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Three Threads of the Movement for Palestinian Liberation
125 Plays3 years ago
Critical connections and interdependence are key for any liberation movement. Aline Batarseh of Visualizing Palestine and Tamara Ben-Halim of Makan join host Yara Hawari to explore how the work of their organizations intersects with that of Al-Shabaka, and how we can collectively build stronger communities in the struggle for justice, freedom, and equality.
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Transcript
Inspiration and Organization
00:00:00
Speaker
I think we should take inspiration from the Palestinian street. You know, we can also do that within Palestinians of the society and Palestinian organizational spaces. It's about fostering an environment of like-minded organizations that work together, that have a clear politics and obvious red lines, but also where there is a space and room for people to grow, learn and develop. And that also adopts this notion of care.
Introducing 'Rethinking Palestine'
00:00:36
Speaker
This is Rethinking Palestine, a podcast from Ashabaka, the Palestinian Policy Network. We are a virtual think tank that aims to foster public debate on Palestinian human rights and self-determination. We draw upon the vast knowledge and experience of the Palestinian people, whether in Palestine or in exile, to put forward strong and diverse Palestinian policy voices.
Collaborative Fundraising Initiatives
00:00:57
Speaker
In this podcast, we will be bringing these voices to you so that you can listen to Palestinians sharing their analysis wherever you are in the world.
00:01:09
Speaker
This year, Shabakah has once again joined forces with McCann and visualising Palestine to build on the growing momentum for Palestinian rights across the globe. The three organisations have been looking to raise $60,000 to contribute to their ongoing work in strengthening the movement for Palestinian liberation. This collective spirit takes inspiration from the unity in Tafada of last year, which saw Palestinians defy their enforced fragmentation and unite across walls, blockades and artificial borders. In defiance against Israel's apartheid regime,
00:01:39
Speaker
and despite decades of settler colonialism, reminding the world that the Palestinian people's struggle is a unified one.
Reclaiming the Palestinian Narrative
00:01:46
Speaker
The Shabaka Makan and visualising Palestine are also working together, unified in our efforts to reclaim the narrative on Palestine to one that upholds freedom and justice. We all work in different ways, but with a shared goal of strengthening critical connections and producing and communicating Palestinian analysis in order to use them as tools in advocacy and beyond to challenge Israeli colonisation and apartheid.
Community Building and Connections
00:02:09
Speaker
In today's episode of Rethinking Palestine, we will be exploring these connections, looking at how our work intersects and how we can build stronger communities in the struggle for Palestine and liberation. Joining me to discuss all of this and more is Aline Bataarsee, Executive Director of Visualizing Palestine and Shabaka Board member, and Tamara Ben-Helim, Co-Director and Co-Founder of McCann. Thank you both of you for joining me today on Rethinking Palestine.
00:02:38
Speaker
Perhaps we can start off with an introduction of each organization and some examples of the work that you do.
Visualizing Palestine's Data-Driven Approach
00:02:44
Speaker
Let's start with Eileen.
00:02:46
Speaker
Thank you, Yara. It's really exciting to be in conversation with you and Tamara today. So visualizing Palestine's focus is on developing data-led visuals that are aimed at advancing the right-based narrative of Palestine and Palestinians. We actually produced our first visual 10 years ago at a time when the use of infographics as an alternative form for social justice communication was not common at all, especially in the Palestinian context.
00:03:13
Speaker
Our visuals focus on data and storytelling at the same time. We know that a lot of research goes into the development of different types of research products, policy papers. Also, we have a lot of research that goes into our visuals as well. And we always make sure to cite the sources that we use and to make those acceptable through our website. But the important part is that our visuals also tell a story.
00:03:39
Speaker
and they take a lot of creativity. What we want to do with our visuals is provoke thoughts and emotions that compel people to take action. So we work on visual storytelling because we know from research that learning that engages more of our senses, including with visual aids, help us retain information for a longer period of time.
