Hind Katkhuda 3/4/24 Hind Katkhuda 3/4/24

Why Arabs are Abandoning America

Statue of Liberty holding a Palestinian flag symbolizing a gesture of support and unity, which the US is lacking based on its response to the genocide in Gaza.

A lot of people are asking me if I’m excited to move to London. I don’t know how to respond because the reality is it’s hard to feel right now. In order to feel anything, let alone excitement, I need to let in all the pain, grief, anger, and hopelessness that’s been piling up for the last 5 months since the war on Gaza started. That’s too much, so I keep it at bay hoping that one day I’ll wake up to news of a ceasefire and I can open the floodgates to process it all. It’s been hard to feel anything. So I go on about my life compartmentalizing - showing up to every sliver of time and space from zoom calls, to meals, to playgrounds like nothing else (aka a genocide) is happening. For some, this topic is political. I envy you. For me it’s deeply personal & existential.

Over the last 5 months, I’ve needed to learn how to exist in a system that is built on dehumanizing me for being Palestinian or Arab. I had learnt about systemic racism, one that is so deep, institutional, and foundational to the functioning of America that it supersedes whoever is in power. I understood it intellectually. But now I can say I experience it viscerally.

I’ve been living two realities and the dissonance resulting from their disparity has been a migraine-inducing mind fuck. A reality where I’m watching hundreds of daily videos of unimaginable catastrophes in Gaza.. from civilians mass starvation, to an explanation of Doctors Without Borders’ new acronym of WCNSF (Wounded Child No Surviving Family), to little girls tugging at their dead mothers asking them to stand up from under the rubble. Followed by a reality of the American government’s circus denying and gaslighting our pain... where Joe Biden (aka geriatric genocide Joe) questions the Palestinian civilian death toll as if the $20B dollars in military aid to Israel he approved had nothing to do with it… a reality where Blinken utters meaningless words about “negotiating” for additional food and water to be let into Gaza as if having them is a privilege.. a reality where the US ambassador to the UN vetoes a ceasefire resolution for the 3rd time as if she’s a teenager at a Model UN conference and her veto won’t directly result in the killing of 215 Palestinians PER DAY, majority of whom are women and children

I hear you America - your message is clear: the value of my life, a Palestinian or Arab, is not just worth less, it’s worthless. The exchange rate of our souls has reached rock bottom.

I’ve been in the U.S. for 16 years. It is the place where I grew into adulthood and motherhood. I will miss my friends and my memories. I’m grateful for the opportunities. I’m sad to be leaving on such a bitter note, but happy that the mask has come off and I know what America really thinks about people like me. I do not belong here, a place that systematically values my life less than others simply for being Palestinian.

So, am I excited to move to the UK, another (slightly less) racist and zionist state? I don’t have an answer yet. But I know that I look forward to the day I don’t have to exist in the US system that is openly and proudly funding the genocide of my people and shielding the perpetrators from any accountability. I deserve better.

Adios America

Hind Katkhuda 3/1/24 Hind Katkhuda 3/1/24

An ode to my Palestinian Teta

1943: Teta Fairuz, born in Akka, Palestine

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

Hind Katkhuda 3/1/24 Hind Katkhuda 3/1/24

Accountability is the only way to a prosperous Arab future