Published: 27 August 2024
Last updated: 6 September 2024
For the past 10 months, members of Israel’s Palestinian minority and Israeli Jews who are sympathetic to Palestinians have felt boxed into a corner by the far-right government and the majority over the war in Gaza.
Last week some found a way to help, joining the Jewish-Arab organisation Standing Together to collect food for Palestinians facing bombardment and hunger in Gaza.
Those taking part in the “Campaign to Halt Starvation in Gaza” seemed to be gaining as much relief as they were giving.
The act of loading the parcels on the trucks is simultaneously a way of helping those in need, protesting the war and non-violently boxing back at the far-right government, participants said in interviews as they lifted and taped cartons of tomato paste, sugar and vegetables for a waiting truck.
Comments3
Rachel Sussman27 August at 12:57 pm
While it is nice that Standing Together collects food for the people of Gaza ( who by the way receives daily relief) I do wonder if they also helped to pack food for the displaced Jewish Israelis and the victims of 7/10… I dont want to see the people of Gaza – or anyone – suffering…
I also know this war started by Gaza; I know that the hostages are still there and they do not receive ‘food parcels’ nor medication and I do not think Stand Together protests; I know that also ten of thousands of Israelis are misplaced and homeless and also lost loved ones; and I suspect that whilst only a handful of Jewish Israelis help Standing Together – and yes maybe more should just for the sake of humanity – not even a handful of members of Standing Together speaks for the hostages or the Israeli victims just for the sake of humanity…
Karen27 August at 08:59 am
Thank goodness for Standing Together and groups like them acting for coexistence. Interesting though that hundreds of Palestinian Israelis volunteered and only around “a dozen” Jewish Israelis.
Wesley Parish27 August at 07:20 am
It is these movements, these events, that give me hope. That there are people who refuse to swallow whatever the mainstream is trying to shove down their throats, that there are people who see people, rather than targets. Way back when, while Uri Avnery was still alive and writing, I sent him an email telling him that together, Gush Shalom and its Palestinian friends, were laying the foundation for a new reality that didn’t involve oppression and its corresponding reaction, resistance. That is what this Standing Together will do, if it is allowed to grow.