Volume 11
support the families of Nicholas Davis and Taibi Rauf, support the Palestinian Feminist Collective, Falasteen Focus - a feature on Palestine by Sameerah, pull apart garlic bread
Action Items
After suffering from epilepsy for almost seven years, Nicholas Nathaniel Holland Davis died from the condition on December 16 at the age of 31. From his gofundme: “…Nick vowed to never let the disease define him. Unable to work, Nick discovered a new passion for creating digital art. Using an iPad gifted to him by his wife Tiffany, he poured his heart and soul into his art. Nick spent countless hours per day perfecting his craft. Wherever he went, his iPad and pencil remained by his side. He was always prepared when inspiration struck. This inspiration would lead Nick to create his signature art collection "Black is Beautiful." This collection of art is a stunning depiction of the raw emotions of Black Americans navigating both the joys and struggles of everyday life in America. The "Black is Beautiful" project would go on to earn national acclaim and ultimately become a successful NFT project. As Nick's star began to shine brighter, he continued doing what he did best. Create, create, create.”
SUPPORT NICHOLAS’ FAMILY HERE.
Taibi Rauf tragically died of Glioblastoma less than a year after diagnosis, leaving behind her loving husband, nine children and extended family. What started as a gofundme for unexpected medical expenses has turned into a need to cover unexpected funeral costs. According to her husband “Tiabi is the most giving, affectionate, colorful, funny, intelligent and courageous woman.” She will be deeply missed.
SUPPORT TAIBI’S FAMILY HERE.
FUNDS STILL SEEKING SUPPORT FROM PREVIOUS VOLUMES:
SHAILA ROSE ZAMORA’S FAMILY IS STILL SEEKING SUPPORT
BRANDON’S MOTHER IS STILL SEEKING SUPPORT
LINDY CHRISTOPHER’S FAMILY IS STILL SEEKING SUPPORT
ELESBAN “MUNCHIES” SANTIBAÑEZ’S FAMILY IS STILL SEEKING SUPPORT
HARPREET SINGH’S FAMILY IS STILL SEEKING SUPPORT
RIAZ AHMED’S FAMILY IS STILL SEEKING SUPPORT
Support the Palestinian Feminist Collective
Donate to the Palestinian Feminist Collective (PFC) to receive a beautiful printed 2023 Palestinian Feminist Futures Calendar. The calendar is part of “an embodied feminist grammar and poetics of land, life, love, and liberation.” The art for January 2023, shown below, is a portrait by Duniyana Al-Amour. Duniyana was a 22-year-old artist and college student from the city of Khan Yunis who was martyred by Israeli forces on Friday, August 5, 2022. Al-Amour studied visual arts at Gaza’s Al-Aqsa University. She once wrote about her work on her Facebook page: “I am not making anything amazing. I am merely trying, amidst this isolation, to make life bearable.” The PFC featured Duniyana’s art in honor of Palestinian martyrs. “We hold one another in the practice of collective mourning and remembrance of our martyrs. We demand the right to bury our dead with dignity, to grieve their souls, and the rights of martyrs to rest in the earth of their homeland free and in peace.”
Order the calendar here: palestinianfeministcollective.org/calendar/
Food For Thought
In this volume we are excited to introduce our brilliant friend, Sameerah. Resham met Sameerah in the Going with Grace End of Life Training program and Eliana met her while co-facilitating monthly death cafes. In these death cafes, Sameerah showed up consistently, heart first. We immediately recognized her wisdom, devotion to community and capacity to carry many truths; so as we contemplated asking people to contribute to the digest, she was at the top of our list. We know that we do not know enough about what is happening in Palestine and Sameerah has been a guide to deepening our understanding. We began speaking about this feature in September and we are so humbled and happy to share it with you today.
Falasteen Focus features a handful of offerings on Palestinian death, grief, life, love, and culture, gathered by Sameerah, a Palestinian and Irish American death worker based out of Chicago.
