03/12/2024
Here you can read about the new Imagined Community school initiative in Kahn Younis, Gaza who we are supporting with our fundraiser on Saturday: "Imagined Community"
Introduction:
We are living in a reality so horrific that it seems almost unbelievable. For more than nine months since the outbreak of the war, we have been sinking deeper each day into a darkness that is beyond our imagination. It is a continuous path of loss, dismemberment, and destruction. The war has inflicted, in an unprecedented way, enormous devastation—not only on humans, urban infrastructure, and utilities, but also across all fields of learning, production, and the ability to act and live outside the never-ending cycle of suffering imposed by this war.
According to The Guardian newspaper, 44 years of development have been erased in the Gaza Strip. In other words, the war machine has returned Gaza to the state it was in back in 1980. And as we continue to live in Gaza, we can clearly feel that the description from The Guardian is not an exaggeration, but rather an accurate, and perhaps even conservative, account. The scale of destruction and collapse is beyond comprehension. Simply walking through any of the bombed-out streets of Gaza is enough to confirm the truth of this. Amidst all this tragedy, the official institutions have collapsed, and the response from unofficial organizations was delayed and insufficient. The people found themselves relying only on themselves and the survival strategies they devised to protect themselves from the threats of famine and disease. They were left to face the monstrous war machine, which appeared to be devouring all forms of life in an overwhelming way. Consequently, the people had no choice but to depend on themselves in an attempt to survive.
Despite the fact that the enormity and brutality of the catastrophe created a pressure greater than what an ordinary person could bear, which led to seeing acts of cruelty, aggressive tendencies, and selfishness during many moments of the crisis, it also awakened latent, creative, and innovative abilities within the social fabric itself, enabling it to recover and continue in production and action. These creative acts were aimed at preserving the collective from the risk of extinction. They remind us of what Palestinian thinker and theorist Munir Fasheh calls “Palestine of Authenticity,” that is, the Palestine of the people, not the Palestine of institutions and agencies.
The experience of the people during the ongoing genocide in Gaza has remained a source of knowledge and action at various levels. It is an experience that provides inspiration and knowledge, as well as hope, showing that "salvation" is possible and credible. It is knowledge that should be nurtured and considered a resource for learning and research, deserving of attention and care.
Munir Fasheh describes the knowledge of the people in his writings: "The people are the hope and the solution," stating: "There is knowledge associated with the continuity of life on earth, but it is excluded from universities and not recognized. This knowledge is that of the people, and their immense ability to create life in times of crisis." About the Initiative: "Imagined Community"
What is "Imagined Community"?
Imagined Community is a space for authentic dialogue with a group of children and young adolescents. By “authentic dialogue,” we mean a conversation in which all participating parties have the opportunity to share their knowledge and experiences. Within this space of genuine dialogue, a live and real interaction occurs with the knowledge of the people, which is action-based rather than abstract concepts or rigid ideas. Imagined Community brings together children and the people in conversations that enhance their spiritual and emotional well-being. These conversations draw from the knowledge they have acquired and continue to practice in the midst of genocide. For example, the knowledge of children in making kites to provide them with hope, even without guidance from institutions or access to stationery; their knowledge in creating water carriers by recycling scattered debris around them; and their knowledge of gathering papers and wood to fuel the “mud oven” for warmth—all of these knowledge forms will serve as learning sources for Arabic language and math skills. Teachers will use these experiences to build lessons for teaching Arabic and mathematics. We will work in the displacement camp areas of the Khan Younis region
