TAKE ACTION IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE PEOPLE OF PALESTINE

There is no justification for 2 years of genocide and
76 years of invasion and occupation of indigenous land.

Standing for Palestine is standing for humanity.

  • A guide for 8 ways to take action in this moment. This guide includes links and the length of time each item may take where applicable.

  • Tips and resources on sharing information, mental health, protesting and finding your place in the movement

  • Learn about the how this affects women, girls and gender expansive people

  • Discover feminist voices and organizations, suggested reading and more information on frequently asked questions.

How to use our toolkit:

This toolkit is for those seeking to take action and better understand the compounding crises indigenous people face. Please use this resource to start conversations and inspire action.

Immediate action:
Contact your representatives

Contact your representatives by selecting your region below

US → Call 202 224 3121 or Email here

UK → Email your MP here
Canada → Email your MP here

1️⃣ Demand a permanent ceasefire and end to the settler-colonial project. Stop all loss of life. STOP FUNDING THE OCCUPATION.

2️⃣ The immediate release of Palestinian prisoners illegally held hostage by the Israeli government.

3️⃣ End the blockade.
Restore electricity and water.
Grant unrestricted access to humanitarian aid in Gaza.

4️⃣ The human rights to safety, bodily autonomy, and Palestinian sovereignty.

Demand:

Take Action

1. Educate yourself and others; LISTEN TO PALESTINIANS, learn from history, read, watch documentaries and have empathetic conversations with your community. Commit 1-2 hours a week

2. Understand the difference between anti-zionism and antisemitism

3. Join a protest, rally, march or vigil near you.

4. Sign a petition.  45 seconds
Sign here to stop all loss of life

5. Contact your representatives: 1min Demand a permanent ceasefire and unrestricted humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Visit this toolkit

US: Call 202 224 3121 or Email here
UK: Email your MP here
Canda: Email your MP here

6. Demand an end to military occupation in the West Bank and Gaza. Learn more here and discover how occupation impacts Palestinian children’s education here.

7. Donate to aid organizations supporting women and girls in the region:

Emergency Aid for Gaza Children
Alliance for Middle East Peace
Medical Aid for Palestinians
The Middle East Children’s Alliance
Palestine Children’s Relief Fund
Gaza Mutual Aid Collective

9. Check in on your friends who may be affected

Tips for:
Information sharing, mental health, protesting and finding your role in this movement

    1. Check if the information is verified.

    2. Read a variety of news sources: people on the ground, alternative news sources, and local news.

    3. Look for bias. Take the time to learn more about the organizations' motives and sources for funding; it's okay to be skeptical of the news and government information.

    4. News is typically driven by capitalism and is rarely unbiased. Listen to those directly impacted.

    5. Pause before you post. Ask yourself if your comment is helpful or harmful to your community.

    6. Be open to editing your resources and correcting misinformation you may have shared.

    7. Be cautious of breaking news, journalism takes time to uncover the truth. It can take weeks, months and years before the facts are made available to journalists and media.

    8. Keep listening and learning.

  • Disaster Distress Hotline
    On regulating your nervous system
    Free counseling for palestinians

    On regulating your nervous system

    Resources if your mental health is affected

    Gurls Talk: Guide to Protecting Mental Health in the News Cycle

    Gurls Talk: Guide for Dealing with Hopelessness

    How to Cope with Traumatic Events by the Mental Health Coalition

    For crisis support and more visit the FEMINIST Mental Health Toolkit

    If you feel overwhelmed and need to talk to someone urgently, reach out to @crisistextline by texting COALITION to 741-741.

    Tamar specializes in providing emotional support to the Arab community in response to emergencies and trauma. If you or someone you know is in need of this support contact here.

    5 Reasons why empathy is an important life skilly by Solutions Not Sides

  • Know your protest rights: (From the ACLU)

    1. You don’t need a permit to protest in response to breaking news and you don’t need a permit to march in the streets or along sidewalks, as long as you’re not obstructing traffic or access to buildings

    2. When you are lawfully present in any public space, you have the right to photograph anything in plain view, including federal buildings and the police.

