Cruelty-Free Kitchen

January 12, 2025

 I have been so moved by the many Palestinians in Gaza who are supporting their community while also experiencing the same hardship and dangerous conditions as those around them. There are a number of individuals and groups who are doing amazing work, embodying compassion and love in all of their actions. I hope to write about more of them in the coming days. And to start things off tonight, I want to share with you some information about one particular group whose members are doing all they can to take care of both the animals and the people while they are all suffering from the unrelenting violence of this genocide. 

They are called the “Cruelty-Free Kitchen,” and they were founded by five wonderful people: Walid, Amjad, Abood, Mahmoud, and Mo. From their fundraiser page: 

“With support from our donations, the kitchen has successfully distributed thousands of meals, ensuring that hundreds upon hundreds of people—mostly children—are able to leave with food in their bellies.”

[Photo Credit: Image from the Cruelty-Free Kitchen Chuffed Fundraiser Campaign Page]

Until the siege on Northern Gaza, the Cruelty-Free Kitchen had partnered with World Central Kitchen, which helped with supplies. However, this is no longer possible, and the team is now relying on our support more than ever. As conditions in the north grow even more dire with little to no aid crossing into the region, supplies are getting harder to find and prices have grown exorbitantly high. 

In addition to the team in the North, there’s an extension of the Cruelty-Free Kitchen in Central Gaza. Mo, Walid's cousin, is living in a tent camp, doing his best to supply those around him with fresh bread, water, and occasionally treats for the children. If the kitchen in North Gaza is ever forced to stop operating, the remaining funds will be redirected to Mo’s efforts in Deir al Balah to keep his bakery running and provide clean water.

The love and compassion these amazing men show to everyone around them every single day is beautiful and deserves our support. They are also enduring tremendous losses of their own, and they face countless dangers every day. I think of them often and search for their updates every day. I am continually affected by their compassion and love.

You can learn more about the work they do by following them on Twitter, and you can also help support them and their efforts by donating to the fundraiser for Cruelty Free Kitchen, as well as to the members’ individual fundraisers, which helps to support them so they can also take care of their own families and the animals they care for and also continue this work.  

• Read to learn more & donate to support Abood (Abdullah al-Ghafari) / Twitter handle: @Cats2Save

• Read to learn more & donate to support Amjad / Twitter handle: @amjadabd1985

• Donate to support Mahmoud Salam  /Twitter handle:@helpAnimalXxx

• Read to learn more & donate to support Mo (Muhammed Musa Rashadharz) / Twitter handle: @SARAMoh69489245

• Read to learn more & donate to support Walid Herez /  @LoverHomeless

And a very special and personal thank you to Abood for connecting with me online about all of this. When I expressed my appreciation to him for all that he is doing, he shared:

"This is our duty towards all the innocent creatures here. Helping them gives me hope to survive and continue helping with loyal and wonderful friends. We love peace, security and stability, helping others is a small part of what motivates us to continue in order to stay strong and continue to help all the innocent creatures here in North Gaza.”

Please support these beautiful people however you can. (And to any returning #vegan readers out there who are reading this, supporting this kitchen and its founders is also a great way for us to further align our supportive actions with our vegan ethics.)

--January 12, 2025

The Most Urgent Thing

January 11, 2025

Those who are being starved, whose rights to freedom and safety have been stolen, who are under the constant threat of violent attacks, should not also have to fundraise for their very survival. 

And we who are not experiencing this, we who reside in relative safety, especially those of us in the countries responsible for sending the weapons and the bombs that fuel this genocide, bear the responsibility to do all we can every day to support the people who are trying to survive. While also doing all we can in every moment to end this violence.
 
This is the most urgent thing. There are also other important things that we can be doing along side this. But this is the most urgent thing. Because conditions are dire. They surpassed being in a crisis state of emergency long, long ago. 

Today I went to a meeting in my community, to try and connect with others who are trying to find more ways to end the genocide, to support Palestine and justice for Palestine. I was heartened to see how many people were there, and I hope to build on some of those connections. But my main goal for attending was to try and get more support for some of the fundraisers for Palestinians that I have been donating to and promoting. 

