The Palestinian Feminist Collective (PFC) is a Turtle Island-based body of Palestinian & Arab women & feminists committed to Palestinian liberation & beyond.
During the past two months, Palestinians have endured another catastrophic genocide. Over 21,000 Palestinians were martyred. Thousands more who have sustained life-threatening injuries are barely surviving without access to emergency medical care. 🧵
We call upon all our communities and co-strugglers to take immediate action: to get informed, to spread awareness, to speak out and up, to organize, mobilize, and to commit to standing on the right side of history. 🧵
In the context of Gaza, reproductive genocide includes the control and cutting off of vital life-giving sources such as water, fuel, electricity, and food; the denial of life-giving and life-saving medical resources; collective starvation;
The Palestinian Feminist Collective rejects neoliberal pride celebrations as our people in Palestine continue to endure the ninth month of this escalated genocide. 🧵
We are committed to uplifting the calls from our people in Palestine, that's why we would like to share with you a toolkit we have developed to stay informed, engaged, and take action. Check the toolkit and share:
#FreePalestine
#EndtheNakba
#BDS
Bombs have resumed on Gaza.
Palestine is a Feminist Struggle. Leading U.S. Feminist Organizations Call for a Permanent Ceasefire Now and a Free Palestine. Over 15,000+ Palestinians have been killed and we as feminist organizations of conscience cannot and will not remain silent.
PFC is heartbroken to learn of the passing of Palestinian artist Laila Shawa. We extend loving condolences to her family, friends, and to the entire Palestinian artistic community.
On the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the Palestinian Feminist Collective invites you to
#shutdowncolonialfeminism
and say NO to genocide. Read our full statement
On April 13th Palestinians in Beit Eil broke down the colonial apartheid barrier, removing the gate separating the occupied West Bank from our lands that had been stolen and occupied in 1948 by the settler state. 🧵
Two days ago, after four consecutive months of continuous colonial violence, the Zionist regime ordered 1.5 million displaced Palestinians to “evacuate” from Rafah, initially deemed a “safe zone”. 🧵
Today, we mark 107 years since the implementation of the Sykes-Picot Agreement, through which the French & British, with collaboration from the Russian Empire & Italy, secretly established arbitrary colonial borders on Arab land. 🧵
Today, we commemorate the Palestinian Women’s March of April 15th, 1933 in Jerusalem, Palestine.
The Women’s March on April 15, 1933 was a demonstration of Palestinian women’s unity against British colonialism and ongoing Jewish settlements, which were facilitated by Britain. 🧵
PFC is answering the call from Palestine: GLOBAL STRIKE ON DEC 11. We stand with our people in Palestine & transnational co-strugglers by withholding labor, organizing actions, & continuing to boycott. No business as usual, no crossing the picket line!
#GlobalStrike4Palestine
Today, we celebrate Mai Masri’s birthday, a Palestinian filmmaker, writer, & director. We honor Mai & all Palestinian cultural workers. We understand cultural, narrative & meaning-making work as central to our revolutionary tradition & a liberated Palestinian feminist future.🧵
Today, we celebrate International Working Women’s Day. Palestinian women have historically joined feminists from the Global South in a joint struggle to combat all forms of structural oppression. In Palestine, IWWD has long galvanized & mobilized our resistance against Zionism.🧵
PLANNED PARENTHOOD, YOU HAVE BLOOD ON YOUR HANDS!
The Palestinian Feminist Collective rejects Planned Parenthood's "condemnation" of the genocide in Gaza, while they fund war profiteers like Raytheon.
75 years ago today, the Irgun and Lehi gangs massacred over 100 Palestinian women, children, men, and elders, and injured dozens more in the village of Deir Yassin. 🧵
Palestinian martyr Shireen Abu Akleh would have turned 52 today, April 3rd. We honor Shireen and the martyrs of Palestine today and every day, and we reaffirm our commitment to learning from their lives and legacies as we struggle for a liberated Palestine.🧵
Today, we celebrate the birthday of Palestine’s youngest journalist, Janna Jihad, whose voice spoke for Palestinian children’s suffering under occupation. 🧵
Today, we honor Hind Al-Husseini who was born on April 25, 1916. Hind was the founder of various charitable associations, an advocate for the education of women & girls, & is most remembered for rescuing 55 Palestinian children who were orphaned by the Deir Yassin massacre. 🧵
But as Palestinian feminists, we feel compelled to affirm that Palestinian men and boys are our fathers, brothers, sons, grandfathers, uncles, cousins, and partners - they are our family, and we love them.