    3. If you believe your rights have been violated, when you can, write down everything you remember, get contact information for witnesses, and take photographs of injuries.

    4. If you get stopped by the police, ask if you’re free to go. If they say yes, calmly walk away.

    5. If you get arrested, you have a right to ask why. Otherwise, say you wish to remain silent and ask for a lawyer immediately. Don’t sign, say or agree to anything without a lawyer present.


    Learn more here

  • → Discover your social change role by @deepaviyer

    Audre Lorde Questionnaire:

    1. What are the words you do not have yet? [Or, “for what do you not have words, yet?”]

    2. What do you need to say? [List as many things as necessary]

    3. What are the tyrannies you swallow day by day and attempt to make your own, until you will sicken and die of them, still in silence? [List as many as necessary today. Then write a new list tomorrow. And the day after. ]

    4. If we have been socialized to respect fear more than our own need for language, ask yourself: “What’s the worst that could happen to me if I tell this truth?” [So, answer this today. And everyday.]

  • Denounce the patriarchy and white supremacy that continues to uphold systems of oppression.

    Recognize our liberation is interconnected, “none of us are free until all of us are free.”

    Listen and learn from each other, we are a global collective of many experiences and voices, when we learn from each other we are stronger.

    Continue to advocate and fight for the liberation of all people and living beings.

    Identify the particular ways women, girls, and gender expansive people are particularly affected by war.

    Speak out against the gender-based violence interconnected with war.

    Discuss the intersectionality of the current crisis and genocide.

    Educate each other on why colonialism, indigenous rights, land sovereignty and climate justice relate to this issue.

Together, we are witnessing a patriarchal system exacerbating injustice and violence. To all those affected by the loss of life, we see you and hold space for you, you are not alone. We can grieve together and continue to dismantle all systems of oppression that perpetuate violence to reach our collective liberation.

This genocide is heightened by years of long-fought struggles for peace and liberation. It follows decades of political failure that leave many deeply oppressed and unsafe.

We encourage you to learn more about the historical context of the current situation while also holding space for those affected and grieving the loss of life.

Gender is a significant determining factor in how violence manifests. Women, girls and gender expansive people are disproportionately affected by war, with severe impacts on their health, safety, and human rights.

Sexual and gender based violence is a weapon of war to systematically terrorize and demoralize communities, asserting power and control over individuals through heinous acts that inflict lasting physical and psychological scars, fostering a climate of fear and instability.

In Gaza, the compound effect of the Israeli occupation has led to an increased risk of gender-based violence for women and girls. Elderly women, especially those with disabilities, face the highest levels of negligence and violence. Repeated exposure to military escalations also leaves trauma in its wake, with a 2021 study showing 70% of Gazans demonstrating symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (UN 2021).

The Israeli genocide on Gaza has undermined living conditions for Palestinian women and girls by restricting access to essential care services. Due to the lack of menstrual care products available, some women have resorted to taking contraceptives to halt their menstrual cycles temporarily, despite potential long-term health implications (WHO). Access to medical personnel, supplies, reproductive health, and family planning services has been restricted by Israel, leading to higher rates of maternal mortality in the region. An estimated over 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza cannot access essential health services, due to overwhelmed hospitals and movement restrictions (UN Population Fund).

Women are also faced with social, economic, and legal challenges while living under war and occupation, taking on the burden of caring for those who are injured and disabled while providing psychosocial and emotional support for their families. In response, young women across Palestine have been mobilizing to advocate for their rights under the occupation. However, the dangers of participating in activism are still high: women activists may face violence and harassment for speaking out, both online and in person. In the West Bank, Ahed Tamimi, a prominent Palestinian activist, was arrested for her vocal advocacy and resistance to the occupation, prompting concern from international human rights groups. Despite Palestinian women playing an active role in resisting Israeli occupation, women are still underrepresented in key decision-making processes (United Nations).

For Gaza’s LGBTQ+ citizens, the escalating violence poses a heightened risk to their already-endangered community.

