Today, Muslims across the globe are celebrating Eid Al-Adha, the "Festival of Sacrifice." It’s a time to honor Prophet Abraham’s unwavering faith, his readiness to sacrifice his son Ishmael in obedience to God’s command, only to be blessed with a ram to offer instead. It’s a story of devotion, mercy, and gratitude, a time for families to come together, share feasts, and rejoice.
But in Palestine, there is no joy this Eid. For us, the holiday is cloaked in grief, a somber reminder of the sacrifices we endure daily. We Palestinians are no strangers to loss. Death visits us uninvited, tearing through our homes, our hearts, and our hopes. Yet, we’ve learned to carry this weight, to transform our pain into resilience. We tell ourselves that every life stolen from us lives on, forever etched in our collective memory, honored for their sacrifice.
I write to bear witness. I write to be the voice for the voiceless in Palestine, to document the unfiltered truth of our survival under Israel’s relentless occupation and apartheid. I write to preserve our past and expose our present, a reality of suffocating oppression, where survival itself is an act of defiance.
In Gaza, my people face a merciless genocide. Families are erased, homes reduced to rubble, and dreams buried under the weight of bombs. Here, we’re suffocating under daily oppression: killings, arrests without charge, humiliations at checkpoints, forced displacements, and a system meticulously designed to crush our spirit. This Eid, there are no feasts, no gatherings, and no laughter. Nothing. Just survival.
Israel’s grip tightens even on our livelihoods. By withholding funds from the Palestinian Authority, they ensure our salaries that are already meager are not paid to us. It’s a calculated tactic to strangle our economy, to push us to the brink, to force us to abandon our homeland. This Eid hit my family harder than ever. With barely anything paid, providing for basic needs feels like an impossible task.
Still, I am grateful. To you, my supporters, my readers, your solidarity keeps me going. Your engagement with my work, your willingness to hear our truth, gives me strength. Your support has enabled me to continue writing, and without it, life here would be unsustainable. Thanks to you, I’ve published many articles, each one a testament to Palestine’s enduring spirit.
Since Dec 5, 2024, your support has made these pieces possible:
Chronology of the Siege of the Church of the Nativity by Israeli Forces.
Counter Proposal: A Palestinian Response To President Trump.
Myth Debunked: A Land Without A People For A People Without A Land.
Fictions of Colonization: The Zionist Denial of a Palestinian Nation.
Western Support for Israel's Genocide Has Upended the Global Order.
Decades of Israeli Brutality, Now Unleashed on a Grand Scale.
Rape As A Weapon: Israel’s Terror Tactics Targeting Palestinians Since 1948.
Israel’s War on Journalists Meets Western Media’s War on Facts in Gaza.
Palestinian Resistance Defies the Odds Alone; Israel Does Not.
Britain is Erasing International Law to Safeguard Israel's Genocide.
The West's Complicity in Israel's Live-Streamed Genocide in Gaza.
Trump's Gaza Plan Exposes Long-Standing US Policy To Forcibly Displace Palestinians.
I pour my heart into this work, driven by an unyielding love for my land and my people. If you find value in these stories, please consider becoming a monthly subscriber since this helps me and my family the most or at least contributing by buying me a shawarma here on Buy Me a Coffee; this will help a lot in keeping my work going.
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Once again, Eid Mubarak to all who celebrate!
And as always, from Palestine with ❤️
-𝑯𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒍𝒂