Movement Media Organizations Are Coming Together To Build Power

By Maya Schenwar, Lara Witt 

August 29, 2024

Source: Waging Nonviolence

Hands in Solidarity, Hands of Freedom mural on the side of the United Electrical Workers trade union building on West Monroe Street at Ashland Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. Artist Dan Manrique Arias painted this mural in 1997 on the south wall of the United Electrical Workers Union. Photo credit: Terence Faircloth

Fourteen values-aligned organizations have formed the Movement Media Alliance, a new coalition of social justice-driven journalism platforms aimed at sharing resources and transforming the news.Last November, 25 media-makers from 15 independent U.S.-based organizations came together around a long table at Chicago’s Haymarket House to talk about the future of media and how we might build it together. 

Although our organizations differed in focus, audience, size, perspective and origin, we all believed in the power of media to inform and fuel social movements that transform the world. Many of us embraced the concept of movement journalism, defined by Project South as “the practice of journalism in the service of … social, political and economic transformation.” We gathered together to explore a pressing question: During these desperately urgent times, how can we work collaboratively to sharpen and grow the practice of movement journalism?

Our publications convened amid cataclysmic changes in the broader media universe — and more have transpired since. Over the past year, we’ve seen a flood of recent shutdowns (from Buzzfeed News to The Messenger and more), layoffs (including at legacy outlets like The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and Wall Street Journal), bankruptcies (most notably Vice) and near-deaths and acquisitions (such as Sports Illustrated and Jezebel). The media landscape is also shrinking. A Medill analysis recently found, “The loss of local newspapers accelerated in 2023 to an average of 2.5 per week.” 

Meanwhile, recent events — including Israel’s genocide against Palestine, the repression of protest, the flourishing of MAGA politics, continued environmental destruction and the intensification of anti-trans policy, to name a few — have exposed how mainstream media often fuel grave political harm by platforming and showing deference to the perpetrators of these injustices.

When our journalism organizations met in November 2023, we had originally planned to focus on covering the 2024 election. Instead, we pivoted because an emergency was at hand: the U.S. government’s support of Israel’s genocide against Gaza and the ways our corporate media outlets were — especially in those early days — bolstering genocidal rhetoric and minimizing the extent of the atrocities.Over two days, we built the collaboration that became Media Against Apartheid and Displacement, a centralized and curated media hub that aggregates articles from trustworthy, independent news sources reporting on the ongoing genocide against — and occupation of — Palestine, the international complicity that props up that genocide and occupation, and the rising global movements for Palestinian liberation. MAAD also gathers media focused on settler colonialism, apartheid, genocide, state violence, surveillance, displacement and occupation worldwide, elevating ideas and insights that point the way toward a liberated future. After our convening at Haymarket House, we reached out to more organizations to build with. MAAD collaborating publications now include Prism, Truthout, In These Times, Mondoweiss, Palestine Square, Haymarket Books, The Real News Network, The Forge, Waging Nonviolence, The Dig, The Kansas City Defender, Briarpatch, Baltimore Beat, Hammer & Hope, Scalawag, Convergence Magazine and Analyst News. 

MAAD does what none of our publications can do alone: It provides an extensive range of information and analysis on one of the key issues of our time, with each organization contributing an essential piece of the puzzle so that together we can write a thorough first draft of this history. More broadly, MAAD represents an unprecedented coalition. Beyond individual journalists, we are media organizations uniting to say, “We refuse to participate in the journalistic status quo. We choose truth.”

Throughout the winter and spring, our organizations worked together in stops and starts, through Slack channels and texts and laughter and chaos. We even met each other’s cats on Zoom. We couldn’t believe we hadn’t gotten to know each other before. Through our work together, we recognized an essential and oft-forgotten truth: We can’t make long-term journalistic change alone.

MAAD is just one example of what we can do when we come together: We can meet emergencies with real strength. Our individual outlets may be small relative to the largest corporate media, but together we’re formidable — able to more powerfully advance social and political transformation.

In June, many of our movement media organizations convened again. Together, we began work on Communities Beyond Elections, a forthcoming collaborative feature that will look at the impact of electoral politics on a range of oppressed groups, and will delve into how these communities are building liberatory futures inside and beyond those political realms. We made plans for covering the Republican and Democratic National Conventions. And perhaps most importantly, we embarked on a groundbreaking discussion of how our independent, non-corporate news organizations could collaborate to support each other financially, with the knowledge that a vibrant, varied, sustainable movement journalism ecosystem benefits us all.

We made a big decision: to launch the Movement Media Alliance, or MMA, a coalition of grassroots-aligned, social justice-driven journalism organizations committed to accurate, transparent, accountable, principled and just media. The MMA officially launches today, as we dedicate ourselves to working collaboratively to amplify our impact and sustain our work. Our members include Truthout, Prism, In These Times, Convergence, Waging Nonviolence, Scalawag, Inquest, The Real News Network, Baltimore Beat, Palestine Square, Respair Production & Media, The Forge and Haymarket Books.

In connecting with each other, we’ve come to recognize more palpably that our individual outlets can’t afford to blithely compete under capitalist frameworks. We can’t survive by simply going for clickbait, or conforming to mainstream media’s more palatable priorities in order to bring in revenue. We also can’t afford to abandon democracy — and oppressed communities — by simply letting our publications die.

Instead, we’re building power together.

There is power in creating movement journalism in a landscape where readers, viewers and listeners feel abandoned or unseen by traditional media. Movement journalism offers a critical tool for communities to learn, make informed decisions, expand their solidarities and share solutions for the issues that affect their lives. It inspires, shapes and sustains social movements.

Much like MAAD, which is an unprecedented show of solidarity and power from 18 different platforms to uplift accurate news and analysis on settler-colonial atrocities, we are building the Movement Media Alliance during a critical time. We take inspiration from values-driven media coalitions like the Media Consortium, which sunsetted in 2019, and Press On, a Southern media collective for movement journalists. We recognize the importance of working with editors, reporters, producers and storytellers across the country toward social justice. We share a vision that eschews outdated and white supremacist notions of “objectivity” — because the myths of objectivity, impartiality and “balance” create false equivalencies between injustice and justice, inequity and equity, right and wrong. These measures are no guarantee of journalism that can hold power to account. 

Fascist movements are growing. We are witnessing the expansion of hyper-militarized police forces, growing carceral violence, surveillance of marginalized populations, shrinking reproductive autonomy, the unmitigated spread of COVID-19, crumbling infrastructure, stagnating wages, unaffordable housing met by encampment sweeps, far-right border and immigration policies gleefully touted by leaders from both parties and a genocide of Palestinian peoples made possible by our elected officials and American-made weaponry and technology.

Corporate media often produces journalism that maintains power structures for those who can live comfortably within them. It manufactures consent for genocide and large-scale imperialist wars; it sows the seeds of mistrust and distracts people from the class warfare of capitalists against the poor and working classes; it engenders hopelessness, incites fear and makes the issues affecting us appear insurmountable. Movement media helps connect communities to share organizing strategies; it informs readers and listeners how to lead divestment efforts and build solidarity to keep each other safe from harm; it can help inspire unionization efforts; and it can alter local, state and federal policy for the better. Instead of adhering to fictitious standards of objectivity, as movement media organizations we proudly hold ourselves to standards of rigorous research, evidence-based reporting, interviews and fact-checking. We prioritize accuracy and accountability while recognizing that for us to be free of all systems of oppression, we cannot be the stenographers for those maintaining unjust systems.

Storytelling is a key tool in building power for our communities. There is no power for the people without journalism by and for the people.But movement media and community-led, principled journalism can’t survive on values alone — and most of our organizations consistently struggle to obtain adequate resources and funding. One of the reasons we are building the MMA is our hope for a future in which members don’t have to be beholden to volatile funding schedules and landscapes, a future in which we can provide our staff with more abundance, expansive solidarity, safety and security, and help make our jobs attainable to marginalized communities. In short, we want to make this work sustainable for the long term. Movement media makers should have pensions, support for families of all structures, the best health care, the space and time to think creatively and without the fear of scarcity or layoffs. We believe that pursuing this abundant future is best done together, pooling our ideas for resource-sharing, community-building and creative collaboration.

Fascist movements are well-funded, as are right-wing, white supremacist outlets. By allowing the proliferation of mis- and disinformation, we move even further away from the possibility of a society in which everyone is safe and autonomous. No matter who wins the presidential election, the threat and realities of repression will persist without a robust movement media ecosystem. The MMA is just one solution of many, but it’s a powerful step forward.

While we are starting off small, we will grow our partners to work toward a more beautiful, liberatory media ecosystem. As we continue to gather together around tables and puzzle our way forward, we’re building hope and community. Our dream of a media future that is collaborative, abundant and values-aligned is within reach — if we commit to it. We hope our readers and listeners will join us in this journey!

 

“Like Apartheid.” Maasai in Ngorongoro Conservation Area Protest Against Forced Evictions and Loss of Basic Rights

The government has removed the Ngorongoro division from the voters’ register, denying the Maasai the right to vote.

By Chris Lang

August 30, 2024

Source: REDD Monitor

Maasai Indigenous People living in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in Tanzania protest human rights abuses.

The Maasai Indigenous People living in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in Tanzania are facing a new round of violence and eviction from their homes. In January 2024, the government announced that will change the legal status of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area to prevent human settlement inside the protected area. About 100,000 people, nearly all Maasai pastoralists, would be forcibly evicted as a result.

In August 2024, the government removed the Ngorongoro division from the voters’ register thus denying Maasai pastoralists their right to vote. Ezeiel Omelangi, a Maasai activist from Ngorongoro accused the government of deliberately denying essential services from the Maasai. Healthcare and education services as well as water supply have been cut, and now the right to vote has been removed.

“This is a clear violation of our right to vote,” Omelangi told Down to Earth. “Our way of life and our very freedom are under attack.”

Onesmo Olengurumwa is the National Coordinator of the Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition. He told Down to Earth that nearly half the population of Ngorongoro has been left out of the voters’ register. “Denying these people the right to vote means the the entire district cannot choose leaders of their choice,” Olengurumwa said. “It is time to end this systemic discrimination against the Maasai people.”

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On 18 August 2024, thousands of Maasai blocked the road to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in protest against the forced evictions and loss of basic rights. 16 people were arrested but subsequently released.

One of the banners held by the Maasai read, “We are required to move with pass cards in our own land. Like Apartheid SA.”

Joseph Oleshangay, a human rights lawyer, told Down to Earth,

“It may not be white against black as in Apartheid South Africa. But we feel like we are living in a Bantustan. . . .

“It is just like South Africa now for the Maasai. Their healthcare has been cut. If they want to go to the nearest health centre in the surrounding districts, they must carry their pass. Else the authorities will never allow them back in.”

Maasai community members have accused park rangers and security forces of “intimidation and rights abuses, including killings, sexual assaults and livestock seizures”, Al Jazeera reports.

The protest was organised to raise awareness about the human rights abuses that the Maasai communities in Ngorongoro are facing, including the threat of eviction from their homes.

Yet in a bizarre statement issued on 18 August 2024, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority states that,

The demonstrations, widely reported on social media platforms, should serve as clear evidence to the international community and the media that there are no human rights violations or mistreatment of residents with the NCA.

The protests against conservation related human rights abuses in Tanzania are having some effect. In June 2024, the EU stopped funding for a conservation project in Tanzania. The US$20 million conservation project was initially meant for Tanzania and Kenya. Ana Pisonero Hernandez, an EU spokeswoman, told Al Jazeera that,

“The decision to amend the call was made to ensure the project’s objectives in terms of human rights protection and environmental concerns are achieved given recent tensions in the region.”

In 2023, the government of Tanzania denied three Members of European Parliament entry to the country who wanted to investigate the human rights abuses against the Maasai.