She can be reached at witchykhalto@gmail.com
#ReturnOurChildren. Budour Hassan’s “The Warmth of Our Sons: Necropolitics, Memory, and the Palestinian Right to Mourn” focuses on Israel’s “implementation and legalization of post-mortem punishment through the detention and degrading handling of Palestinian mortal remains. Israel offers a unique modern case study because it is the only country in the world, besides Russia, whose primary legislation explicitly permits the withholding of bodies as part of its wider counterinsurgency program.” Hassan explains, “this necropolitical regime creates a hierarchy of grievable and ungrievable lives, confining Palestinians to the latter. Thus Israel expands the application of its apartheid policies to the symbolic and emotional spaces occupied by the dead.”
In July 2022 the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) and the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Centre (JLAC), submitted a joint Communication on behalf of eight Palestinian individuals, to the Special Procedures of the United Nations Human Rights Council, regarding the Israeli Occupying Forces’ (IOF) withholding the bodies of their deceased relatives. It is estimated that “the number of deceased Palestinians withheld by IOF since its occupation in 1967 is in the hundreds, whereas between 1991 and 2007, around 405 Palestinian bodies were released after being used for negotiations.” Read the full press release here.
Remember Jana. Jana Majdi Issam Assaf, a 15 year old Palestinian girl, was shot dead by Israeli forces on December 11th while searching for her cat on the roof of her home in the Al-Bayader neighborhood in Jenin, Palestine. Defense for Children International - Palestine (DCIP) has reported that Jana is the 53rd child killed by Israel in 2022. “Jana sustained two gunshot wounds to her upper chest and one to the right side of her head, according to information collected by DCIP. Doctors that examined Jana’s body at Jenin hospital alleged the bullet fragments and wounds were consistent with the use of expanding bullets by the Israeli military.” The image below is a screenshot from a video of Jana’s cat, Lolo, roaming the roof where Jana was killed.
Read Eman Ghanayem’s “Proactive Grief: Palestinian Reflections on Death.” “Part memoir, part theoretical reflection, this essay offers one answer to the question “How do Palestinians grieve?” In this narration of the author’s mother’s relationship to death, her multiple displacements, and her plan for her life, the term proactive grief is used to theorize how and why her mother’s life trajectory was shaped by her strife to have a dignified death, in other words, to be able to die in Palestine.” Eman writes, “In the face of an omnipresent death condition, my mother meets life with a well-cultivated protocol and due respect. She says to the reality of dying: I know you are plural, unsettled, shape shifting, tongue twisting, and supreme, and I plan to carry myself through you with seriousness and gravity. I will never take you lightly, I will never bend your truth, and I know you will happen to me however you please.”
Watch ‘Farha’ on Netflix, a film based on the lived experience of a Palestinian girl named Radieh. ‘Farha’ has persisted through a failed “smear campaign” by Israeli officials because of a scene in which a Palestinian family, including a new-born baby, is murdered by Zionists. The film’s director Darin Sallam declared, “The reason I’m so shocked by the backlash is because I didn’t show anything. Compared to what happened during the massacres, this was a small event.” Leila Giries, an 82-year-old Palestinian refugee in California who survived al-Nakba, or the catastrophe of 1948, viewed the film and told CNN, "I'm a product of the Nakba. My parents and grandparents are a product of the Nakba... you cannot deny our existence. Everyone needs to see 'Farha,' because it is not a fictional story of this girl, it is my story, it is the Palestinian story. We don't care who tells us it isn't true. We lived it and our stories need to be heard because the injustice against Palestinians did not end with al-Nakba and it is far from over." Not every Palestinian supports the film as wholeheartedly as Leila Giries, but it’s worth viewing, and by no means should be censored or removed from Netflix because of Zionists’ attempts to erase history.
Offerings We Love
Deathdouladoes is hosting 1:1 meetings to hold space for holiday grief. They also shared this webinar on Grief and Special Days: Maintaining, Adapting, and Releasing Traditions
We loved this exhibit at the Whitney Museum in NYC: full of grief, processing death, community care, and revolution. On view until April 23rd.
Simple Pleasures
Networking is not in the DNA, babes
but are there going to be people?
camel meets snow, excitement ensues
what it really means to fuck around and find out
someone make this garlic bread