About my Palestinian son, born as we resist genocide
By Iman Abid, Organizing & Advocacy Director
For nine months this past year, I carried my Palestinian son, a baby born to grow the olive trees of tomorrow, born in the midst of unbearable pain for his people. I waited for his first breath as I witnessed death around me—the suffering of my people enduring a genocide that my child will inherit the resilience to resist.
I thought often of our Palestinian mothers who give birth to life while facing death, whose babies lie buried beside them under rubble, whose children never have the chance to simply live.
The juxtaposition of carrying life amid so much loss hasn’t left me; it drives me to fight for a world my son and all Palestinian children deserve.
IMAN ABID:
“Whether it takes 1 year or 10, I am committed to fighting alongside you. For my son, for all of our children, and for everyone back home who doesn’t have the privilege of relative safety we in the U.S. do.”
I want him to know that even as he grew in my womb, we carried on. Through the exhaustion, the nausea, and the heartbreak, we pushed forward because our privilege of relative safety demands that we do. The guilt remains heavy—knowing I am here, able to hold my son, while so many mothers are grieving their own children. But I will continue to use this privilege to push forward every single day. I have no other choice.
Now, as I’m returning to work at USCPR, I’m met with both opportunity and stark political reality.
While we organize around Sen. Bernie Sanders’ historic Joint Resolutions of Disapproval to block Biden’s $20 billion in weapons that fuel genocide, we must acknowledge that these measures are unlikely to pass. That anti-Palestinian racism and AIPAC bribes run deep in Congress. That for the United States to use its power to end this genocide, we must first completely upend its political reality.
That is the work I am driven toward, and the work I am asking you to join me in today. If you’re able, please chip in to fuel our movement building efforts.
If you want to organize alongside us at the local, state, or federal levels, please check out USCPR's newly updated Stop Gaza Genocide Toolkit.
It pains me more than you can know, but the fight for Palestinian liberation will not end this year. This genocide is unlikely to end this year. This election won’t change this. What happens on November 5 won’t end the suffering of our people.
This is the worst stage of the genocide yet, and now Israel is working to “finish the job.” Just yesterday, Israel banned the UNRWA aid agency to cut off Gaza from any little aid that remains and starve Palestinians to death.
While President Biden and Vice President Harris have repeatedly shifted their language as Israel’s genocide has become brazen, they have not shifted U.S. policy one inch. They are still sending the bombs that murder our children and our people.
Met with that reality, we have no choice but to do everything in our power to resist. To change the circumstances. To fight for our peoples’ right to live.
That includes both 1.) political advocacy to fight for an immediate arms embargo to halt weapons to Israel in Congress, and 2.) grassroots organizing for a People’s Arms Embargo to disrupt the weapons pipeline, targeting complicit corporations like Maersk and Chevron.
With enough grassroots power, with enough action for boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS), and with enough people organizing and fighting for human rights year after year, we can and we will end the oppression of our people.
That’s why two weeks ago, I took my son to his first protest.
Whether it takes 1 year or 10, I am committed to fighting alongside you. For my son, for all of our children, and for everyone back home who doesn’t have the privilege of relative safety we in the U.S. do.
No matter who wins on November 5, we have a lot of work to do to build undeniable movement power, elect leaders who genuinely support Palestinian rights, and end U.S. military funding to Israel once and for all.
If you’re able, please chip in to sustain our work, or visit this toolkit to find ways to take action—whether through BDS tactics, mobilizing your community, or pressuring elected officials in your city council, your state legislature, or Congress.
Our people have a right to liberation, and with your support, we will make it happen.
Iman Abid is the Organizing & Advocacy Director for USCPR Action.