An abundance of care, love and healing in a time of grief

November, 2023

As the leaves start falling and winter approaches, these past few weeks has brought so much grief that it feels hard to hold it all. I grieve the seasonal change, i grieve several family members who recently passed away, i grieve the dead of Israel, i grieve the dead of Palestine, i grieve for those who have been killed in so many other ongoing conflicts around the world.

As a Jew living on Turtle Island and working with Justice for Migrant Families, I have been prompted to reflect on the parallels between our work and violence in Israel and Palestine and to carefully consider when i choose to take a personal stand.

I stand for the safety of all people. The safety of one group is never threatened by the safety of a different group. I want to focus especially on the safety of those whose safety has been consistently under threat and attack including Jews, Palestinians, and all people who migrate.

I stand against incarceration. Two million+ Palestinians in Gaza are locked in an open-air prison with razor wire fences and armed guards, dependent on Israel for drinking water which has recently been cut off. In Batavia, armed ICE guards keep migrants surrounded by razor wire and control their food, water, and healthcare.

I stand against using my people’s trauma to justify white supremacist violence. Israel – vigorously supported by the United States – is leveraging the fear, trauma, and islamophobia following the Hamas attack to justify genocide against Palestinians, which reminds me of how the US itself used the fear, trauma, and islamophobia following 9/11 to justify creating ICE, ICE raids, and the mass incarceration of primarily Black and brown migrants, including Palestinians and Muslims.

I stand against colonialism and in solidarity with Indigenous peoples. Just as Israeli leadership quotes the bible to justify its colonial ethnostate, the US has cited and continues to reference Manifest Destiny and the Doctrine of Discovery to justify ongoing colonialism here.

I stand for the right of Jewish, Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim people to live in safety.

As the news coverage of Israel’s land invasion of Gaza is emerging and the Palestinian death toll is rising, in my community (Gayogohono land / Ithaca, NY), both Jews and Muslims have been the targets of threats of violence and death. This is a powerful reminder that anti- Jewishness and Islamophobia are both products of white supremacy that are waiting to emerge.

At this moment in history where people’s right to move is being intensely restricted – by border walls, by militarized police, by drones, by facial recognition software – we stand in solidarity with folks exercising their right to migrate with dignity.

Despite these affirmations, my most salient feeling is grief. I feel sad. Sad that so many have been killed. Sad that so many people i know justify violence. Sad that the idea of a cease-fire isn’t perceived as common sense. Sad that the Holocaust – a white supremacist genocide against Jews and others – is being used to justify an ongoing white supremacist genocide against Palestinians. Sad that during the second World War the US placed an immigration ban on Jews. Sad that in 2017 the US placed an immigration ban on Muslims. Sad that so many Palestinians, seeking refuge and safety from Israeli colonialism, end up incarcerated in ICE prisons.

In this moment of grief, escalation of violence, and the lengthening of the night, I wish you an abundance of love, patience, healing, and care.

-aaron krupp