genuine question — how is donating money going to help Palestinians if no food is going in? What is the money for?
Medicine, water, supplies, food, fuel (much of it black market being upsold at egregious prices) — these all cost money and pretty much all Palestinians in Gaza have no source of income now. It’s drops in the bucket compared to ending the siege and occupation but it’s one way to do at least something small to help. Others are in need of money to evacuate when the border opens again (which hopefully is asap…), tuition and supplies for school to continue studies despite it all. Another fund is focused on trying to rebuild farmlands in Gaza to get food again that way.
I can’t tell anyone what to do with their money but I don’t think this mindset of “well nothings going in so we can’t help” is helpful for people on the ground who are the ones saying that donations can and do help them survive.
if you're feeling powerless right now—and god knows I am—here's a reminder you can donate to the National Network of Abortion Funds, the Trans Law Center, Gaza Soup Kitchen, the Palestine Children's Relief Fund, and hundreds of other charities that will work to mitigate the damage that has been and will continue to be inflicted
life continues. we still have the capacity to do good, important work. that matters
answering a couple questions i got on this post since i realized ppl genuinely wanna know:
tl;dr:
israel lets very, very little aid get into gaza. even the UN can't get in as much as they want to. funding individual families, gazan led initiatives, and mutual aid collectives operating out of gaza ensures gazans can provide for themselves and pay for the extremely expensive aid that is available.
with all the civil infrastructure destroyed by israel, the situation on the ground has devolved into unrestricted capitalism, driving up the price of aid (that should be free!). this makes it more urgent for people to have funding for daily survival.
the post linked above has examples of how donating to individual families can help a lot. if you want to help more than one family at a time, there are many gazan-led initiatives focusing on rebuilding their infrastructure and distributing aid fairly that are worth donating to instead of large charities that already get the majority of donations.
as i mentioned in the last post: @/careforgaza on twitter is a nonprofit started by gazans, it's been endorsed by multiple palestinian journalists.
the sameer project is a collective organized by diaspora palestinians offering emergency shelter to gazans.
ele elna elak is a project aiming to bring water, food, shelter, etc. to gazans and has been promoted by bisan owda.
and the municipality of gaza itself is fundraising to rebuild water infrastructure.
all of these organizations are active inside gaza right now and are being run by gazans. if anyone knows of other gazan-led mutual aid projects, nonprofits or charities feel free to link them in the notes! hope this helped!
long answers under the cut!
if you wanna donate to a charity that's absolutely fine, but the thing is most charities (and even the UN!) are unable to make it into gaza in the first place, leaving aid rotting at the egyptian side of the border or subject to israeli settler attacks
not to mention, charities and nonprofits also maintain a paternalistic colonial relationship with the indigenous people they are trying to help, determining what aid they need for them instead of returning power to them and letting them make their own choices
i'm not here to say that one option is better than the other, just that they achieve different things and are equally legitimate. there's an attitude among people who question the legitimacy of these gofundme campaigns that somehow the people promoting them are telling them not to donate to charities. nobody is stopping you from donating to charities. we are just asking that you do not dehumanize the very real gazans in your inbox just because their method of asking for aid is more direct and risky.
unfortunately that's exactly what has happened. because israel destroyed all of gaza's more formalized infrastructure, it seems that organized crime and rampant inflation has taken its place. aid is supposed to be free, but in order to save for evacuation or the cost of living, people have started selling them at an inflated price. and aid that is truly free attracts intense, large crowds that are dangerous to navigate.
this was posted on abc a few days ago
it's pure, unrestrained capitalism. i've had multiple palestinians describe this situation to me confidence. that's why everything's so expensive now. why people have to rent out tiny plots of land for their tents to sit on, why my friend @siraj2024 still has to buy tarps to cover the broken windows of the overpriced bombed out apartment he rented, and why a bag of flour can cost a thousand bucks in the north.
even before israel closed and then bombed the rafah crossing, the egyptian hala travel agency was only allowing people to cross the border if they paid a hefty $5000 USD per adult / $2500 USD per child bribe. it denies doing this, but the hundreds of stories from palestinians say otherwise.
with regard to the economy, here in america we saw something similar happen in the wake of hurricane helene and milton. the podcaster margaret killjoy describes how she saw dual economies rise after asheville was fully cut off from the rest of the country - some people offered each other supplies for free in a sort of mutual aid honor system, and some people required payment when they lent supplies because they themselves needed to buy stuff for their families. these dual economies exist in gaza too. and this means they all still need money to survive.
plugging gaza soup kitchen for those with the means to donate! it's another gazan-led initiative currently providing food, water, classes for children, and medical care across the north and south. you can donate through their website or their gofundme, or follow them on instagram for news about their projects
its like. being butch and growing up gnc and coming into my own identity was such a war between what made me happy and what made society treat me better. like it always felt like a choice between being desirable and attractive or being happy.