Additionally, children bear the heaviest burden during war and conflict, enduring profound physical and psychological consequences that can shape the trajectory of their entire lives. Since the bombardment on Gaza on Oct. 8th, over 5,500 children have been killed while over 9,000 have life altering injuries.Targeting children in war is a blatant violation of human rights, as it infringes upon their inherent right to life, security, and protection from violence, emphasizing the universal principle that every child deserves a safe and nurturing environment free from the horrors of armed conflict.

Women, girls and gender expansive people deserve to live a life free from violence. As a society, we must work together to end gender based violence and demand the human right to bodily autonomy and safety for all.

Statistics of women and children affected in Gaza:

  • 5,500 children have been killed in Gaza since October 8th. approximately 1,800 are still missing from the rubble. While over 9,000 have life altering injuries.

  • 3,900 women have been killed in the Gaza Strip

  • 788,800 women and girls have been displaced from their homes in Gaza.

  • 2,056 women have become widows, and new heads of households, following their male partner’s death

  • 50,000 women in Gaza are pregnant, with 5,522 expected to deliver in December

  • Women are being forced to have C sections without anesthesia

  • Premature babies are at a serious risk of losing their lives without electricity for their incubators, some have already died

  • 10 women are giving birth each day without clean water or electricity in Gaza

  • 50,000 new mothers in Gaza unable to breastfeed with ease due to dehydration and lack of drinking water

    And, these numbers continue to rise as the genocide continues.

    (Sources: UN Women, Care International, NPR, ActionAid International)

Additional sources on the state of women and girls in crisis: 

Feminist voices and organizations:

Whispered in Gaza

Interviews with Gazans from all walks of life, using video animation in lieu of the speakers’ visages to protect their identities.

Standing Together

Grassroots Jewish-Arab movement for peace

“Vivian Silver knew no good could ever come of war”

Learn Her Story—The veteran Canadian-Israeli peace activist has been confirmed killed on October 7th, aged 74. She built up a movement of Israeli and Palestinian women who would work together, and would also keep in the public eye by marching and appealing (including every Monday outside the Knesset), for negotiated agreement rather than war.

“Palestinian Feminist Collective Instagram Live Discussion”

A live converdation with Palestinian Feminist Collective members Rasha Mubarak, Yazan and Leila

More to Her Story Podcast:
Diary of a Gazan Girl

Listen here—24-year-old Shereen Sabbah from Gaza shares audio diaries for More to Her Story.

Conversation with Noor and Gazan Girl

Together, they examine the media relationship between Israel and Palestine - Listen here

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib statement

Read here—After being silenced by US Congress as the only Palestinian in Congress, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib speaks truth to power. Read about how this impacted Palestinian Americans here.

The Act of Existing

Feminism in Palestinian art. View Here

Four voices in Palestinian liberation to know

This series to highlights exceptional women who made herstory in the fight for liberation and justice. View Here

Joy Ann Reid on MSNBC on a world divided

Joy Ann Reid, American television host, reflects on US war history and why the US must call for a ceasefire in Israel and Palestine - Watch here

Michelle Alexander on Palestine

Civil rights lawyer and advocate, a legal scholar, and the author, Michelle Alexander discusses why our liberation depends upon us breaking our silences.

Women Wage Peace and Women of the Sun, mothers and peace activists

Learn about the work of Israeli and Palestinian mothers and activists actively seeking diplomatic peaceful solutions. Read the Action Plan Here

Learn more

This situation is continuing to evolve, as does our understanding.
We don’t have all of the answers, but we hope that this toolkit will be a starting point, not the end point, of your learning. You can submit additional resources here.

Additional resources:

Books, Documentaries, and more:

Thank you to our community and partners who have contributed to this toolkit. We want to amplify resources informed by our community. If you know of resources we should be sharing, please submit them here.

Disclaimer:

The following toolkit is meant to serve as a guide and resource sourced by a collective of individuals for FEMINIST. Please note, the following toolkit does not guarantee real-time accuracy and disclaims legal responsibility for any inaccuracies.