What can I do to help Palestine?

My heart has shattered a million times for the people of Palestine, seeing the extent and brutality of the suffering they have endured for the past 600+ days of this current genocide. 

My eyes were opened to their situation when I traveled to the region back in 2014. I want to share what I’ve learned about the horrors in Palestine, and how you can help them.

1. Amplifying Palestinian voices

What better way to find out what’s going on than by listening to and seeing what the brave palestinian journalists and other content makers are doing on the ground…. We must AMPLIFY their voices…. This is vital. 

Follow these Palestinians to learn what’s really happening on the ground in Gaza and the West Bank which is also being attacked:

  • @wizard_bisan1

  • @hindkhoudary

  • @lama_jamous9

  • @hossam_shbat

  • @mariambarghouti

There were so many more but journalists are being targeted and many have been intentionally killed by Israel in order to hide what is happening on the ground. 

These are other Palestinans to follow who were able to evacuate and stull post current updates:

  • @motaz_azaiza

  • @princekouta

And these are links to Instagram accounts that also keep the world updated on what is happening on a daily basis:

  • @landpalestine

  • @khaledbeydoun

  • @hiddenpalestine

2. Why I care about Palestine

I first began to understand the issues in Palestine when I travelled on my Shifting Sands project in 2014. We drove across North Africa and the Near East for six months and spent two weeks in each country.

When we got to what is now called Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, it was absolutely shocking to see the disparity in the quality of life between Israelis and Palestinians. There is so much money and affluence, and most importantly - freedom - in Israel compared to Palestine. 

We didn't go to Gaza, but we did go to the West Bank, which is separated from Israel by a huge barrier and massive military checkpoints. As westerners with the right passports, it was easy for us to get through, but it was still incredibly overwhelming and intimidating to be in a militarized zone. It made it crystal clear that this is an apartheid state - there's absolutely no fairness or equality.

There are completely different rules and laws for Palestinians as there are for Israelis. Every part of their life is controlled. Palestinians can't walk down some streets because they’re only for Jewish people. Some children have to get up at 3 or 4 in the morning to get to school because they have to walk around the massive blockades around their village (they’d be denied passage through them). They can't even leave their own country, as they have no airport or passports - all infrastructure is controlled by Israel, including water.

3. A brief history up to the current genocide in Palestine

This is not the first genocide in Palestine. The 1948 Nakba (meaning catastrophe in Arabic) was the first mass displacement and slaughtering of Palestinians. I could write a long list of dates and events, but will you actually look at it? 

Here is a link to a video that explains the timeline with visually impactful content to describe the suffering of the palestinian people in a much more thought provoking way than I could do myself: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzOQ-vhF7Hg 

Having become a mother, and seeing how many thousands and thousands and thousands of children are being targeted, literally by snipers - and shot in the face!! I feel sick to my soul. Children are having their limbs blown off and amputated. Gaza has the most child amputees in the world - the most in modern human history… Let that sink in.

Map of the borders of Israel and Palestine

https://blog.richmond.edu/livesofmaps/2023/12/18/map-of-the-week-unraveling-the-borders-of-israel-and-palestine-through-time/

4. How I support Palestinians

I regularly donate E-sims to a volunteer set up called Connecting Humanity.  It was founded by Mina El-Hawabi, an Egyptian activist and writer. She helps Palestinians get eSims for their phones, since Israel has almost entirely cut down their internet services. Her work has been vital in assisting journalists on the ground spread news and show footage of the everyday reality in Gaza. 

ESims also help families stay in touch with each other. It's been essential in identifying loved ones buried under rubble so rescuers know where to dig. The entire infrastructure of Gaza has been destroyed and there's no other way for people to communicate in the upheaval created by the displacement of 90% of the population. They also need e-sims to be able to continue internet banking so that peoples donations can get to them. 

The other organization I've recently joined is called In Solidarity. It’s a group of people based in Edinburgh who are directly in contact with families in Gaza. We help raise funds for extended families of sometimes 20, 30 people. It's a way to get money directly to those who need it because they have lost their livelihoods and are not able to buy food. Even when food is available, the prices are extortionate.

I have also joined a group called @Mothersagainstgenocidescotland who are setting up all sorts of incredible initiatives inScotland from direct action to protests and even hunger strikes. If you identify as a mother, come and join!

5. What you can do to help Palestine

Donating directly to Palestinians is really important - not the NGO’s that syphon the money off to their employees. The other thing you can do is be a voice on the ground. Talk to family and friends about Palestine! Make sure it's a topic that people are aware of, so that they’re writing to MPs, going to marches and protests, and being visible in their dissent. 

Boycotting is a big one too. Boycott, Divest, Sanction. The system enabling this genocide is an imperial capitalist machine and the only currency it recognises is money, so as individuals we need to use our purchase power. This proved to be instrumental in the dismantling of apartheid South Africa. 