Today, we celebrate the birthday of Palestinian journalist, poet, writer, translator, educator, and feminist May Elias Ziadeh, born to a Palestinian mother and Lebanese father on February 11, 1886 in an-Nasra (Nazareth), Palestine. 🧵
Today, we commemorate the formation of the General Union of Palestinian Women (GUPW). In 1965, Palestinian women representing societies & unions from Palestine & the diaspora met in Jerusalem to establish the GUPW as a syndicate of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
The Lions' Den (Areen Al-Oussoud) is a group of Palestinian youth who have deployed guerilla strategies in a struggle of revolutionary war against the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) (Cont.)
AL-AQSA UNDER ATTACK 🚨
Tonight, Israeli Occupation Forces stormed Al-Aqsa. At least 540 reported injuries with 2 in critical condition, and at least 12 Palestinians were reportedly detained.
Among the many racist, colonial, and sexist tropes animating Zionist propaganda is the age-old Orientalist characterization of Palestinian men as bloodthirsty terrorists, rapists, savages, & loveless monsters who use their children as human shields & oppress Palestinian women.
SOPHICIDE:
The Zionist regime’s deliberate annihilation of Indigenous knowledge traditions inspired by the land itself, as well as the carriers of that knowledge.
Palestinian men are our friends, our comrades in struggle, our teachers and protectors, our spiritual guides and healers - and we love them.
They are suffering the injury of this ongoing Nakba, physically, spiritually, and emotionally alongside us - and we love them.
We acknowledge the immeasurable sacrifices and hardships Palestinian men experience caused by Zionism and the relentless hope and courage they continue to foster within us.
We uphold radical love as an act of liberation that grounds our collective survival and resistance.
They are navigating grief, trauma, and pain - and we love them.
They are practicing defiance, resistance, and steadfastness - and we love them.
They are freedom fighters - and we love them.
They are full beings with contradictions - and we love them.
Today, the Zionist regime ordered Nasser Medical Complex's administration to evacuate displaced Gazans sheltering in the hospital while keeping patients and medical personnel indoors. 🧵
This dangerously conditions the public to believe that Palestinian men are not worthy of grief or even love. It is not our interest to counter the racist narratives made about Palestinian men & boys. That would equate to trying to prove our humanity to those actively erasing us.
We call upon all our co-strugglers to turn out for Palestine this week. To learn more about what is currently happening and the history that has led to this moment, join us for an emergency teach in this Wednesday, October 18th at 5PM PT/ 7PM CT/ 8PM ET
Our feminist vision advocates for breaking intimate and state cycles of violence by centering and transforming home, family, and community spaces into sites of care and healing.
Yet even among those who empathize with the Palestinian struggle come endless commemorations of Palestinian women and children absent recognition of the suffering and death of Palestinian men.
The Palestinian Feminist
Collective wishes our community a Blessed Palm Sunday and Happy Easter. Israeli Occupation Forces continue to target Palestinians' right to practice our religion and traditions safely and freely. 🧵
Today, we commemorate 76 years of an ongoing Nakba, an ever-unfolding catastrophe of dispossession, forced exile, violent subjugation, ruthless military occupation, imprisonment, and death at the hands of the Zionist settler colonial project.
We refuse to allow them to be rendered disposable to the affective world where Palestinian children and women are given some - even if minimal - recognition.
WHY "LIONS' DEN"?
Their name signifies their popular war strategies; they recognize the IOF and settlers as invaders walking into the den of a pack of lions
They keep their weapons arsenal in their home spaces, communities, and refugee camps they come from (Cont.)
Yesterday, the Palestinian Feminist Collective co-organized a children's march for Palestine in Providence, Rhode Island. Today and every day, we fight for, defend, protect, uplift, and celebrate our children. We recognize them as central to our Palestinian liberation struggle.
WHEN A MARTYR RISES, THOUSANDS OF FREEDOM FIGHTERS ARE BORN
"I love my mother. Take care of our homeland after I am gone. For the sake of our honour, do not abandon the rifle. I am surrounded, I am going to be martyred. Pray for me."