00:04:00
Speaker
And with a lot of research on Palestine, we've also noticed that not everyone, you know, wants to read the 200 page reports, right? Unless you're a policy analyst or a researcher, but a lot of people will take a look at visuals also in very
00:04:15
Speaker
fast-paced world that we live in. VP's visuals have Creative Commons licensing, which means that anyone can use our visuals, print and download them for free, and can use them for awareness-raising, as well as advocacy tools around Palestine. VP, importantly, works both independently and in partnership with Palestinian and international human rights organizations to produce visual tools to serve a wide community of advocates, human rights defenders,
00:04:44
Speaker
academics, educators, and students to help them communicate about issues impacting Palestine and Palestinians.
Educational Empowerment with McCann
00:04:54
Speaker
We see a lot of people that are often told that Palestine is complicated or too complex for an average person to understand and that they shouldn't even try to bother to form an informed opinion. And one of the things that Israel tries to do intentionally is to complicate the reality with propaganda and strategic fragmentation.
00:05:14
Speaker
And we believe that anyone can and must understand the root cause of oppression, particularly in countries that are complicit in Palestinian oppression. They have a specific responsibility in learning more and in being able to advocate. So our visuals, what our visuals do is that they attempt to take
00:05:32
Speaker
complex data and information and distill them into visually compelling resources. And VP has a large collection of infographics, almost 200 infographics on the impact of settler colonialism on Palestinians. VP has developed also developed some videos and educational platform, including Palestine Visualizing Palestine 101,
00:05:53
Speaker
Palestine Journeys, Palestine Open Maps, and the Growth of a Movement timeline, that document wins of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement since it started in 2006. And maybe I'll just end with just some examples of what we've been working on over the past year. So about a year ago, we collaborated with Human Rights Watch on their Crime of Apartheid report, and we developed several visuals on what
00:06:20
Speaker
the crime of apartheid means, and we have four vignettes on what it means to be born as a Palestinian in Jerusalem, the West Bank, the niqab, and abroad, and then comparing what those discriminatory policies, Israel's discriminatory policies and practices, mean for Palestinians versus Jews, and how basically Israel ensures racial domination of Jews over Palestinians by implementing these practices and policies. We've
00:06:47
Speaker
actually been producing visuals on apartheid for a very long time. And most recently, we also developed an additional visual with Al Haq, Al-Mizan, and Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies on Israel's use of strategic fragmentation as a tool to divide and dominate the Palestinian people.
Amplifying Voices through Ashabaka
00:07:04
Speaker
So I just wanted to share these couple of examples and I'll stop there. Thank you, Aline, for sharing the important work that Visualizing Palestine does. Over to you, Tamada.
00:07:14
Speaker
Thank you to Iyada and El Shabaka for having us today and it's always wonderful to be in your company and in the company of visualizing Palestine as well. So I'm co-founder and co-director of Makan. Makan is a UK-based Palestinian-led educational organization.
00:07:33
Speaker
We started conceptualizing the idea behind Makan around 2015 and started our pilot workshops in 2016. The reason why Makan was started really goes back to the aftermath of the 2014 attacks on Gaza, when there was a sense that several of us had that although more Palestinian voices were starting to be heard,
00:07:58
Speaker
in the mainstream media and in other Bora that there was still, generally speaking, a very problematic narrative across most arenas that really failed to take into account basic structural power imbalances, a lack of an understanding of Israel as an apartheid state and Palestine as an anti-colonial struggle.
