#05 Once Upon an Interrupted Time
We are always baffled when funders demand a "strategic plan" from Palestinian organizations.
We live in Palestine under a dizzying pace of shocking events. With dozens of horrific incidents occurring daily in Gaza, a massive US-Israeli war on Iran, and relentless aggression in the West Bank, the past month has only intensified the pace we’ve been living under for decades.
The intensity of interruptions in our lifetime has deeply influenced our personal and collective consciousness. To understand how Palestinian organizations function, it’s imperative to take into consideration the accelerated pace of radical shifts and events caused by the Israeli occupation. All Palestinian organizations function under a foregranted disability of implementing plans, let alone strategies.
The examples are countless. Even before the genocide, major community projects in Gaza—built from years of effort and hope—could collapse overnight by an Israeli officer’s decision to block movement, deny exports, cut electricity, or launch a military campaign. Today, it’s unimaginably worse. Initiatives struggling against impossible odds to deliver aid, food, water, medicine, or education can be erased in a single airstrike—or by a single Facebook post from the Israeli military forcing evacuation. Elsewhere in Palestine, it’s the same principle: months of work and great resources can vanish in a moment—whether at the whim of settler mobs or a soldier’s casual fun and games.
To some extent, long-term planning has become a symbol of organizational disassociation. The globalizing organizational culture of western institutions forces a false perspective of time on our community. We’re required to think of our reality – despite its monstrous instability – as a programmable sphere.
In our view, grassroots organizing and community work must find planning methods and perspectives that grow from within the reality of the oppressed. We believe we must embrace fluidity, and strive for ever-shifting methods of work. Our liberatory values, human devotion, and social connections must persist, while organizational entities and plans must be built to be transformed.
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Inspire
Rawa recently supported a group of four inspiring young graduates in Gaza who have invented a remarkable “mini-oven” designed to meet urgent daily needs under the harshest conditions. These ovens operate using a variety of readily available materials—wood, paper, cardboard, and dry plants—offering a vital alternative to scarce and costly fuel sources like gasoline and electricity. Crafted from recycled materials, including reprocessed concrete, metal waste, and clay, each oven stands as a testament to both resilience and resourcefulness. Designed to serve displaced families living in tents, the ovens are distributed free of charge.
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