Ibrahim Al-Nabulsi, Lion of Nablus, 8/9/22
1.9 million people have been displaced from their homes and are now facing the imminent threat of forcible expulsion to Egypt. Palestinians are systematically being kidnapped and tortured en masse and an end to the bombardment is nowhere in sight.
(Cont.)
The group first appeared to the public in August 2022, after the martyrdom of Ibrahim Al-Nabulsi, "The Lion of Nablus"
They originate from the Occupied West Bank cities of Nablus & Jenin (Cont.)
Palestinians across the world have also been subjects of racist and dehumanizing media campaigns created to manufacture consent for this genocide and discredit our movement for liberation.
🚨 TODAY: FREED PALESTINIAN WOMEN POLITICAL PRISONERS SPEAK OUT
In this open classroom, we will hear from Palestinian women prisoners recently freed, on Nov. 24th and 25th, about their experiences and the conditions of incarceration in Israeli occupation prisons.
Eid Mubarak, and may every Eid bring Palestine closer to liberation. Israeli Occupation Forces continue to target Palestinians' right to practice our religion and traditions safely and freely.
LIONS' DEN HAS POPULAR CREDIBILITY & SUPPORT
The Lions' Den insists on the unity of the Palestinian people
They are young revolutionaries born from the violent conditions of life under settler colonialism (Cont.)
After 11 Palestinians were murdered in a massacre in Nablus, Zionist settler mobs protected by Israeli Occupation Forces stormed the villages of Huwara, Burin, and Zaa’tara in Occupied Nablus. 🧵
On Monday, June 3rd, 2023, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) invaded the occupied city of Jenin and Jenin Refugee Camp, escalating efforts to crush Palestinian resistance. 🧵
the murder of elderly men and elderly women; the eradication of entire genealogies; the mass murder of women, the mass murder of children; the mass murder of babies; the murder of pregnant women; the obliteration of medical institutions;
(Cont.)
Like lions, they identify they identify as hunters, rather than prey
Their name gestures to the courage they hold to defend their homes and people: courage as mighty as that of a lion
THE ISRAELI OCCUPATION TRIES TO "BREAK THE WAVE"
The IOF recognized the group's power & capacity to incite a popular insurgency across all of historic Palestine (Cont.)
(Cont.)
"There are now hundreds of Ibrahims. You are now all Ibrahim, you are all my children."
Huda Al-Nabulsi (Um Ibrahim), the Martyr's mother
When a martyr rises, thousands of freedom fighters are born
Palestinian prisoner and resistance leader Sheikh Khader Adan was martyred on Tuesday, 2 May 2023 after 86 days of hunger strike.
Sheikh Khader Adnan was a father, a husband, a freedom fighter, and a leader of the Palestinian prisoners' movement. 🧵
(Cont.)
They defend their lives, land, and people from the violence Palestinians continue to endure
They give hope to Palestinians, who have been betrayed by their "official leadership" and by international state actors complicit in their oppression
I wear white in solidarity with Egyptian political prisoners like
@alaa
who inspire us to imagine a society without prisons: as
@alaa
wrote in his latest letter, we must demand the end of regimes that are "unable to reproduce [themselves] except through incarceration,”
#FreeAlaa
PALESTINIAN WOMEN ARE CENTRAL TO POPULAR INSURGENCY
The families of the Lions' Den martyrs, especially their wives & mothers, are essential communicators of the grief Palestinians hold (Cont.)
the mass execution of vulnerable civilians, such as those seeking shelter; the assault on dignity and life; the separation of families; mass detention, incarceration and torture of men, women, and children;
Rainbow capitalism, pinkwashing, and homonationalism have, for decades, fuelled and funded the Zionist project of settler occupation by platforming banks, hedge funds, weapons manufacturers, intelligence and security firms, and the political elite in mainstream pride parades.
ALL PALESTINIANS PARTAKE IN POPULAR INSURGENCY
BEYOND THE CARRIERS OF ARMS
The Lions' Den fugitive & martyr Oday Al-Tamimi carried out the Shu'fat operation, killing an IOF soldier
He was initially rumored to be bald-headed.. (Cont.)
