First post as a published author

So today I became a published author and it is with incredible gratitude that I had the opportunity to use this new status to sign an open letter condemning the Zionist and genocidal state of Israel's murder of more than 244 Palestinian journalists. The number has grown since the time signatures started being collected.

As a part of this...

... each Canadian signer was linked to a martyred Palestinian journalist. I am honoured to have been linked with Islam Miqdad. She was 29 years old and she was murdered in a war crime; a cowardly Israeli airstrike that killed 15 other people including her son Adam and four other of her family members.

These are her final translated words on Instagram:

“My name is Islam, I’m 29 years old, and this is what I look like in my profile picture. What scares me most is that my death will be mentioned as a number. I am not a number. It took me 29 years to become who I am—I have a home, children, family, friends, memories, and pain. I am not just a number.”

She will not be forgotten, her death will not be just a number. As long as we continue her work and speak up and resist the genocidal occupation, Inshallah, the day will come that her name, along-with all the other martyrs, will be on monuments in a free Palestine from the River to the Sea.

Resisting her murderers and working to bring them to justice is the minimal responsibility of every human being on the planet.

Resist the Oppression. Resist the Occupation.

If I must Die

Today is also Refaat Alareer's birthday. In solidarity here is his poem. "If I Must Die"

If I must die,

you must live

to tell my story

to sell my things

to buy a piece of cloth

and some strings,

(make it white with a long tail)

so that a child, somewhere in Gaza

while looking heaven in the eye

awaiting his dad who left in a blaze–

and bid no one farewell

not even to his flesh

not even to himself–

sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up above

and thinks for a moment an angel is there

bringing back love

If I must die

let it bring hope

let it be a tale