00:08:19
Speaker
And we really wanted to use our position as Palestinians in the diaspora to be able to contribute to pushing the narrative in the right direction. So during this time, we did a lot of research and did a lot of mapping out of what other brilliant organizations and initiatives were doing. And we found that there was a real niche for specifically educational training capacity and skill building
00:08:48
Speaker
that invests in and supports young advocates who are speaking out on Palestine and also on other social justice and human rights issues more broadly. So the ultimate goal of McCann has really always been to equip people,
Roles in the Liberation Ecosystem
00:09:05
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specifically young people, but also more established advocates and campaigners, and I'll speak a little bit about our audiences in a moment, with the tools, the knowledge, and especially the confidence
00:09:16
Speaker
that they need to be able to help shift the broad conversation on Palestine across grassroots advocacy university campuses and policy spheres to one that upholds freedom, justice and equality for Palestinians. So a brief example of
00:09:38
Speaker
some of the core of the work that we do. I've mentioned that we do educational training. What that really looks like is the curation of specific educational programs, what we call workshops or tailored training, that really focus on getting people up to speed. Not that they have to be experts in any way, but getting them up to speed of having a basic knowledge of what the contemporary Palestinian rights struggle looks
Lessons from UNITY Intifada
00:10:06
Speaker
like.
00:10:06
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what Palestinian history of the struggle is that has led us to where we are today, what apartheid as a crime under international law means, why it's appropriate for us to understand Israel's regime as an apartheid regime, and then really taking the practical aspects of that knowledge and putting that
00:10:31
Speaker
into practice by learning how to really talk about the Palestinian issue in effective ways that counter so much of the propaganda that exists and that we've particularly seen most recently.
00:10:46
Speaker
Those are our general workshops on Palestine, on Palestinian rights that are targeted at young advocates, at university students, but also at trade unions and trade union leaders, as well as grassroots and social justice leaders.
00:11:03
Speaker
We're also branching out to work more specifically with journalists and policymakers as of this year. While our work is focused mostly in Britain, we're also, because of the shift towards virtual and remote work, all our work is currently online and that has enabled us to be able to reach across North America, on the East Coast and Canada in particular, and elsewhere in Europe and in the Middle East.
00:11:30
Speaker
So that's generally kind of the workshops that we run. We also run trainings that we call tailored training that is more kind of specific to the needs of specific groups of people. So we may have a group or an organization or institution that wants support on a specific aspect.
00:11:48
Speaker
of the advocacy or communications work that they're doing around Palestine. And they would come to us to help curate a training that is really tailored to their needs as well. And this is in addition to broader work that we do around developing educational resources, posts on social media. And we also have an upcoming online course on the contemporary Palestinian struggle that's being launched in partnership with the Institute
00:12:17
Speaker
for Palestine Studies in the next couple of months. I think I will leave it there and we can speak more about kind of the collaboration that we do with one another in the next questions. Damada, thank you so much for telling us about McCann's important work.
00:12:36
Speaker
I'm going to share just a little bit about Ashabaka because I'm sure most of our listeners are already aware of who we are and what we do. Ashabaka is an independent transnational think tank. We have a network of over 200 Palestinian experts and specialists in all different fields based all over the world, including public health experts, engineers, architects, academics, lawyers, environmental workers, and so many more.
00:13:02
Speaker
The aim of the Shabaka is to draw upon the vast knowledge and experience of the Palestinian people, whether under occupation, in exile, or in the 48 territories, so as to engage a broad spectrum of perspectives in debate on policy and strategy. We also work to get Palestinian expert voices in policy spaces and spaces where they can influence decision makers. And to this end, we publish policy analysis in the form of briefs
00:13:27
Speaker
memos and commentaries in both English and Arabic. We cover topics such as apartheid, climate change, leadership, governance, representation, and so much more. We also engage in other forms of multimedia, such as webinars. And we have, of course, a monthly podcast called Rethinking Palestine in order to promote our members' policy analysis in a variety of different formats. Our audience is also quite wide and includes activists, journalists, civil society organizations, lobbyists,
00:13:57
Speaker
diplomats, politicians and students. And we have now become really a very wide network. Indeed, our members are present in most spaces where Palestine is discussed. This is obviously because of their own expertise and credentials. But at Shabaka, we also work with our members to access these spaces and to make sure that Palestinian voices
00:14:20
Speaker
are in these spaces because it's been the case for so long that Palestine is written about, analysed and discussed without Palestinians in the room. And our hope at Ashabaka is that we're showing that Palestinians can analyse and they have been analysing and they refuse to be marginalised.
