Statement on Palestine
the RAWI Board of Directors
The Radius of Arab American Writers stands in solidarity with Palestinians in occupied Jerusalem, Gaza, and all of historic Palestine resisting settler-colonial violence. We mourn the Palestinian lives already lost, both this past week and since 1948. We urge those in the diaspora to join us in amplifying the voices of Palestinians back home. We call on other literary organizations to affirm their commitment to Palestine and Palestinian voices by meeting the demands of those on the ground.
Those in the US, we encourage you to contact your representatives to fight for an end to US military aid that fuels this violence.
Spend time with the work of those located in Palestine. Here are a few places to help you get started.
Palestine Twenty Times in a Sentence, poems by Maya Abu-Alhayyat trans. Fady Joudah
Rifqa by Mohammed El-Kurd
Najwan Darwish’s books
Blade of Grass ed. Naomi Foyle
Threads by community members:
Zeina Hashem Beck, works by Palestinians
N.A Mansour, Palestinian journalists, academics, & organizers
For those who are seeking to understand or hoping to lend tangential support, we recommend the following resources:
100 Years War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi
Except for Palestine by Marc Lamont Hill and Mitchell Plitnik
Justice for Some by Noura Erakat
Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement by Angela Davis
