Working Class Love Notes #12: Appalachians for Palestine

Notes and resources on solidarity, grief, and action

A group of us wrote and shared this statement in October 2023. You can see it on my Instagram account here. Please feel free to screenshot and share to your own accounts.

Dear friends,

Nothing feels as urgent as a Free Palestine so that’s what I’m sharing about today. I hope this is an offering of solidarity, a reminder of our commitment to end the genocide, and a loving push to reach out to community because none of us can do anything alone.

On Sundays a handful of us friends in Appalachia get on zoom to co-write for ninety minutes — The Scrappalachia Write Club — but today we got on early so we could take some time to be together in our grief and rage. We lit a candle, read some Palestinian poetry, compiled a quick list of ways to take action, and talked about how we are feeling, trying to lift a bit of the isolation, to stave off the feelings of futility and despair, so we can keep fighting and hold onto our humanity.

Like many have said so beautifully already, the amount of ways we have to separate ourselves from our souls, from our grief, from each other, just to live in this world day-to-day is hard to put into words. We watch Palestinians be massacred and starved to death on our phones and then are expected to go to work, pay bills, and keep up business as usual. We have hungry people here in our country, too, but for many of us reading this right now, we have more than enough to eat. We have food in the fridge, meet friends for dinner, and grow our own vegetables and it feels obscene, but we can’t fall into shame and despair. We can feel it all AND keep up the pressure, keep fighting, and not let them steal our humanity.

If you are grappling with all of this too, here’s a prayer shared in our circle this morning from my friend

Jodi Rhoden

: May every bit of joy and every bit of nourishment we experience be turned into fuel to fight for a Free Palestine.

Below I have included the statement Appalachians for Palestine, a statement a group of us wrote at the beginning of the genocide, October 21st 2023, that many of us in the region posted on social media. If you haven’t yet, please post the images to your own account. For those of us who already posted it, it’s a great time to reshare it. I’m proud that people in my region came out early, loud and clear, to show our solidarity. May this statement remind all of us why we have a shared stake in a Free Palestine.

I have also included a link to some poetry we read together this morning, including a new book of Palestinian poetry from Haymarket Books Heaven Looks Like Us, plus some action steps we can take.

With love and solidarity,

Beth

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Appalachians for Palestine

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Poetry:

• Book: Heaven Looks Like Us: Palestinian Poetry edited by George Abraham and Noor Hindi from Haymarket Books

• Requiem for Memory of a Mediterranean Moon by Samer Budair (could not find it online, but it’s in the book Heaven Looks Like Us: Palestinian Poetry )

• The Eternity of the Cactus by Mahmoud Darwish (also in Heaven Looks Like Us)

• Mimesis by Fady Joudah

• Diane DiPrima Revolutionary Love Letter #74 (Not a Palestinian poet, but still a revolutionary poet with inspiration for these times)

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Action:

• Power Half Hour for Gaza with Jewish Voice for Peace

• Donate: Many Lands Mutual Aid, The Sameer Project, Water for Gaza

• For Writers: Flood the Newsrooms with Writers Against the War On Gaza

Our Scrappalachia Free Palestine ritual space this morning. Wherever you are, imagine we are with you in solidarity, grief, and rage.