Dear John,

Earlier this month, Palestinian-American writer Hala Alyan wrote that “bearing witness is an honor,” as she called for our collective endurance on behalf of the people of Gaza. She says, “We witness so that we may tell the truth.” The stories included in this week’s Digest are about people who have moved the truth of injustice into action – through protest, advocacy, policy, and by continuing to share their stories, so that more people can bear witness to them.

TakeAction will be on break in two weeks, so I’ll be in touch with the next (and my last) News Digest in 2024. Until then, I’m wishing you happy holidays if you celebrate, and peace, hope, and joy in the new year.

Here are the stories that have kept me grounded in endurance and hope this week:

1. Marvin Haynes on 19 years wrongfully convicted and what's next for him
Marvin Haynes was released from prison in Stillwater this week after being wrongfully convicted and incarcerated for nineteen years. He says, “I knew the truth would overcome all this. But to receive it and know that I’m going home on my birthday, I couldn’t even believe it. Like my 36th birthday was spent in a cell. I’ve been there since I was 16 years old. So to know that I will be coming home, and people will know Marvin Haynes’ innocence, so yeah, it was amazing.” [link removed]

2. 18 Jewish Elders Arrested Following Gaza Ceasefire Protest Outside White House
“Members of Jewish Elders for Palestinian Freedom also attempted to read out the names of the 17,000 Palestinians who Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have killed since October, beginning with 93-year-old Mahdiya Abdullah Abdul Wahab Halawa, a survivor of the 1948 Nakba … ‘The U.S. is arming and funding this massacre of Palestinians — not for Jewish safety, but for its own interests,’ said 65-year-old Sarah Schulman, a Guggenheim fellow. ‘Biden, stop using us. Palestinians should be free.’”
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3. St. Paul to use $1 million in federal funds to help residents with medical debt
St. Paul has voted to approve a plan to buy off over $100,000 of medical debt for residents. 🎉 Through the nonprofit RIP Medical Debt, federal funds will be used to offer support to residents who have household incomes within 4 percent of the federal poverty guidelines, and who have medical debt totaling 5 percent or more of their household income.
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4. March through Minneapolis protests Camp Nenookaasi eviction
“(Christin) Crabtree said clearing the camp will again scatter unhoused people around the city, making it more difficult for them to meet with housing workers and receive community resources. She went on to say that while she would not want to see violence at the camp, she believes closing the camp is more likely to perpetuate the violence experienced by unsheltered people. ‘Are we trying to get rid or problems or are we trying to get rid of human beings?’ Crabtree said.”
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5. After COP28, a long road ahead
Four advocates share their perspectives on the intersections of climate policy with our political power, with public health, with human rights, and with tech innovation. “We know that military operations around the world are contributors of not only carbon emissions but toxic pollutants that communities on the front lines of militarized sites face … (it’s) one of the last remaining taboo topics in the international negotiations.” One thing that’s clear for all of the advocates: our collective mandate to keep taking action and holding governments accountable to a just transition from fossil fuels.
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6. This 28-year-old from Nepal is telling COP28: Don't forget people with disabilities
“The more I deep-dived into climate science, I learned about the different impacts climate change has across different sectors … Many people with disabilities [in Nepal] live below the poverty line, so they don't have access to proper education or opportunities for growth. As a result, they aren't able to advocate for their rights. They are often seen as victims by the society and not as contributors to [making] policies or partners in implementing solutions. In fact, I did not start advocating for disability rights until after I started working on climate change. It was only [then] that I realized there is a connection between the two issues and they intersect.”
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7. What the resumption of Israel-Hamas fighting means for Palestinians in Israeli jails
Since October 7, Israel has arrested 12 times more Palestinians than it has released as part of prisoner exchanges. “The prison figures show that out of a total of at least 10,550 Palestinians in Israeli custody, nearly 40 percent of them are held without charge. Many of them are accused of nonviolent offenses.”
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8. “Palestine Is About Living in Spite of Everything”
“...finding connections, Land Back and return, for example, are great ways of nurturing conversation amongst people. And one of the things I think I’ve learned from Indigenous struggles and the Black struggle in the U.S. is that solidarity is not a rhetoric. If it becomes that, it’s a problem, but it’s actually a political iteration of love and the love that I was talking about earlier and belonging is also a shared love. And I’ve come to learn that solidarity is about love and loving each other and finding ways to actually express that love through political connections.”
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9. “Everyone for Everyone”: A call from the families of hostages contains the seed of true safety
“In this urgent plea of people desperate for their loved ones to be returned, we might locate a protean abolitionist vision, a way out of the zero-sum framework where the safety of some is mobilized as justification for the harm of others. From within a colonial system that insists that life is disposable, the proposal set forth by the families of the hostages contains the seed of a radically transformed society—one which grants, in the words of prison abolitionist Ruth Wilson Gilmore, that ‘where life is precious, life is precious.’”
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10. People have been searching for this song from 'The X-Files' for 25 years. Until now
We’ve been re(re)watching the X-Files at home this month, and it was such a small, sweet joy to learn about the start and end of another mystery from the series. Plus, the song in question is pretty good – an early contender for Spotify wrapped 2024.
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In care and solidarity,
Jessie

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