This week’s message highlights a Palestinian whose life story epitomizes decades of the very incomplete struggle for justice for Palestine…and underscores the need to hold fast to “radical” equality–radical meaning simply that we won’t settle for less.

First, three public service announcements…

  •  Remaining host dates for Iqraa are Aug 30, Sept 20, Oct 4, and Oct 18 (Basma). Let me know if you can help!
  • Field trip to Museum of the Palestinian People: Aug 23 at 1 pm. Inshallah, the new Iqraa jerseys will be available for a shirt-museum twofer.
    • Museum address: 1900 18th St NW, Washington DC 20009  
  • Here are the UPA-supported universities—with our significant (48 scholarships in 2024) assistance—in the Mahmoud Darwish university scholarship program. Thanks, Tabitha!
    • Gaza: Al-Azhar University and University College of Applied Sciences
    • West Bank: Al-Quds University, An-Najah, Bethlehem University, Birzeit University, Dar al-Kalima, and Palestine Polytechnic
    • Jordan: Al al-Bayt University, Al-Balqa Applied University, Jerash University, Jordan University of Science and Technology, The Hashemite University, the University of Jordan, Jerash University, the World Islamic Sciences & Education University, and University of Petra
  • Last week/this week. Last Saturday at Columbia Island Marina, Basma, Cathy, Basel, Imad, Reza, and me ran or walked (photo) and Cathy talked about the Mental Game. This Saturday we’re at Reston, where marathoners will run 16 miles while half-marathoners run 9.   

Every life has a story and Awdah Hathaleen’s epitomizes so much of the injustice inherent in Zionism’s treatment of non-Jews. In 1948, with 750,000 other Palestinians, Awdah’s (his name means “Return”) grandparents were displaced from the Naqib/Negev to the Masafer Yatta area south of Hebron.

  •  Awdah, born a year after the Oslo Accords—the “two-state solution”—saw his family home demolished periodically for lack of a permit, while the illegal Carmel settlement continuously expands.
  • Awdah was inspired to nonviolent activism by his uncle, Haj Suleiman, a nonviolent activist killed by Israeli police in 2022. Awdah also taught English in the village school so the children could tell their story to the world, according to his cousin, Eid.   
  • Awdah documented settlers’ efforts to displace his family and village, and ultimately filmed his own killing on July 28 at the hands of a settler. The Israeli killer was freed within 3 days, while Awdah’s body was held for 10 days, and not released until the women of his village went on hunger strike, while many of his male relatives were detained.
  • Awdah contributed to the Oscar-winning No Other Land(2025)documentary, made largely of hand-held video that chronicled in fearsome intimacy the settler violence aimed at ethnically cleansing Masafer Yatta.   
  • Awda’s killer, Yinon Levi, was a known threat, sanctioned in 2024 by President Biden, who since October 2023 also ensured an uninterrupted flow of US arms and 7 US vetoes/no’s on Security Council resolutions seeking to constrain Israel’s cruel and deliberate violence in Gaza. Within days of his election, Trump, who campaigned—among many depravities–on deporting pro-Palestine activists, lifted the sanctions on Levi.  

What it means for Iqraa. It’s a salient point, made at dozens of Iqraa info sessions since 2008, that Iqraa is non-partisan: agnostic toward political parties and peace solutions; however, we’re not indifferent toward injustice.

For the many of us who prioritize a brighter Palestine in every arena—not solely through running:

  • We must stand for radical equality—if it’s “radical” to insist that Palestinian lives are equal to those of Israeli Jews—because every person has an equal right to life, freedom, and education.
  • For our moderate progressive friends who understand that racism is wrong: Zionism is racism. It privileges the rights and lives of one only people over all other people.
  • As we oppose racists, we must also oppose Zionists.
  • We needn’t fear offending our Jewish friends because those who are truly moral venerate the sanctity of life instead of worshipping the state of Israel.  
  • “Progressive except on Palestine” is racist and hypocritical. PEP does not take human equality seriously—radically—and progressives cannot selectively oppose racial supremacism.  

As Americans, our primary touchpoint for opposing Israel’s destruction of Palestine is through the tools of American foreign policy. This includes political movements, politicians, and activists. Our allies in this are not Zionists; in fact, they are anti-Zionists.

Running—and working—for a brighter Palestine…with freedom and justice for all.