Collaboration and Strategic Partnerships
00:14:38
Speaker
And of course we are not the first or the only organisation to do this.
00:14:43
Speaker
If you are enjoying this podcast, please visit our website, www.al-shabaka.org, where you will find more Palestinian policy analysis and where you can join our mailing list and donate to support our work. Now onto our second question. Where do you see yourself and your organization in the ecosystem of organizations working towards Palestinian liberation? Let's start with Tamara this time.
00:15:10
Speaker
Yeah, so I think there's obviously such a rich ecosystem around us of organizations working on Palestine.
00:15:19
Speaker
new and old that each kind of contribute something really really important at different levels and I think it's really important to understand movements as although coordination is always good you need all of the different efforts and all of the different initiatives because no one organization and no one effort no one approach
00:15:43
Speaker
is going to, on its own, bring us the freedom and the justice that we're working towards. So with that in mind, in terms of where McCann comes in, I think to be able to do campaigning work, to be able to do
00:16:01
Speaker
advocacy work and the most effective organizing and mobilizing that you can do. You need some level of knowledge and confidence. You absolutely don't need to be any kind of expert. You don't have to have a PhD. You don't even have to have a master's.
00:16:19
Speaker
But to be able to think about how to talk about the issue in effective ways, in the ways that Palestinians are talking about the issues, to be able to uphold the demands of Palestinians, to think about the different pressure points, to think about what the most effective strategies are in your campaigning work. All of this requires some level of basic knowledge and skills and capacities
00:16:47
Speaker
in communication as well. And this is really where CAN comes in. So we haven't seen really any other organizations that are focused exclusively on intensive education with an academic rigor on Palestine.
00:17:03
Speaker
that are really working to invest in advocates' knowledge and learning on the issue. So this kind of political education, we know there is a huge need for it, particularly now.
00:17:18
Speaker
given the quote unquote shrinking of space that is happening in Britain, in Europe, in the United States and elsewhere. And when we talk about shrinking space, that's really jargon for just saying that, you know, spaces for speaking openly about Palestine and advocating for Palestinian liberation are in many ways closing.
Advocacy and Education Challenges
00:17:42
Speaker
because of attacks that we're witnessing from pro-Israel organizations, from Israel and its allies, that are making it extremely difficult whether it's someone posting social media on Instagram, whether it's a university student trying to organize at their local student union, whether it's an academic putting together a course,
00:18:05
Speaker
on Palestine and the States, all of these things were witnessing greater and greater attacks. And that, I think, reinforces the need for the type of political education and confidence building work that McCann does.
00:18:19
Speaker
Although there's increasing solidarity with Palestine across the board from social justice movements and activists, which is a wonderful thing to see at the same time, we're also seeing a huge chilling effect. And that is something that McCann, along with other organizations, is trying to address very carefully, particularly in Britain.
00:18:41
Speaker
because of course the last thing we want is for people to be too scared and underconfident to be able to speak up even though they want to. So our work is really about helping them to be able to gain the confidence and the tools to do that. So just to answer the question directly in terms of where we are in the ecosystem, I think we're somewhere between, although it's not so linear, somewhere between
00:19:04
Speaker
kind of the academic sphere and campaigning and advocacy. So to be able to do that campaigning and advocacy work, to be able to do the speaking on media platforms, we hope the work that we do and interventions that we make it help people to do that, to take that next step more effectively. Tamara, what you said at the beginning of your answer about the movement needing to be pluralistic,
00:19:32
Speaker
have a multi-layered approach is so important. Aline, what do you think about this? Thank you Yara and thank you Tamara. Everything really that you said resonates quite a bit and I completely agree with you also that there is no one organization alone that can bring the freedom that we're all working towards, especially with the
00:19:55
Speaker
with the increased attacks that we see from Israel on non-profit, mineralization of six organizations. But we also know that this is not new. They're just amplifying the efforts that they use to suppress freedom of speech of Palestinians. And I think also the stronger we get and the more united we get, they try to divide us even more with all the tactics that they're using. And so the strategic fragmentation is on all levels, really.
