John,

On the first day of Ramadan, I got the news that my Sity (grandmother) Muftieh passed away. I feel like a part of me died too.

She said she would wait for me a few years ago. She wanted me to come to Beit Ur El Foka and pick figs from the fig trees surrounding her modest home. She loved her farm (especially her chickens) with olive trees everywhere you looked. Sity loved helping other people who would stop by for water, tea, or a bite to eat.

She was Palestine for me. Everything I love about Palestinians and being Palestinian myself she contained in her. She was tiny but had the biggest and kindest heart.

Unfortunately the Israeli government blocked me from going to see her in the West Bank and I was unable to visit my Sity before she passed. But her spirit lives on in our work for a safer, more peaceful world.

In her memory, I hope you’ll join me in supporting an inspiring nonprofit organization that is providing young Palestinians in Gaza a chance to live and be cared for after enduring horrific violence.

HEAL Palestine is providing Health, Education, Aid, and Leadership opportunities in a collective effort to help heal Gaza’s youth―including the 17,000 children who have been orphaned over the past 5 months of genocide.

Click here to make a donation to HEAL Palestine today to provide Gaza’s youth with the critical resources they need for a brighter future.

Here is my Sity in a photo taken after my first congressional election in 2018, wearing her best Palestinian thobe:

While my family in Palestine are living under Israeli apartheid―caged under oppression and violence―they see me as their bird flying free, uplifting their voices and their struggle for freedom.

I will keep pushing for the freedom and dignity of the Palestinian people and all people. I spoke up in Congress this week about how the Israeli government is intentionally starving children and families in Gaza, who are dying from extreme malnutrition. As more than 1 million people in Gaza are facing famine, Congress is preparing to vote to cut funding for UNRWA, the major organization providing desperately needed aid in Gaza.

Your donation to HEAL Palestine will help shelter, feed, and treat injured and sick Palestinians who have fled military violence, and who are in dire need of basic necessities including food, clean water, and medical supplies because of Israel’s cruel blockade.

Right now, HEAL is working to open a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and a new maternity department in Rafah, plus sponsoring medical teams to go to Gaza.

In addition to funding urgent needs, your donation will support long-term solutions and projects in Palestine as well, such as mental health and mentorship for children who’ve been living with trauma their entire lives, and programs to rebuild Gaza’s education and health systems.

Here are HEAL aid workers in Gaza feeding starving Palestinian children:

I hope you’ll join me in making a donation to HEAL Palestine in memory of my Sity today. Let's help this generation of Palestinian children find peace, comfort, and a future in the midst of the ongoing horrors of apartheid and genocide.

It brings me to tears knowing that my Sity never saw a Free Palestine, but I know her spirit streams through the leaves of her olive and fig trees while her body will forever be in Palestine.

With love,

Rashida