"For Frodo"

"For Frodo"

2023

The Men of the West were trapped, and soon, all about the grey mounds where they stood, forces ten times and more than ten times their match would ring them in a sea of enemies. Sauron had taken the proffered bait in jaws of steel. 

-"The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King", by J.R.R. Tolkien

There are two great, epic battle charges in Return of the King: the Ride of the Rohirrim is the first one, and this is the second. The Fellowship of the Ring, gathered with what little remains of their forces, making one last, defiant stand in what can only be described as the gates of Hell itself. Not for themselves, but for Frodo and his Quest at the heart of the Enemy's land. 

I have seen some book purists complain that Mount Doom and Barad-dûr should not be discernible from the Black Gate, but I for one love this change. It makes it more daunting to have the Dark Tower loom high above Aragorn and his army, with the Eye of Sauron staring right at them. Subsequently, it makes their charge right towards it all the more brave, and epic, and badass. 

"Motaz"

2024

My first artwork of the year is dedicated to the incredible Motaz Azaiza and to all the heroic Palestinian journalists of the Gaza Strip: to those who, like him, continue to report bravely, steadfastly, the horrific situation in their homeland; to those who have made the difficult but also brave decision to leave for safety; and to the all too many who have been unjustly killed in their line of work, murdered by the Israeli State in a cowardly attempt to cover up their crimes.

An unfair burden has been put in the shoulders of these journalists, a lot of whom are shockingly young and just fresh out of university. Not only do they have to struggle to survive during a veritable genocide of their people, but they have to do so whilst reporting on it, whilst serving as spokespersons of all the suffering and grief inflicted on themselves and their kin. Multinational media conglomerates with overwhelmingly more power and resources have consistently and actively refused to treat the Palestinian people with the transparency, truth, and dignity that they deserve. So it's been up to these brave men and women to do the job that others will not do, to arm themselves with their own cameras and their social media pages and their unparalleled courage to tell their own stories and their own realities, to use languages foreign to them so that the world might better understand and sympathize with their plight. I cannot overstate what an enormous, heroic effort that must be, and I am in complete awe and admiration of them; but I also feel sorry and ashamed that these folks, many with their whole lives in front of them, have so unjustly, so cruelly, been thrust into this position. Yet through it all they have never failed to carry themselves with the passion, the dignity, the strength, and the zest for life that I've come to learn so characterizes the Palestinian people, and for that one can't help but admire them even more.

"Sunglasses"

2024

"Proud"

2024

This Pride Month my heart and my thoughts are with Queer Palestinians, whose existence, too inconvenient for Zionist propaganda and western liberal imperialism, has often been minimized, hidden and denied. And yet they exist, and like queer people everywhere, they struggle, they overcome, they love, and they dream.

.

The state of Israel has gone to great lengths to paint itself as a haven for gay rights in the Middle-east; a bastion of civilized, liberal values in a region filled with barbaric, murderous fanatics. And like most of its propaganda, this argument is based on a complete distortion of reality, if not flat out lies.

Homosexuality has been legal in the West Bank since 1951. Efforts to re-criminalize it or to ban LGBTQ advocacy groups have been successfully opposed by civil society. In Gaza homosexuality is illegal (from a law dating back to the British Mandate, I may add), but it is punishable by imprisonment, not death, and this is rarely enforced. By contrast, homosexuality is legal in Israel, but same-sex marriage is not. The rise of the far-right in recent years has coincided with a spike in homophobic hate crimes. Israel has also a notorious record of blackmailing queer Palestinians into becoming informants, threatening to out them to their relatives if they don't cooperate with the occupation.

All this to say: whatever taboos remain to be overcome by Palestinian society, neither them nor their governments make it a habit or a priority to go block by block, house by house, looking for queer people to round up and kill. And however gay-friendly Israel may seem in comparison to its Arab neighbors, it is far, far from what western liberals have come to expect from a "gay paradise", to say nothing of their treatment of Palestinians, queer or straight. In fact, if anyone seems to be the one going out of their way to target queer people, to use them for their own ends, to threaten them with punishment, it is Israel. They use their own LGBTQ community to pinkwash their crimes, and they weaponize the identities of queer Palestinians to turn them against their own people.

Indeed, queer Palestinians face far, far greater danger and oppression from Israel than from whatever Palestinian government nominally rules over them. I imagine things like Pride flags and Pride parades, same-sex marriage, coming out even, are not the first priorities on ones mind when one has the entire apparatus of a colonial nation-state suffocating them; when there are bombs raining down from the sky, and you don't know if you're going to live, or have a home, or a future. It's frankly absurd to be expected to see the absence of rainbow flags as a greater evil than the bombing of cities, the murdering of families, and the destruction of an entire society...or worse, to use it as justification for such crimes.