00:20:21
Speaker
And
Media Representation and Visualizing Palestine
00:20:22
Speaker
yet we remain strong, so it's really beautiful that we're all in partnership together. And I think what I'll say is also in terms of where visualizing Palestine fits into the ecosystem, we really see ourselves play a very, very specific role in the ecosystems of organizations working towards Palestinian liberation.
00:20:44
Speaker
We see our visuals as tools and educational resources that can be used by others in the movement, including academic students, activists,
00:20:53
Speaker
anyone really that wants to raise awareness and that wants to advocate around Palestine. I think the biggest group we've seen use our visuals, our students in universities. From our records, we've seen more than 100 universities use our visuals. So the academic arena is a really huge place where we see our visuals used, but they're of course used beyond that as well. And we don't see our visuals as
00:21:19
Speaker
and end in and of themselves. And this is why we collaborate with other organizations and activists to continuously identify priorities and make sure that our visuals are useful for campaigns that are being carried out by other groups and organizations in the movement. And we also talked about this, that there's such a huge volume of information being produced on Palestine. And sometimes it's overwhelming. It's in some ways an over-research
00:21:48
Speaker
context, while at the same time, research is being silenced, buried and countered by Israeli propaganda. So we as CP want to make a contribution to knowledge production by disseminating information in a creative medium. So we're just one of these organizations basically that are producing visuals as an important alternative source of information because traditional forms of media have historically excluded Palestinian voices.
00:22:14
Speaker
the Israeli government in tandem with the Western media and with countries that are complicit with Israeli policies. And I will just share this one piece of research that I came across recently, a study by Mahan Asad.
00:22:29
Speaker
in 2020
Shared Goals and Movement Diversity
00:22:30
Speaker
that revealed that non-Palestinian wrote 99% of opinion pieces about Palestinians published by the Washington Post over a period of basically between 1970 and 2019. So even if like this is not a perception, there are statistics around Palestinians
00:22:50
Speaker
being literally excluded from media. And then that wasn't with the Washington Post. The New York Times didn't do much better. There were less than 2% of opinion pieces that were published that were written by Palestinians. So, you know, our voices are being excluded. We're being referred to in the passive voice and opinion pieces.
00:23:11
Speaker
There is violent language that's being used to describe Palestinians. So all of this is really impacting the opinion that people in different countries make around Palestine and the Palestinian struggle. And we saw this most recently with how mainstream media was reporting on the murder of Shireen Abuaqleh. There was language that was being used to refer to her in the passive voice.
00:23:34
Speaker
the saying that she has died, you know, not saying who killed her. And this is important because a lot of people don't even read past those headlines. So we see ourselves as one Palestinian platform that centers Palestinian experiences and that really works in tandem with El Shabbatah, with McCann, with a lot of other amazing Palestinian organizations that are really working to change the narrative on Palestine.
Grassroots Organizing against Colonialism
00:24:00
Speaker
Aline, those stats that you mentioned about Op-Eds is really stark and not surprising at all. But I think when you hear the numbers, it really sticks with you. Ashabaka works in tandem with other organizations in contributing to changing the narrative on Palestine and making sure that Palestinian voices are heard in mainstream spaces.
00:24:20
Speaker
Indeed, we are one of the few Palestinian think tanks. And as such, I think we are contributing to much needed policy analysis written by Palestinians that can challenge what is usually written about us and for us. And I think we're producing knowledge. And there are so many great organizations that also do that, like Jadaliya and the Institute of Palestine Studies. But our particular focus is on policy. And I think that's particularly beneficial to those working in advocacy and lobbying.
00:24:49
Speaker
And Shabaka really hope that the pieces that we're publishing provide material tools and resources for many of our partner organizations. Something else you mentioned, Eileen, was identifying collective priorities. And that's so important. Shabaka, for example, partners sometimes come to us and ask us for specific policy analysis. They might be working on a specific policy angle, lobbying politicians or running a campaign.
