It’s October 2025 and that means it’s two years since the current escalation of Israeli violence, and my trip was years ago this past January.
I wish I were posting this update with better news, but unfortunately things have continued to escalate in Palestine. To get ready for this year, I re-read my past posts, in what are unfortunately becoming a series:
And these posts only touch on a fraction of the suffering going on in Gaza (and the West Bank). There are much more thorough news sources out there, but I do want to give myself some credit for labelling the conflict a genocide back in 2023 (60 days in to the attacks), and today only 22 US congresspeople and senators out of hundreds done the same. To be clear, many people before used the genocide label before me, I just want to point out the slow-moving state of US political establishment.
Escalation
Last year, Israel expanded its attacks to Lebanon (via pagers rigged with explosive). This year, Israel has expanded its attacks into at least four more countries: Syria, Tunisia, Yemen, and the often-neutral Qatar. Including attacks on Palestine and Lebanon, Israel attacked six countries in a 72-hour period in September. And earlier in June, Israel attacked Iran so that makes for (at least) seven foreign countries attacked in the span of a year. A number that high is usually reserved for “the bad guy” in a lot of world history (and the US will likely be reflected on as poorly in future history books).
US Involvement
Speaking of the US! US politics are, in a word, miserable right now. When writing last year’s post, the US presidential election was still undecided. Hopefully readers of this post get their news from other sources, but in case you did not know, Kamala Harris lost the election and Donald Trump won. Kamala Harris did not ever change her position on Israel, I couldn’t say if she lost it because of her position on Gaza, but I know that by refusing to change her position she definitely didn’t do herself any favors.
Early on his second term, Donald Trump posted AI-generated vision of a Trump resort in February which clearly align with a vision to continue the genocide of Palestinians and resell the land as something else. This week, Trump outlined a 20-point peace plan which, to its credit, includes a key point for Palestinian statehood. I can’t say whether or not it will be accepted, but I’m honestly impressed that something has been proposed from this administration that actually shows Palestinians as an independent people. If it does get accepted, it will be more than Joe Biden ever visibly did to end the conflict himself.
But to be clear, this second Trump term has been a nightmare domestically. This administration has detained and threatened to deport people like Mahmoud Khalil for speaking up for Palestinians on the Columbia University campus. One reason Trump’s peace proposal is suspect is that it’s not square with other actions of the administration (not that Trump has any coherent actions other than control and destruction). The current administration has stated it reviews social media of visa applicants and one of my friends asked to have their named left out of this post because of fears it would affect their own visa application.
Today ICE credibly behaves as a Gestapo, deporting and harassing US citizens as well as legal immigrants. Undocumented people in the US deserve more dignity than to be treated like the animals they have been depicted as in speeches by folks like Stephen Miller, and physically harassed by ICE agents all around the country.
I guess I would say, I hope that this peace plan does happen and quickly, but I’m not holding my breath.
This year I did want to highlight a few things I’ve attended in the spirit of supporting Palestinians and continuing to learn more about their culture and the active violence against them.
No Other Land
In March, I attended a screening of No Other Land, a documentary filed in the West Bank that won an Oscar a few weeks before. The film was controversial enough that it did not get any national distribution, but luckily the Roxie Theater here in SF did have many showings of it. The mayor of Miami Beach threatened a local theater for daring to show such a film.
The film itself was pretty raw and depressing. It shows a local Palestinian family who are threatened by Israeli settlers for living on their own Palestinian ancestral land. They have records dating back decades before Israel’s founding that the Israeli government doesn’t recognize as legitimate.
In any other movie, the timing would be comedic: as soon as the Palestinians finish building something simple that they need, like a home or a school for their children, a row of bulldozers shows up, engines revving, ready to demolish.
The movie itself makes it so clear how violent the Israeli government is, even in mundane settings not at war. I think that’s one of the reasons this movie was objected to by Israel and its allies, because if this is what’s happening in the West Bank, it’s obviously much worse in Gaza.
Flavors of the Levant
Also in March, I attended Flavors of the Levant, a live panel and cooking demo event at KQED, our local NPR affiliate. If you missed it, you can view KQED’s recording of the event.
The panel focused on the Levant, and had two different bay area restaurants represented, Beit Rima, which I’ve been to and love (note to self, I need to add it to my SF recs list), and Mazra which I still haven’t made it to yet, but will make it there soon.
One of the panelists was Palestinian but they all shared in being from the Levant, and they prided themselves and their culture as being distinct from generically “Mediterranean”. Beit Rima’s chef Samir Mogannam explained how important that he printed Arabic comfort food on his restaurant’s sign, even if Yelp still lists is Mediterranean anyways.
The event was a good reminder that Israeli cuisine borrows or steals from the Arab cultures to rebrand things as their own, somehow appearing out of nowhere without the hundreds of years of history attached to it.
And on a completely separate note, the panel also answered a small SF trivia mystery for me: how did two Burgermeister locations turn into Beit Rimas almost simultaneously? It turns out the owner of Beit Reima (Samir Mogannam) is the son of the owner of Burgermeister! Samir’s father was in the audience and he gave him a shout-out, it was a really sweet moment. Samir’s mother Rima was too, and the name of the restaurant is literally a tribute to her: Beit Rima means “Rima’s kitchen”.
Tatreez
In May, a friend invited me to a Tatreez class in the Dogpatch. The class, a fundraiser for Prosthetics for Palestine, was a hands-on intro to the Palestinian cross-stiching art of Tatreez.
We got to learn about some of the history and how there are regional varieties to the different motifs that Palestinian women wear on their Tatreez.
My mom is a very experienced cross-stitcher, so I must have some of her talent in my blood, the instructor was impressed at how quickly I was able to get started and follow along the pattern.
We learned that the Palestinian aunties love to admire each other’s Tatreez work and the first thing they’ll do is check the back side of your cross stitch, to see how efficient you were! So in the spirit of showing my work, I’m also presenting the back side of my attempt at the Star of Bethlehem.
The class was a really fun environment, and the instructor Min Amanne was wonderful, it was great to hear about her journey learning about and getting in touch with her own culture, as well as how she’s been able to share it with others and connect with other people in the Palestinian diaspora that way.
The Return
In August, a friend invited me to the preview night of The Return, a play about a Palestinian man and an Israeli Jewish woman who meet at an auto body shop.
This play was presented “in the round” kind of, the audience seating was on both sides of a long stage that went through the middle of a small room. I remember reading that in this venue, you get an intimate experience, where you could see every bead of sweat on the actor’s faces. We sat in one of the corners in the second row (the back row) and yes, we were uncomfortably close to the two actors.
The play was really well acted, my friend commented that the woman who played her role knew exactly what notes to hit, it felt pretty real. The tight space meant that when they started yelling, it was almost painful for me.
The play is fiction, but it’s not hard to see how real the portrayals are of similar individuals and of Israeli citizens, and their American proxies.
Just like with No Other Land, I think its important to expose more people to art like this, even if it’s uncomfortable, because at the end of the day, we’re still sitting in chairs in relatively safe places, and today in Gaza most people don’t have any of that right now.
Thanks
Just like last year, I want to thank folks who continue to do a better job advocating for Palestinian people. If you’re reading this and you haven’t found a way to learn more about Palestinians and advocate for peace for them, please change that!