Because ultimately, it doesn't matter if the fantasy concocted by Zionist propaganda were true or not. It doesn't matter if Palestine really were a hub for murderous homophobic fanatics, and Israel a wonderful gay utopia: occupation is still wrong, apartheid is still wrong, genocide is still wrong. Period. The cheerleaders of this genocide even undertand this on some level. They use the lack of gay rights in Palestine as justification for the killing, but you never see them apply the same reasoning for homophobia in the West, of which many of its proponents are far more vitriolic and draconian than Palestinians actually are. Yet as always, white western people are given leniency for their crimes, no matter how monstrous, while Palestinians and other racialized societies are savagely punished for their flaws, real or imagined.

My hope for the people of Palestine, queer or otherwise, is for them to be free of the crushing weight of Zionist oppression, and to not let anyone else dictate the terms of their own freedom and their own dreams.

Happy Pride 🏳️‍🌈 and Free Palestine 🇵🇸

"The Grey Havens"

2023

... the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise.

-"The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King", by J.R.R. Tolkien

My tribute to the Lord of the Rings Film Trilogy ends, fittingly, at the shores of the sea. The Grey Havens scene has become the epitome of bittersweet endings everywhere; it's breathtakingly sad, but also wholesome, tender, and comforting in its sadness. And it is elevated by one of the most beautiful yet underrated musical themes in the films, which is also melancholic but carrying within it a powerful sentiment of hope. And I don't know how, but Howard Shore made this tune sound like the sea, if that makes any sense.

This scene also notably contains one of my very favorite LotR quotes ever, uttered by none other than Gandalf himself: "I will not say 'do not weep', for not all tears are an evil."

Upgraded this piece on April 2024 with a more accurate, carefully drawn keffiyeh. 

The death toll in Gaza has increased by over 12,000 (at least) since the day I posted this artwork on Tumblr. Not only that, but the lunatic state of Israel is also going out of its way to engulf the entire Middle-east in flames. It's nothing short of staggering that after everything they have done, Zionism's lust for violence just cannot be satisfied. 

All my support to the Palestinian people for bravely resisting these murderous colonizers. 

"Resistance"

2023

It has been a maddening, miserable three months.

When last I posted about Palestine, the death toll in Gaza had just about leveled with the dead count in Israel. Some people may have called that justice; an eye for an eye, and all. Yet as I knew would happen, as any person with sense knew would happen, the state of Israel has dropped any pretense of seeking justice and gone full force on a savage, genocidal campaign. I can't put into words how demoralizing it has been to watch a tragedy of this scope unfold in real time on our screens; how infuriating to witness people and institutions that profess loving diversity and human rights back openly and shamelessly a fascist ethnostate. The world, and more concretely the western world, has utterly set aside the lessons of the War on Terror and slid back into a miasma of Islamophobic hysteria and lust for blood.

I've lost count of all the times that the state of Israel and their enablers have lied. Zionist discourse around this topic is rife with misinformation, unconfirmed rumors, and just plain, willful dishonesty. I take hope in knowing that more and more people, all over the world but especially so in the Global South, are less and less willing to believe the propaganda. Zionists wouldn't be as hysterical as they are if they didn't feel their wall of lies was crumbling. Nevertheless, here are some of the facts:

- Israel is an ethnocratic, settler-colonial state. This is not me saying it; the ideologues and pioneers of Zionism themselves described their project as colonial. From the very beginning, their stated aims have been control and subjugation, not coexistence. Only in later decades, with colonialism taking a bad connotation, did Israel rebrand itself as some sort of indigenous rights movement (an idea that is too absurd for words). But early Zionists were remarkably honest about who they were and what they wanted. The facts on the ground now, with the actions and rhetoric surrounding Gaza and with the encroachment of illegal settlements on the West Bank, all but confirm Israel's colonial aspirations.

If you're unconvinced, consider this: people in the Global South, people who know all too well what colonialism looks like, are far more likely to sympathize with Palestine than with Israel. And who supports Israel, then? Former and current colonial powers. Does it seem at all likely that countries like the United States and Britain would ever back indigenous national aspirations? I think not.

- Israel enforces a system of apartheid against Palestinians under their control. Again, this isn't me saying it; Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and even Israeli human rights organizations like B'tselem have confirmed this and published reports about it. Google and read them for yourselves, by all means.

And if you're still unconvinced, consider this: black people in South Africa, including Nelson Mandela himself, have always sympathized with Palestine, and have also drawn parallels between the apartheid they lived through and what Israel does. Do you really think you have any moral or intellectual authority to tell those people that they don't know what they're talking about? Because you don't.

