Free Palestine

July 2024

Dear Friends of Women & Children First,

Our walls are lined with books, crossing genres and seas and yet we want to talk about a window located on the northeast corner of Clark & Farragut. We’ve often used our windows to display symbols of our bookstore’s pursuit of collective liberation and our belief in the interconnectedness of all freedom struggles. At the start of the year, our side windows had three large flags--the Palestinian flag, a Progress flag, and a Disability Pride flag. On a Wednesday morning in late April, the window where the Palestinian flag was hanging was smashed in. While we waited for the window to be replaced, we commissioned a Palestinian-American artist who created a mural in that space. Today, stronger glass is in that window’s place, and behind it we’ve hung poems by Palestinian authors.

We originally expected to spend this year celebrating our 45th anniversary and fundraising to support the recent living wage increase, but none of that seems especially urgent when more than 38,000 Palestinians have been killed, the majority of which are women and children—and we acknowledge that this is a low estimate. We don’t have nor do we want the space to be complacent in our support for a free Palestine, and we are planning additional programming and fundraising in the coming months. Currently, you can save-the-date for Friday, August 9 for a variety show-style fundraiser organized by actor Lo Yi and hosted by Suhaib Qasim. We are also collaborating with Sky Cubacub to support Disabled Palestinians through direct fundraising. We kicked off this fundraiser in July (Disability Pride Month) pledging 100% of profits from sales of The Hundreds Years War on Palestine to Nara. Also, in case you missed our very well-attended in-person event with Ben Lorber & Shane Burley, here’s a recording of their discussion of their new book, Safety through Solidarity: A Radical Guide to Fighting Antisemitism.

Our bookstore's visible support for Palestinian liberation is not new. Over the years we've had displays devoted to Palestine on our tables and shelves and in our windows. We understand that our support now feels controversial because people in power have utilized institutional and ideological privilege to make accusations of antisemitism against anyone speaking against the actions of the Israeli government. But we refuse the narrative that Jewish and Palestinian safety and dignity are mutually exclusive (or in the words of capitalism, “zero sum”). We believe that securing rights and freedoms for Palestinians is not one side winning, because we don’t believe life is something you have to win to have a right to. Defaulting the inherited right to life and humanity is what is needed for everyone to flourish across this divide. For all of us on staff, led by our Jewish booksellers, support for a free Palestine is the synthesis of everything our bookstore claims to stand for–any power dynamic that denies living beings access to self determination and dignity is a feminist issue, a racial justice issue, a disability justice issue, a reproductive justice issue, an environmental justice issue. Feminism in 2024 calls for us to have a critical analysis of colonialism and white supremacy, which all are enacted through capitalism. We believe feminist institutions like ours are called, whenever possible, to challenge existing power structures and to center those who have been marginalized from benefits of assimilation and endured the historical and systemic subjugation under imperialism.

We've had individual conversations with many of you–some supportive and others challenging. In the spirit of transparency, we want everyone who calls themselves a part of the W&CF community to know that while the window has been replaced and the mural taken down, our commitment to a free Palestine still stands. Our call for an immediate, permanent ceasefire is just as loud. We’re grateful to our supportive community and even those of you who have said, I don’t agree, but I get it. We appreciate that, too.

Working at a feminist bookstore comes with a range of complications, disagreements, and compromises. One added concern we have is for our safety. Many of us have had a heightened sense of fear and dread coming into work due to the repeated harassment we receive via email, social media, phone, and people walking in off the street shouting at us during our workday. While no one was hurt when the window was smashed, the publicity around the broken window sparked a new wave of harassment. Many of our staff have been on edge, burnt out, and scared, but also keenly aware that what we’re experiencing is nothing compared to the horrific suffering being perpetrated upon the Palestinian people and funded by our own government.

We welcome feedback from the community. We welcome the space to try and try again, and we hope you know that we are always working and striving to do better – using our mission statement as our compass and the real life experiences of exploited peoples as our north star.

-Women & Children First

On the Pleasures of Living in Gaza: Remembering a Way of Life Now Destroyed

Mohammed Omer Almoghayer

$19.95

Paperback

ISBN:

9781682196175

Publish Date: 05/06/2025

Beyond the headlines of destruction and despair, discover the untold story of Gaza's humanity-its joys, resilience, and vibrant community spirit, as captured by a native son.

Israel's brutal assault on Gaza has plunged more than two million Palestinians into a ceaseless cycle of violence and...

Free Palestine

Gerber/Hart Queerkindlmarkt