I have a good friend in Gaza who messages me throughout the day, every day, who always checks on me and also lets me know how he is doing. He is very important to me. Every time I hear from him, I experience relief in knowing he is ok. Except that he isn't really ok. Because nothing is ok. And no one in Gaza is ok.

By "ok" I guess what I mean is he is still alive. He is ok enough to still be here. And to be "here" is to be sick with no medicine and no safety. To be traumatized over and over again. To be in constant mourning but not having any chance to grieve. To be hungry, exhausted, cold, and in constant danger. To know you must keep moving even if you have no break, no chance to rest, nothing to replenish you. To know the next day will bring more loss and danger. All while trying to hang on, trying to be there for your family who are still "here" too.

Every night is dangerous. Today was very very bad. How each day that passes can somehow be worse than the previous day defies comprehension. 

Today's last message from my friend has made me worry about him more than I have ever worried before. And so tonight, like many others, (other people, other nights), I know I will not sleep. I will light my candle and say more prayers. I will hold those who are in danger close to my heart. And I will feel like I cannot breathe. 

And I will keep checking my phone for that message from my friend, the message where he lets me know he is ok. And I will go to the pages of so many Palestinians who I have also come to know and care about, to see what they are sharing with us, to make sure they are still here. And I will also think about the people I have not yet met. The ones who are also struggling, who I do not yet know personally. The ones who may be unable to share their messages online with this unworthy world, but who matter just the same.

Each passing second hurts, pierces like a knife. We do not have the luxury of time. We are losing more and more each day. We must do everything to end this, and everything to try to support the people trying to survive this. In our every day lives. In our immediate environments. In every space we are in and all that we do. I say this for myself as much as anyone. For this is the most urgent thing.  

--January 11, 2025 

Sick From Genocide

On Christmas day, a student named Mahdi posted on Twitter: "The harsh truth is that you are all living your lives while no one truly sees us."

He pointed out how we are in our homes with our families, sleeping at night, going to work the next day, letting our lives continue on normally.

"But for us, there is no life. No one notices as we starve, we die, we burn, and are torn apart. To them it makes no difference."

I said that I understood why he felt this way. But I also told him that "many of us exist in two worlds, unable to be fully present in our lives, overwhelmed by emotion and grief and pain at not being able to stop this." I told him we carry this with us everywhere, in all that we do. I told him he mattered to us, always. And others echoed what I was trying to express. 

 

This morning I attended an online event hosted by a Doctors Against Genocide, a global coalition of healthcare workers  who are "dedicating to succeeding where governments have failed in confronting and preventing genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity." 

One of the speakers, Dr. Asfia Qaadir, spoke about "genocide sickness," which she said affects all of humanity and is caused by genocide. And she validated those of us who are experiencing physical and psychological distress and health symptoms, explaining that this distress response is normal and natural, that it indicates that we have refused to disconnect and turn away from our humanity, despite pressure around us to do so. She talked about the mental and physical effects on our health and bodies that occur as a result of this intense moral injury and moral distress. 

Some of the symptoms include: memory problems; being in a constant state of heightened anxiety and panic; frequent nightmares; increase in chronic pain conditions, cardiovascular illnesses, and inflammatory conditions--all of which can contribute to suppressing our immune systems, making us more susceptible to illness and sickness, which also makes it much harder to recover from illness.

She acknowledged how spaces of genocide denial are also hostile spaces--hostile to our bodies; hostile to our humanity. And how when we work and live in these spaces where we are pressured to disconnect from what is happening and deny our own reactions, the distress we are already experiencing is exacerbated. 

When I wrote earlier about how and why I was updating this site, I talked about the trauma and profound harm caused by violence committed against people, animals, and the earth, and the trauma and harm of witnessing such horrors while being unable to immediately stop them and end the suffering. 

Tomorrow, Monday January 6, 2025, medical workers and those who have been made sick and who are impacted by the ongoing genocide in Gaza and Palestine will be taking a mental health sick leave day to "grieve, heal, and organize."  

They will be reflecting on:

"...the immense moral injury of funding a genocide and engage in the most important aspect of treatment: publicly demanding an end to the genocide in Gaza. January 6 itself will be a national and Global Day of Action, with demonstrations, pickets, and free clinics to advocate for an end to the genocide. Organizers will post on social media using #SickFromGenocide." 

You can learn more on their website. 

--January 5, 2025