- Under international law, an occupied people has the right to resist their occupiers. An occupying entity however does not have the right of self defense against the people it occupies. You can say that killing civilians is not legitimate resistance. That's fine. But then I expect you to apply that same principle to Israel and their indiscriminate bombing of Gaza. I also expect you to ponder wether Hamas targeting only military personnel would have made any difference in how you feel about the attacks. I know for a fact that even when only their soldiers are attacked, Israeli reprisals have always been savage, disproportionate, and deadly.

And if you're one of those (deluded) people who insists there's no occupation, I will say only this: when this started, Israeli officials stated loud and clear their intent to cut all electricity, fuel, food and water to the Gaza Strip, and then did just so. What kind of country has that amount of power over another? An occupier, that's who.

- Hamas was founded in 1987, and came to power in 2006 with 44.45% of voter support. That makes 36 years since its founding, and 17 years governing Gaza (note: Gaza. They do not govern the West Bank). Given these facts, you cannot possibly claim that the problems in the region start and end with Hamas, and you also cannot claim that Gazans collectively are to blame for their own destruction, what with half the population on the Strip being underage and all. If you insist on this, then I expect you to apply that same reasoning to Israelis. Netanyahu is the longest serving prime minister in his country's history, and has repeatedly been voted into power despite mounting evidence of corruption and war-mongering. Israelis are also required to serve in the military, and there isn't really a big movement to end it (those few that do refuse the draft are hella brave, by the way, and heroes in my book). Still, the majority of Israelis are, have been, or will be a part of their country's war machine at some point in their lives. I'd say that makes their society complicit, at least much more so than Palestinians are. Would you say that a people who consistently vote for the same war-mongers and that stand unconditionally with their military deserve to be blown to smithereens? I mean...that's your argument, dears, not mine.

I would also note that Netanyahu himself was caught on mic admitting to have propped up Hamas to thwart any possibility of establishing a Palestinian state. So...make of that what you will. It isn't the first time a colonial power props up radical militants to undermine secular, more moderate groups.

- And while we're on the subject of reasonability and compromise: in their 2017 charter, Hamas states its willingness to compromise on a temporary two-state solution. In the past, they have suggested long-term truces in exchange of assurances. Hell, last month's temporary ceasefire shows that they are a party that can be reasoned and negotiated with. But compromise and negotiation are not in the interest of the Israeli State. Since the earliest beginnings of the Zionist movement, total control over the land of Palestine has been their ultimate goal. And that goal has often come at the expense not only of Palestinians, but of their own people as well, as recent events showcase perfectly.

I know many of you are only too willing to believe that Muslim militants have no motives other than hatred, and no tools other than wanton violence. But whatever they may be, whatever we may think of them, the truth is that Hamas has been the more flexible party. They have concrete political aims, some of which are not that unreasonable. If Israel and the West refuse outright to even consider any of their terms, then perhaps the world ought to reconsider who the rash, irrational party is in this scenario.

- On the subject of violence: that story of the forty beheaded babies was a ruse; as in, there's no evidence for it. None. But again, don't take my word for it! The IDF, the White House, mainstream media outlets and the Israeli press, all of which amplified and spread this rumor and none of which are particularly sympathetic to Palestinians, they all walked back on their claims. You might want to consider what made you so willing to believe this lie, and maybe why you continue to believe it even after the people who first told you about it have said it's not true. It isn't the first time the state of Israel has made wild claims with either insufficient or non-existent evidence to support them.

That's not all. Mounting evidence, published by the Israeli press no less, shows that at least some Israeli civilians were killed in the crossfire between the IDF and Hamas. Hell, there is also evidence, provided by survivors, that the IDF may have killed its own citizens deliberately in an effort to wipe out the Hamas militants that held them hostage. The Israeli government have also revised their casualty numbers from 1400 to less than 1200, and it wouldn't surprise me if that number were to get lower still.

Regardless of wether Hamas killed all those people or not, the truth is this: there are at least 21,822 people killed in Gaza. That's over eighteen times the total Israeli death count. 8,800 of those killed are children. That's more than two hundred times the number of fake beheaded babies. The death toll and displacement have reached historic proportions, surpassing even the Nakba of 1948. Yet by all accounts, no more Israeli civilians have been killed by Palestinian militants since the first days of the escalation, that is, unless any hostages in Gaza have been executed (though they have more likely been killed by the Israeli military itself, as has indeed been proven to be the case). It is Palestinians who are dying now, and who have been dying over these months, over this year, and over these decades. I don't want to see you shed crocodile tears over civilian deaths if the only time you bother to turn your attention to this conflict is when Israelis die. You have no business pointing fingers at me if you support Israel's colonial, genocidal enterprise. As for me, I know where I stand. I regret all civilian loss of life, but if I am made to choose between colonizer and colonized, between oppressor and oppressed, between the people who are busy making TikToks and the people who are busy dying, my choice will always be clear.  

Free Palestine 🇵🇸