There are several boycott apps you can download to help you navigate this and here is the boycott website to learn more… https://www.bdsmovement.net/Guide-to-BDS-Boycott

https://www.bdsmovement.net/Guide-to-BDS-Boycott

Watching the news and seeing how our governments are doing nothing is so dispiriting, but it’s a huge comfort to get together with other people who really, really care about this. I love being surrounded by people who are actively making change in whatever way they can. Not everyone can do everything, but it's about finding a way that you can get involved based on your circumstances. 

I don’t necessarily need to be doing direct action in front of a weapons plant, for example, especially as a single mom, although I have been told there are safe ways to get involved by being there on the other side of the road with other parents and children - supporting but not in the direct line of fire. There’s also so much you can do from home. There's things I can do on the internet after bedtime. The Palestinians I follow do need donations directly to help them live through the current emergency. 

But they say the most important thing we can do is pressure our governments to make this change, to stop funding Israel or turning a blind eye to their war crimes. We need to start protesting, embrace radicalised action, and not be the liberals who just sit back and let fascism take over.

6. Activism enriches my approach to art

My passion for Palestine has made me realize that I need my artwork to be part of what's going on in the world. I’ve contributed graphic artwork to some Palestinian initiatives, but on a less literal level, I think being an artist is about highlighting what's going on in society. By offering criticism and demonstrating a clear point of view, artists have the power to make topics more apparent and visible to other people. 

I therefore want my artworks not just to be beautiful to look at, which I hope they are, but also to be infused with deeper meanings that move people to action - whether for Palestine’s sake, in response to our environmental situation, or toward a more meaningful connection with nature. Everything is interlinked, we are part of the ecosystem. I want my work as an artist to be part of the positive change that moves us into the brighter future that is birthing now.

7. Where can you find information to balance out the bias in the Western mainstream media?

To follow ongoing developments, and avoid the misinformation prevalent in Western media, I recommend:

PODCASTS:

Podcast: Colonial Outcasts By ex American army vet turned activist: https://www.instagram.com/greg.j.stoker/

The tea with Myriam Francois https://www.patreon.com/TheTeawithMyriamFrancois

https://www.instagram.com/thetea_with_myriamfrancois/

https://www.myriamfrancois.com/

A sample interview with Myriam https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsJCyeUzMzI&list=PLvkeLhFjIGcnbRRRCOeTNOooHs4Lwx8LU&index=1

UPLIFTING:

For uplifting information/ learning on Palestine: 

FILMS & DOCUMENTARIES:

ACTIVISTS: 

@gazafreedomflotilla and https://freedomflotilla.org/

Speak up for Rima Hassan who is a French National and EU parliamentary member and being illegally detained by Israel when it kidnapped the crew of the Madleen in INternational waters.(June 2025)  @rimamobarak 

8. What can you do?

We need to activate, and build community. 

It is intentional that we have been made to feel powerless and unable to stop this live streamed genocide. Ask yourself why governments are cracking down on peaceful protests? It’s because they work, they ARE working!  Governments and regimes are scared of us because as a collective we can stop these atrocities happening.  In order to do this we must activate, rebuild the connections and community we have lost in our society. We will not be able to rise up if we are all sat alone in our homes feeling disconnected because we are so overwhelmed and tired from the daily grind. So Join a local movement, see what you can do…. 

Remember we don’t all have to do everything. Find your strength. Is it protesting? Is it activist artwork? Is it raising funds? Is it direct action? Is it putting pressure on your MP’s, is it organising events that amplify the Palestinian voice? Is it educating friends and family? 

As white people we need to first acknowledge and accept our privilege and then secondly we need to action that privilege to work towards dismantling the systems of oppression that our ancestors were part of building. 

Don’t feel alone - join a local movement… 

  • @palsetinesolidarityuk

  • @mothersagainstgenocide

  • @mothersagainstgenocidescotland

  • @zfleith

  • @sumudedinburgh

  • @artworkersforpalestine

  • @pal_action_scot

  • @palestinesolidarityuk

  • @palestineyouthmovement

  • @sgpalestinesolidarity

  • @irishinlondon4palestine

  • @jewsforpalestineireland

  • @pal_action

9. A Poem

And to end, I leave you with a poem by Hanan Mikha’il Ashrawi — From the Diary of an Almost-Four-Year-Old:

Tomorrow, the bandages

will come off. I wonder

will I see half an orange,

half an apple, half my

mother’s face

with my one remaining eye?

 

I did not see the bullet

but felt its pain

exploding in my head.

His image did not

vanish, the soldier

with a big gun, unsteady

hands, and look in

his eyes

I could not understand

 

I can see him so clearly

with my eyes closed,

it could be that inside our heads

we each have one spare set

of eyes

to make up for the ones we lose

 

Next month, on my birthday,

I’ll have a brand new glass eye,

maybe things will look round

and fat in the middle—

I’ve gazed through all my marbles,

they made the world look strange.

 

I hear a nine-month old

has also lost an eye,

I wonder if my soldier

shot her too—a soldier

looking for little girls who

look him in the eye—

I’m old enough , almost four,

I’ve seen enough of life,

but she’s just a baby

who didn’t know any better.


Free Palestine and all oppressed people worldwide

anne-Laure Carruth