#9: The One with the People of Palestine
A nation with faith can never be destroyed.
Dear friend,
How are you? And how is your beautiful heart?
I’ll be honest with you - I have never felt grief like the grief I am feeling right now, in my whole, entire life. Any time I stop and pull myself away from the demands of everyday life, it overflows from my eyes, heart and soul. I feel like I’m drowning when I give it the opportunity to break free; I feel like it is a grief that knows no end and no limit because we have still seen no end to the ethnic cleansing and genocide taking place before our eyes, in Palestine.
I’d like to share a video combining two of the things I love most in this world - art and words - in dedication to our fellow human brothers and sisters. The rest of this letter is the words I wrote for this video. Please watch and/or read with an open mind and allow all of this to enter your open heart. May humanity find peace.🙏🏼
The Palestinian people are a really special type of human being. They are like no humans I have ever seen before. Through all of this terrible, all-consuming darkness, they are somehow shining so much light.
With all that is currently happening in the Middle East, Western propaganda may have you believing that these people deserve to die. That their extermination is justified. That there is no other choice or no other way to eradicate ‘evil’. How ironic that this is the message when what is currently happening in occupied Palestine is the most evil thing I have ever been witness to.
Please know that absolutely nothing justifies genocide. And I’m sure if you get quiet, take a deep breath and look into your heart, you’ll know that truth for yourself too.
If you too have seen the images and the videos straight out of Gaza, then you will have seen what I have seen. The things that have broken me, traumatised me and awoken me in ways I can’t even explain. And I’m watching in the safety and comfort of my safe home, through the safety and protection of my mobile phone screen, with the option to look away whenever I want to. Now imagine, just for a second, what it’s like to be them.
No escape. Destruction upon destruction, death upon death.
Shaking, traumatised little children calling for their mama. But Mama’s dead. Children with brains falling out of their heads, children with no limbs, children trapped beneath the rubble, children with no family left.
Fathers calling out for their kids, fathers scooping up the flesh of their children into plastic carrier bags, fathers who are starving and dehydrated and traumatised and exhausted beyond sheer exhaustion, but keep digging, keep digging, keep digging lest they find someone miraculously still alive.
I’ve seen the mothers numb with grief. The mothers grasping hold of their children wrapped in white shrouds, splattered with red. The mothers whispering final lullabies rocking their babies to sleep for the very last time. I’ve seen the mothers running through hospitals recognising the hair on a deceased human's head. The deceased human being the murdered child of her own womb.
I’ve seen the mothers screaming out in pain that their babies died hungry. Their babies died hungry. Their babies died hungry.
I’ve seen the journalists, practically children themselves who have had to step up as adults, as heroes, to convince the world that what’s happening to their people is not okay. Image after image, video after video, documenting the genocide of their own people.
I’ve seen the doctors and the nurses and the midwives performing their duties on hospital floors; surgeries by iPhone light, no anaesthesia, no clean water, just immense human love, determination and incredulous faith.
I’ve seen the Nakba of 2023 - indigenous people being tortured and forced from their homes. I’ve seen starving mothers who have just given birth being made to walk miles upon miles with their newborns strapped to them - and those babies have not even breastfed yet.
I’ve seen grandmothers being forced to leave their homeland in wheelchairs, knowing they will never be allowed in again. I’ve seen babies dying on the way, I’ve seen mothers dragging baby seats, I’ve seen a woman who just had her legs amputated being forced to flee.
Nothing justifies any of this. Nothing.
In Gaza, I have seen humanity at its absolute worst — through the actions of inhumane governments and merciless people. Their inhumanity, their evil, their victimhood. It sickens me to my core.
In Gaza, I have seen humanity at its absolute best — through the Palestinians. Their faith, their strength, their kindness, their humility, their love. It fills my heart with hope.
Because through all this, not once have I heard a Palestinian person curse the oppressors doing this to them. All I have heard is them calling upon God.
Praising God. Trusting in God. Thanking God.
That’s the thing about people with faith who know that death is not the end… they can never be destroyed.
You might take their lives, but you can never take their souls. You might take their lives, their homes, their land, but you can never never never take away their unshakeable faith.
As a human race, we have so much to learn from the Palestinians. And today, I thank them and pray for them with all of my strength and my entire heart. I hope you will join me in doing so.
And on a final note, have you ever thought that although so many of us are calling to Free Palestine… it is Palestine that is actually freeing us.
It’s shaking us, awakening us and guiding us to see through the illusions of this world. I have so much more to say on this, which I will share soon.
I just pray that those who are now awake, don’t go back to sleep again.
For the sake of humanity, I pray that we don’t go back to sleep.
Sending Light, Love and Peace,
Sabah x
📚What I’m reading: I recently read ‘In My Mother’s Footsteps: A Palestinian Refugee Returns Home’ by Mona Hajjar Halaby. It tells her, her mother’s and her family’s story as Christian Palestinian refugees. The pain, the heartbreak, the injustice, the sadness, the rage. But also the beauty, strength and resilience of the Palestinian people and their spirit.
I learnt so much from reading this. I sobbed and smiled, I cried and laughed. My heart and soul were touched so very deeply and I have fallen even more in love with the Palestinian people, all that they stand for and all that they are.
I would urge you all to read this book, especially if you want to understand all that is happening right now and the history behind it. It’s so beautifully written, so poignant, so powerful, so stunning.
🎧What I’m listening to: The Let’s Talk Palestine Podcast
🎶Song of the Week: ‘Hope’ by Emeli Sande. This song is from her album that I had on repeat the year it came out. I heard this song after so long a couple of weeks ago and every time I listen to it, my heart weeps for this world but opens to possibility and hope.
💭Quote I’m contemplating: “Planet Earth, where we live, is illuminated by only one sun and belongs to the whole of humanity. Pollution in developed countries is affecting the whole planet, poverty in Africa and in the third world countries is a global problem and war in the Middle East is destabilizing countries, which are quite far from this part of the world. No single nation can ever pull the whole blanket on its side without provoking a planetary disorder. No nation can claim to rule the world from the basis of the gross national product, economic and technological progress, especially if this nation is controlled by a group of individuals whose only desire is to increase their capital and their profit. The spiritual dimension must be taken into account at all levels of economic and political management and in conflict resolution.
This is why I am making an appeal to all believers to unite, beyond geographical boundaries, to meet regularly for the purpose of dialoguing so that we learn to know, to respect and to love one another.” ~ Sheikh Abdoulaye Dieye, Third Leader of the International Sufi School, in a talk delivered in California, 2002.
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Sabah, you see the strength and hope of the Palestinian people, and that, in and of itself, is heartening, when so many of us cannot get past the despair. But hope is what’s most needed in the world right now, and how ironic that it should be the Palestinians who are giving it to us. May God grant them ease and gentleness throughout all the severity.🙏🏼 Also, I love watching you create such gorgeous works of art while you talk. You share your hope by sharing not only your beautiful creations, but also the beauty within you.❤️