Four Poems for Palestine

On October 7th, 2023, I watched the escalating violence in Gaza play out in real time. As a Jewish woman, I understood that speaking out against Israel's actions would invite efforts to delegitimize my Jewish identity and political convictions. Yet I felt an urgent desire and duty to speak out and bear witness. In the days that followed, I found my courage and voice. My public facing creative presence became increasingly devoted to documenting, grieving, and responding to the genocide in Gaza. Over the last three years, I have written and shared many poems about the genocide–poems full of rage, reverence, heartbreak, love, and hope. My positionality as a Jewish woman informs both my political commitments and my understanding of solidarity. Rather than viewing Jewish identity and Palestinian liberation as incompatible, I understand opposition to genocide, settler colonialism, and collective punishment as ethical imperatives grounded in shared humanity. Witnessing the bravery and steadfastness of Palestinians in Gaza taught me an understanding of hope that moves from aspiration into a practice of resistance. The poems in this collection were written during the first two years of the ongoing genocide in Gaza. They seek to bear witness to violence while resisting erasure and affirming Palestinian humanity, memory, and survival. Seen through a feminist and anti-colonial lens, the poems confront violence, mourn profound loss, and insist on the possibility of collective liberation. Together, I offer these poems as witness, protest, and love letter to Palestinian dignity and freedom.