00:25:15
Speaker
and they are in need of Palestinian written analysis. And this is something that we can provide, or if our partners are working on a specific topic and they want it highlighted, we are always happy to uplift that work or produce more materials on that specific topic. But I think there are always ways to improve our working together. And that brings me on to my next question. Last year, during the UNITY Intifada, we saw examples of Palestinians working together in inspiring shows of unity.
00:25:43
Speaker
For example, collectives organizing legal support and representation for those arrested by Israeli regime forces, neighborhood defense committees, group fielding media and sharing talking points. What do you think we can learn from that moment moving forward and how can we work better together? I'll start with Tamada again.
00:26:04
Speaker
I'll answer this one briefly because I think there was a lot to be inspired by, obviously, from, there always is, but particularly in this moment of unity and defiance that came from Palestinians, from the general strike, from the dignity and hope manifesto, from seeing Palestinians
00:26:24
Speaker
from Haifa to Razi show actions of brotherhood, sisterhood, solidarity with their siblings in Jerusalem. And I'm sure we all as Palestinians and as non-Palestinian were hugely moved by this. I think what we can learn from this, you know, obviously different parts of the Palestinian movement and maybe particularly abroad have been fragmented over time. I think
00:26:51
Speaker
we can't ignore that reality. I think the good thing is that, at least here in Britain and I feel in the States as well, Aline can respond to that better than me. In recent years, that is changing. There is increasing collaboration and genuine and strategic partnerships.
00:27:11
Speaker
there is a lot of meaningful close work happening between between organizations within the movement and of course beyond with you know more broadly with other social justice groups be they be they indigenous collectives be they anti-racist organizers and others in terms of
00:27:29
Speaker
What I think is practical for how we can work more effectively as organizations, the struggle I think that we normally have as McCann is making the time and the mental space for it. There's always a feeling of urgency, there's always a feeling of go, go, go, and it's difficult to ever pause, and you need to pause, and we all need to pause in this work.
00:27:56
Speaker
both to avoid burnout, to take care of ourselves and one another, but also to allow creative thought to happen. And I think you really need that when you're thinking about collaboration, because collaboration, it can happen naturally. But I think it's also, if you don't make space for it, it doesn't happen. So you really need to kind of look beyond
00:28:16
Speaker
the immediacy and the internal operations of your organization in the day to day details that you can fall down into be able to think more with more perspective so i think for us and for me in particular making time.
00:28:32
Speaker
and space for collaboration is really the thing that enables it to happen. So really having that intention I think is absolutely necessary. I think more broadly speaking, in terms of the movement, I think ideally obviously you have the same principles and values, but also it's okay not to agree on absolutely everything to be able to unite for a broader goal of collective liberation. So as long as you have
00:29:00
Speaker
the basic shared principles and values, I think it's important to also be strategic to an extent in order to come together to help strengthen the movement and its efforts. Over to you, Aline. Thank you, Tamara. You mentioned a lot of
00:29:18
Speaker
really important points about how we're also seeing the world changing, right? Because I think we're exposed to social media and we're all in this virtual world together that our stories are being heard by people and by communities who are also oppressed, including Black Americans and Indigenous groups, you know, so there's just so much to build on. It's really inspiring, I think, you know, and it has been going for a while, but I feel like our
00:29:44
Speaker
issues and this whole thing around we really cannot be liberated. We have to work around joint liberation together. I'm very inspired. I feel like on a daily basis I have to remind myself of this quote from Angela Davis that says, you have to act
00:30:02
Speaker
as if it were possible to radically transform the world and you have to do it all the time and it's not easy but I feel like for me it's a source of inspiration and I have to remind myself of it all the time because we have to imagine that a different world is possible and we have to work towards it and I think just to answer the question Yara around you know what do we
00:30:26
Speaker
learn moving forward from the unity in Tifada. And for me, the biggest, most important lesson is that unity is possible, despite Israel's fragmentation, despite everything that Israel is doing to make sure that we do not unite, that it is united. And of course, despite the Palestinian Authority's complicity as well in making sure that
00:30:47
Speaker
the status quo remains the same. So you've talked about this a lot, Yara, in your analysis as well. Last year, during the unity intifada, Palestinians with Israeli citizenship
00:30:59
Speaker
basically worked around organizing the general strike. And because they are such a huge part of the Israeli workforce, it really impacted the economy. I feel like there's just so much that we can do to build on it. It just needs the persistence and the patience. And this is why our work together, I think, is very important because we have to have sort of the patience for it to make it happen.