and then femmes are like. i see you as you are and im attracted to you because of your gender identity not despite of it. the things that make you euphoric are the traits i seek out. i feel euphoric being who we are together.
cody pls give a crashcourse on flirting with butches in a way that makes them crazy plsssss
Honey, make eye contact. Soft, a little sweet, but attentive. Smile when you do, like you’re seeing something you’ve never seen before, something that you really like. When I ask you something, touch my arm when you answer. Lean in a little so I get a whiff of your perfume. When I’m talking, watch my lips. Be subtle, or not very subtle. Catch your lip between your teeth, like you’re thinking of doing that to mine. Tell me you like what I have on - my shirt, my gold chain, an earring, and touch it when you say it, just with a fingertip, I’ll feel it for the next ten days at minimum. Laugh, baby, you have such a sweet laugh. Talk, and listen, and ask me what my drink is. Ask if you can try it when you order it for me, tell me what you really think even if it’s not your thing. Think about how maybe you’ll get to taste it on my lips later, and how that could make anything your favorite taste in the world. Ask me to dance. Hook a finger in my belt loop. Tell me I make you a little nervous, a little dizzy. Let me offer to hold you steady. Keep eye contact, darlin, don’t look away from me, don’t look away.
I think one of the biggest misconceptions about femmes who let butches take care of them through acts of service, or, butch femme couples who with an OFOS dynamic is that we are lazy, greedy, spoilt, and god knows what else. That we just let butches suffer by making them carry heavy things, be “tough” be “the man” and not allow our counterpart to be soft, or interact with their girlhood and femininity. The immense amount of guilt I feel letting my butch carry two bags of heavy groceries while I only carry our coffee cups, is insane. The amount of guilt I feel for having every door opened for me, to be on the inside of every side walk is ridiculous, when these are such beautiful acts of love and care. From the outside, sure, we look like we do nothing for our butches. But what people don’t see is how my butch lights up when I give in (after reminding her that she will be no less strong, or masculine to me if she lets me carry a bag). And FINALLY hand her the heavy bag. The relief she describes to me after I’ve eaten the meal she’s made for me after a long day. People don’t see the disappointment and confusion when I open my own door. It’s a terrified “why won’t you let me love you? Why won’t you let me care for you?” People don’t see the excitement on her face when I turn around in the shower and she’s waiting for me with a bottle of shampoo. To her, simply grabbing her femme a coffee in the morning and knowing that’s one less thing her femme has to worry about, is care. I wish our dynamic wasn’t so misunderstood, but when a butch looks at you, desperate to show their love and care for you, how could you ever shut them down?
Thinking about how much I adore butches and not just in a horny way but a genuine appreciation for gender nonconforming behaviors and attitudes towards womanhood!! Like I see a butch being comfortable and confident in themselves and it's impossible not to be proud of them for finding solstice in butchness, yaknow? I feel like on tumblr there's a lot of v horny and sexual posts about butches that kinda fetishizes their expression with aggression and violence that doesn't take into account how diverse the butch experience is! So many butches are soft and gentle lovers BECAUSE they are butch, not in spite of it. I just really love butches and I wish that I could express it in a better way.
There was a good post about including disabled and chronically ill butches in your love for butches, and how some butches can't do labor-intensive, physical protection, and I wholeheartedly agree, but I think it's important to also realize protection isn't just physical. This idea that it is, is what made previous butch-love movements fall so flat, I feel.
Butch/femme was never about being a muscular guard-dog butch for a femme waif. It will never be, either. And the femme protects the butch just as much as the butch does the femme. By rejecting femininity and gender as is imposed unto women, you create the space for femmes to subvert gender, and vise versa. You protect each other from the pressure (and pain!) of conforming. It's emotional. It's spiritual. It's intimate. Sometimes sexual, sometimes not. Sometimes leaving a stone on land, sometimes watching it change with the flow of water. It's so much more than what I can describe with words.
Never just physical. Physical ability never makes a butch, nor does it define "protection." You can be a bouncer of a masc, but not a butch because of this.
I really wish butchhood wasn't conflated with being a protector so much, honestly.
I'm a very vulnerable butch. I'm chronically ill, invisibly physically disabled, and have a lot of mental health issues. My masculinity doesn't inherently make me more strong or powerful.
But there's a huge amount of butch culture built on butches being protective of femmes, or just being strong and working in very physically laborious jobs. It feels disheartening to be locked out of a major part of my culture, just because I'm disabled.
So here's to all the disabled butches who want, or are expected to, be strong because toxic masculinity has taught us the mascs are the protectors, but we can't be.
We're the ones who need people to slow down for us. We're the ones who need to sit down and catch our breath after walking a bit. We're the ones who need help. And that doesn't make us any less butch.
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