On Israel, Palestine, and holding multiple truths at once
How climate work can help us hold the news out of the Middle East
Hi there!
Welcome to Gen Dread, a newsletter about how the climate crisis is making us feel, why that’s happening, and what we can do about it. Subscribe now to find community, comfort, and practical coping and acting strategies from experts all around the world.
We’re all sitting inside an absolutely horrific moment.
We offer love, admiration, and care to those of you struggling to explain the Israel-Palestine war to your children. To those of you finding it impossible to concentrate at work. To those of you scrambling to reach faraway relatives and friends. To those of you striving to stay informed while also protecting your mental health.
We also offer this:
The Gen Dread team is many things: Muslim, Jewish, American, Canadian, Indonesian, Nigerian, parents of small children, artists, scientists, and fierce defenders of our shared humanity here on earth. And our work at Gen Dread has taught us some important truths that are helping us each hold the heaviness of the stories coming out of the Middle East right now:
We know that our freedom, our safety, and our futures are entangled and reliant on each other.
Despite the borders, flags, and language barriers, any liberation is necessarily a shared liberation. Just as there’s no sustainable future on this planet that leaves anyone behind, there’s no peace and autonomy for one culture that abuses or oppresses the one next door.
We know it’s crucial to hold multiple truths at the same time.
Just as we’re learning to walk toward the climate crisis with both terror and hope in our bones, we feel deep compassion for all innocent human souls involved in this conflict.
The Jewish people carry with them a singularly horrific history and a powerful determination to protect each other. We observe how the Hamas attack reanimates the trauma of the Holocaust on top of the vast and unconscionable death and destruction it caused. The Palestinian people have struggled for an infuriatingly long time to secure the right to self-determination. We observe the frequently racist news coverage of this disaster that paints regular citizens as terrorists, and wrongly equates their identities with that of Hamas.
We observe how leaders across the globe have rushed to stand with Israel, adding heft and power to an already formidable militia that Palestinians are not equipped to confront and are currently being crushed by.
Finally, we know that children are sacred spirits who place complete trust in the adults around them to provide a world that is just, safe, and kind.
Our hearts are profoundly struggling to contain the reports of Israeli and Palestinian children being harmed and killed, orphaned and frightened. As our friends at Slow Factory explain here in more detail, war creates enormous ecological destruction, creating an even more unstable future for young people.
If a just, safe, and kind world can’t be provided, it is up to those adults to start actively creating it. And so, wherever you are on this planet, we call on you to join efforts to help however you can. You can start by donating to organizations providing emergency aid to Palestinian children. Here’s one we like that operates relief programs for children in Gaza, where almost half of the population is under 18 years of age. And here’s another that is providing hygiene kits, blood bags to support patient survival, and food parcels.
But you can also start by rejecting any narrative that tries to rank the value of human lives, most especially when those lives are just beginning. You can start by embodying the idea that helping someone up out of the rubble cannot depend on what passport they hold or religion they identify with. We help them up, and we keep going together.
There must be a ceasefire. May there be an imminent breakthrough of relief and peace.
As always, you can share your thoughts and reach the Gen Dread community by commenting on this article or replying to this email. You can also follow along on Twitter and Instagram.
‘Till next time!
Thank you for this thoughtful newsletter, it helped a little. I am a longtime (2 decades) climate, etc. journalist turned advocate turned activist. The emotional toll of living in what I call “green soup” is mounting as the news gets worse everyday. The “Solutionaries” I interview inspire and educate me and our viewers on #greentv. They keep me going!
I have been wanting to interview Dr. Wray and hope to soon. I don’t want to do it until I’ve read the book which I have on PDF. Just been too dang busy running a startup media co.
When I first reached out my daughter was getting married and I was anticipating a conversation with her about whether to start a family. I was dreading that conversation because I cannot lie; I’m fearful about the future if we continue with biz as usual.
While I was trying to get to Dr. Wray’s book for advice, etc. my daughter got pregnant and my first grandchild is due on Thanksgiving. And while I am grateful and excited about being a grandma, I am filled with equal parts delight, and dread, or worry.
The war on Israel has of course not helped my angst. As a Jew the pain of what’s happened--and still happening--is almost unbearable given the atrocities. Cannot imagine being there if just thinking about it makes me shudder.
So you can see why I read your newsletter with great interest. Thank you for your important work Gen Dread and I’ll be in touch soon about scheduling an interview🙏
Yes, all of our futures are inextricably linked. Thank you for this beautiful and grounding piece.