PALESTINIAN COLLECTIVE MOURNING IS AN ACT OF DEFIANCE
October 25, 2022: Thousands attend the funeral processions of martyrs Hamdi Sharaf & Ali Antar, and Lions' Den martyrs Hamdi Qayyem, Wadie Al-Hawah, & Mish'al Baghdadi
The Palestinian Feminist Collective &
@palyouthmvmt
commemorate Palestinian poet, feminist, political activist and writer, May Sayegh, who passed away yesterday at the age of 82.
"Our goal is the total liberation of Palestine. Any Palestinian who wants less is a traitor."
collective starvation, prolonged endangerment of women, children and babies; and the devaluation of life through public dehumanization and calls for genocide.
(Cont.)
Though they have escalated mass arrests, assassinations, home raids, a siege on Nablus, Jenin & Shu'fat, restrictions to mobility, & increased military presence across the West Bank and Jerusalem, THE TIDE CONTINUES TO GROW!
Today, we honor Palestinian revolutionary, freedom fighter, community organizer and former political prisoner Rasmea Odeh, who wasborn on May 22, 1947, in Lifta, Palestine. 🧵
The PFC is excited to announce the launch of “Handala’s Return”, a children’s story and workbook. Handala has been a symbol for Palestinians since being published by his creator, Naji al Ali, on July 13, 1969 in the Kuwaiti newspaper, Al-Seeyasa. 🧵
the illegal use of chemical weapons on civilians, especially those in captivity, impacting the health of future generations; environmental degradation resulting in infertility; prolonged conditions of collective captivity, including besiegement;
Today, we celebrate the life and legacy of Salma Jayyusi. Salma's significant contributions to literature, anthology, and translation are richly augmented by her own poetry and prose. 🧵
mass destruction of schools, mass destruction of places of worship; mass destruction of homes and residential spaces (or domicide); mass destruction of shelters for vulnerable communities;
(Cont.)
On October 16th, Zionist Prime Minister Yair Lapid, Defense Minister Benny Gantz, and other security leaders of the Mossad and Shin Bet, met to discuss the Lions' Den
They declared a war in an operation now known as "Break The Wave" (Cont.)
This Eid Al-Adha, we remain inspired by our steadfast people in Palestine &our commitment to the liberation of Palestine. We draw our strength from Palestinians across all of Palestine who choose to celebrate & observe Eid amid the destruction & despite Zionist colonial violence.
The attack, siege, bombardment, and invasion of Rafah did not start yesterday. As we commemorate 76th year of the ongoing Nakba, the atrocities in Rafah today are part of the Zionist project’s long-standing history of murder, dispossession, & displacement beginning before 1948.
the mass destruction of cemetaries, the annihilation of environments and life-sustaining agriculture, including harvests; the destruction of vital food infrastructures; mass exposure to life-threatening toxic waste, unsanitary conditions, and/or hazardous environments;
(Cont.)
In an act of solidarity, to confuse Zionist intelligence, and to protect his anonymity, thousands of Palestinians shaved their heads
Thousands more posted the name "Oday" on social media to frustrate the Zionist surveillance apparatus
(Cont.)
They demonstrate the courage & responsibility that has bred this renewal of resistance & the commitment to life that animates the struggle
They affirm that atonement & freedom are the basis of what drives Palestinian resistance & that justice can no longer be deferred
Today, we celebrate the three-year anniversary of the formation of the Palestinian Feminist Collective (PFC) on July 19, 2020.
The PFC is a body of Palestinian and Arab feminists located across Turtle Island (the unceded lands known as North America). 🧵
The legacy of pride is indebted to Black, trans, anti-capitalist, and abolitionist queer women and transgender organizers, but that history is invisibilized and pacified in the the current neoliberal context of “Pride Month.”
On September 6, 2021, 6 Palestinian prisoners, dubbed the Jenin 6, broke out of the Gilboa High Security prison. Presumably using nothing more than spoons, they dug a 22-meter tunnel over several months. This moment inducted the spoon as a new symbol of Palestinian resistance. 🧵
Today, we honor the life and work of Sahar Khalifeh, one of Palestine’s foremost novelists. Born on September 1, 1941, Khalifeh is famous for her arresting poetics and anti-colonial feminist critique. 🧵
Today, we honor the life, legacy and memory of Palestinian revolutionary, poet, and intellectual May Sayegh, who was born in Gaza City in 1940. Sayegh passed away in Amman, Jordan in 2023, at the age of 82. 🧵