into a moment of silence (during the final editing of the film since the the tour ended before the amplificant of genocide) to honor the lives of Palestinians? What if during the energy mute challenge, you could hear a pin drop & Beyoncé requested the names of martyred Palestinians to appear on the screen (in editing)? Imagine if Billionaire Beyoncé had done this & then showed her film in Israel. Instead of a song rooted in Black liberation becoming an anthem for genocidal settlers, there would be videos of them being silenced by a challenge to take accountability. Surely if she could challenge the existence of a specific camera then she could’ve done this. Or bare minimum not show the film in Israel at all. Luckily, I have never invested in artists who employ the languag & imagery of liberation whose actions fail to align with the long-term mission.

But I hope this archive can show you that there are so many more moral Poets with backbones that showed up and showed out for you (& will continue to do so). While most of the initial material in the archives are social media posts I wanted to also highlight the writers I have turned to. Some of the writers doing the work include

, & many more.

Part of me wonders what good is an archive when so many lives have been lost. I think the potential power of an ongoing archive, such as the one I am starting to collect, is in controlling the pen that writes history. It’s that tricky thing of bearing witness to the present while being aware that it’s already the past. There are people working overtime to have their memory be the final record of truth. On top of calling my reps, supporting the boycott, and educating myself & others, all I can do is write and document the facts. I hope I have been able to express care, compassion, rage, & love in these modes of expression as well. It’s now 3:21 a.m. & I’m nervous to check in with you all later this morning. I’m nervous to see what destruction lies ahead & the people who were martyred. Who will I turn to if those among you who have become press cease to exist? I’m nervous that the settler state’s genocide will cause Palestine to cease to exist physically, in our minds, & history. But as you all have asked us to bear witness & not to lose hope, then that is what I will do. If anything, I hope this archive preserves an ancient Palestinian homeland & people.

With Love & Solidarity

K.B.