Building a Movement

Since Dec. 27, 2008, unrelenting violence has been unleashed in the Gaza Strip. Death tolls keep climbing with no end in plain sight.

Regardless of creed, race, age or beliefs, people are protesting, raising funds and educating others to show solidarity with Gazans and those suffering around the world.

Minority Dreams found powerful examples of activists making a difference in styles that suit them best.

Mark Gonzales: Human Writes Project

Renowned educator, poet and passionate advocate of human rights, Mark Gonzales, 33, had humble beginnings in 1996. It was a simple idea that took place in a friend’s garage – read personal poems, freestyle and invite friends and family to listen.

“I started writing to address and express all the pain, confusion and frustration I had growing up and [wanted to] make sense of the chaos,” he said.

The people came in numbers and the once small spoken word sessions grew.

“It really spoke to the need of people to have a community that spoke to their reality, beauty and pain,” said the Alaskan-born Mexican American.

He founded the Human Writes Project in 1999, an ideology that uses culture as a vehicle to push for social change and justice.

“It’s a philosophy under which educators, artists and organizers gather and create arts or performances [for] a new community and new identity based on real and shared experiences,” Gonzales said.

Through this belief, Gonzales helped organize many educational events including “Get Down for Life and Lyrics: Get Down for Gaza.” Held on Jan. 10 at Juanita’s in Highland Park, the fundraiser helped bring in between $1,700 to $2,000, which was donated to Islamic Relief, one of the only two charities allowed to work in Gaza.

“It was successful because it created community,” he said. “It wasn’t just about Palestine, it was about indigenous land and the global struggle for indigenous land. It was about women’s and children’s rights. [Also] the right of a people and the right to live.”

While he believes protests and demonstrations are important, Gaza needs direct support in the form of medicine, financial donations and basic necessities like blankets, he said. The idea behind the fundraiser encouraged small donations from working people of $5 or $10. The crowd, which reached over 300 that night, often gave more.

His inspiration in life comes from a deep love for people, Gonzales said.

“I’ve looked at what I’ve gone through in my life and the experiences I’ve had and remember pain and frustration when things and acts have occurred,” he said. “If I’ve felt that much pain, how would I feel if I was bombed, [too]?”

View a video of Mark Gonzales from ‘Get Down for Gaza’

Marcy Winograd – LA Jews for Peace

An ace in multitasking, this progressive democrat has juggled teaching in a Los Angeles school, protesting in the city’s streets, running for Congress and co-founding an anti-war, Jewish-American group – but she’s not done yet.

Raised in a strongly zionist community, Marcy Winograd believes history cannot be that simplified. “We know the narrative of Israel as a refuge is a powerful narrative,” she said. “But there is another and that is, this homeland [also] belongs to someone else.”

Although members of LA Jews for Peace are divided on zionism, they are dedicated to diplomacy in the Middle East, an end in Israeli occupation in Palestine and an end in American military aid.

“We call on all Jews of conscious to stand with the Palestinians [and] to stand with those who are victimized and say, not in our name,” Winograd said.

She co-founded the group after losing in a heated battle for Congress against fellow democrat, Rep. Jane Harman in 2006. Made up of a handful of core members in their 40s and 50s, Winograd hopes the group will also attract a younger generation.

“I think young [Americans] have been very active in the anti-war movement,” she said. “This issue may be intimidating in its seeming complexity but our hope is in the youth because they will look at it from fresh eyes.”

It helped organize a mock funeral and demonstration in L.A. on Jan. 11 for the children killed in Gaza and candlelight vigils.

Besides the visual affect, the events’ purpose was “to pose a different face of the Jewish community in L.A.,” she said. “We’re reaching a tipping point and as horrible as this hour is, it provides an opportunity to learn.”

Mahmud Ahmad – Al Awda: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition

He’s an advocate of social justice who, amid the realities of the Palestinian – Israeli conflict, believes in a peaceful future in the Middle East.

Mahmud Ahmad of Al Awda – the Palestine Right to Return Coalition believes that people of the world will not stay quiet forever and that in historical terms, the conflict will soon end.

On Jan. 10, Al-Awda co-sponsored the National Day of Emergency Mass Action – Mass Regional Protest in Los Angeles along with the ANSWER Coalition.

Thousands of activists rallied near the Federal Building in Westwood that day in response to Israel’s incursion into the Gaza Strip.

“[The protests are] showing solidarity with our sisters and brothers in Palestine,” he said. “We stand firmly against injustice wherever it happens. [Also we're] mobilizing people [and] building a greater movement. There are new people getting involved.”

He hopes their events will get accurate media coverage including pointing out Israel’s faults.

“When it comes down to covering local protests, they [the media] present the Palestinian version but everything is edited and it’s in line with what they want to put forward anyway [then] countered with Israeli’s point of view,” he said.

“My [problem] with that is that if it were any other state or country committing that kind of atrocious activity, it wouldn’t be presented as a point of view. The Israeli government should be charged with war crimes. Gaza is in genocidal proportions.”

In addition, he hopes that President-elect Obama will speak out clearly against the attacks on the Gaza Strip.

Al-Awda, a democratic, non-partisan grassroots organization, is dedicated to public awareness of the legal and human rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland, gain restitution for their property, gain freedom and equality.

Ahmad is also the co-founder of the Free Palestine Alliance and the National Council of Arab Americans and a member of the ANSWER Coalition.

View a slideshow from the L.A. protest, ‘Let Gaza Live’ by Mike Chickey.

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Thanks for your help! Minority Dreams gives special thanks to supporters and those who helped with research, photos or contacts including photographer Iman Al-dabbagh.

Credit: Urmi Rahman

*The individuals and the organizations profiled here vary in their views and are in no way related to one another. To learn more about each group, please view their individual websites. - MD Staff

CORRECTION: This article published Jan. 17 incorrectly reported that the LA Jews for Peace sponsored the Jan. 14. chain-protest. The event was sponsored by the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network - Minority Dreams regrets this mistake. (1/23)