00:31:28
Speaker
And I feel like it's not an overstatement to say that because it does take time and it does take
00:31:34
Speaker
ability to take our imagination to a different place and to think of a better future. That is a future of freedom for everyone. And I think we also saw this so clearly during the funeral for our beloved Shireen on May 13. Despite all of Israeli restrictions, the military checkpoints they set up to prevent mourners from joining the funerals, from attacking Palestinian mourners carrying Shireen's coffin,
00:32:01
Speaker
to arresting mourners that were carrying the Palestinian flag. Palestinians still united in love and in pain, and I don't think I've ever seen Jerusalem, you know, this Palestinian. It was such a beautiful moment, even though, of course, it was full of sorrow. But, you know, we see what we can do when we really unite and get together, and that we can defy Israel's fragmentation, and it's in no way easy. But I do think that this resistance is very important. This faith in ourselves is really important.
00:32:32
Speaker
Aline, you mentioned Shereen Abur Akhle's funeral in Jerusalem and how, despite the horror of her killing, it showed once again a united front of Palestinians. Indeed, in death, Shereen united Palestinians in a way that few political movements have been able to do, scenes that I never thought I would see in my lifetime. Jaffa Gate flooded with Palestinian flags and Palestinians chanting for a free Palestine was so incredibly moving.
00:33:01
Speaker
and inspiring as well as deeply poignant. And I think many of us felt like that with those scenes we were getting a glimpse of what a liberated Palestine could look like.
00:33:12
Speaker
But back to this question of working together. Palestinian civil society orgs both in Palestine and around the world are working in very close quarters. We often cover the same topics, organize similar events, etc. And as such, we often go after the same funding, the same supporters, the same employees even.
00:33:33
Speaker
And I think this kind of environment can foster a competitiveness and even sometimes resentment. And I don't necessarily think that's always by coincidence. I think there are forces at work that are trying to distract us from the work that we have to do. And what we saw during the unity in Tafada was Palestinians coming together from the bottom up to resist Israeli settler colonialism. It wasn't a unity or an organizing that came from NGOs,
00:34:02
Speaker
or political parties. It was the Palestinian street organizing in a way that directly responded to events on the ground that was built on decades of organizing and political work. And this was what was so inspiring. It showed that we still have the capacity to resist and organize. And I think we should take inspiration from the Palestinian street. You know, we can also do that within Palestinians of the society and Palestinian organizational spaces.
00:34:29
Speaker
It's about fostering an environment of like-minded organisations that work together, that have a clear politics and obvious red lines, but also where there is a space and room for people to grow, learn and develop. And that also adopts this notion of care.
Fundraising Efforts and Closing Remarks
00:34:49
Speaker
Now, before we end, I want to let our listeners know that Shabaka, McCann and Visualizing Palestine are currently raising funds to support our collective work, expand our reach further and strengthen the global movement for Palestinian liberation. You can support us by visiting al-shabaka.org slash donate now or anytime before June 16th. Thank you, Alina and Tamara once again for joining me on Rethinking Palestine.
00:35:17
Speaker
Thank you so much. It was a real pleasure being in conversation with both of you and always really love working with you and collaborating on many different levels. Thank you so much, Yara, for hosting us. Likewise. Thank you so much, Yara, Anisha, Bota, and Aline and VP.
00:35:41
Speaker
Thank you for listening to Rethinking Palestine. Don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review. For more policy analysis and to donate to support our work, please visit our website www.al-shabaka.org. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter.