Awdah Hathaleen was killed by Israeli settler Yinon Levy in broad daylight. The perpetrator walks free, while Awdah’s body has been held hostage by the Israeli army. The village of Umm al-Khair is going on hunger strike to recover his body.

The free speech organization PEN America fired me three days after I published an article about how they investigated me for sharing an article critical of Zionism. My termination is a sad reflection of PEN’s censorious approach to Palestine.

This week, I faced trial for opposing genocide, Zionism, and for challenging Germany’s unconditional support for Israel. The state prosecuting me may have legal authority, but its moral authority has collapsed as it again participates in a genocide.

We drink salt and water to stay standing, to keep ourselves from going dizzy and collapsing. This is what we’ve come to in Gaza, where most people will go without food for three days at a time.

U.S. and global politics surrounding Israel are shifting rapidly as the world recoils in horror at Israel’s starvation of Gaza. Here are several lessons the left should take note of. 

France, Great Britain, and Canada’s recognition of a Palestinian state might matter someday. But, as usual, the Palestinians won’t get any immediate help from Europe, much less from North America, in stopping the Gaza genocide now. 

Israel wants you to believe that airdrops and symbolic aid trucks will solve the famine in Gaza. Don’t believe them. These measures are not meant to end hunger, only to quell growing global outrage as the genocide continues unchecked.

“The fact that churches have not sufficiently taken up this moral responsibility is a damning indictment. To brazenly prefer their comfort, interests, connections, and desire to avoid embarrassment is moral bankruptcy,” says Jonathan Kuttab.

A common cliche used by American politicians to describe the U.S.-Israel relationship is that “there is no daylight between the two.” But this is clearly not true when it comes to Syria.

The Jewish Community Relations Council attacked a talk I gave to the U.S.’s largest children’s mental health system as “antisemitic” because I discussed Palestinian trauma. My employer bowed to the pressure, but as a child advocate, I must speak out.