And in April 2024, the World Bank suspended funding for its Resilient Natural Resource Management for Tourism and Growth (REGROW). This US$150 million project is supposed to improve management of natural resources and tourism assets in Southern Tanzania, including the Ruaha National Park. But widespread human rights abuses were taking place against communities living near the park.

Two villagers, with support from the Oakland Institute, filed a complaint with the Bank’s Inspection Panel, which led to the suspension of funding.

Bishop Wofgang Pisa, the President of the Tanzania Episcopal Conference, urged the government “to respect the basis of good governance, transparency, truth, peace, and justice,” Vatican News reports. Bishop Pisa said,

“For what is happening in Ngorongoro, we ask the government ot return to the table and talk with the people of Ngorongoro, listen to them, and do not force them to relocate, or deny them essential social services, or block food from reaching them. Also, they should be given the right to vote where they currently reside. Today, you cannot tell the Tanzanian public that the Maasai are relocating voluntarily and then tomorrow we see Maasai on the streets crying and claiming their rights are being taken away.”

Further support for the Maasai came from the Maasai International Solidarity Alliance (MISA) who put out a statement on 19 August 2024. The statement is posted here in full:

Maasai International Solidarity Alliance (MISA) supports the Ngorongoro movement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — 19 August 2024

The Maasai International Solidarity Alliance (MISA) stands in full solidarity with the Maasai of Ngorongoro who have bravely blocked the Ngorongoro-Serengeti road on Sunday 18 August 2024. Thousands of protesters demonstrated peacefully, sharing their plight with the world: “We are evicted so rich people change our homes into hotels”, “We are experiencing apartheid practices from Tanzanian government”, “It is sad to witness women suffering of oppression led by a woman President” or “Prisoners vote but Maasai of Ngorongoro not allowed to register as voters”. MISA is deeply impressed with the courage, determination and unity of the Ngorongoro Maasai, and fully supports their demands. It is high time their right to live and stay on the land is recognised, and their human rights as Tanzanian citizens are respected.

MISA calls on the Tanzanian President to:

• Immediately initiate a dialogue process with legitimate and elected Maasai leaders;
• Respect the right to peaceful demonstration and refrain from any form of violence;
• Uphold the right of all Tanzanian citizens, including the people of Ngorongoro, to vote and select their elected representatives by allowing them to participate in the ongoing voters’ registration;
• Restore all social services that have been blocked for almost three years, to respect and fulfil the human rights to food, education and health;
• Put an end to any attempt to displace the Maasai from Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA);
• Develop a sustainable strategy to address the acute food insecurity and humanitarian crisis in NCA, including lifting the ban on subsistence farming, ensuring full access to grazing areas and supporting pastoralism as a viable and resilient livelihood;
• Ensure full participation of the people living in NCA in the management of the area and obtain free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) for any decision impacting their lives and livelihoods;
• Ensure local communities substantially benefit from tourism operations in NCA including through benefit-sharing, decent employment and participatory management of tourism activities to ensure tourism levels remain sustainable;
• Stop all forms of anti-Maasai discrimination, confiscation of livestock and the alienation of land across all Maasai districts.

Recognising the historical and shared responsibilities of the European Union and its Member States (including Germany), the United Kingdom and the United States in the current crisis, MISA calls on the international community to:

• Openly condemn the decision to deny the Maasai of Ngorongoro the right to vote; donors funding good governance and the democratisation of Tanzania should insist that the rights of Maasai must be respected like those of any other Tanzanian citizen;
• Address the current food security crisis in NCA, including by making funding available for pro-pastoralist programmes to advance people’s right to feed themselves, and by providing urgent humanitarian assistance;
• Stop funding conservation projects that separate humans from nature and lead to the displacement of Indigenous Peoples from their lands; Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS) should immediately stop all its activities in Maasai land, especially in Loliondo where it is complicit in the grabbing of land (Pololet).

Noting that Ngorongoro was recognised as Natural World Heritage in 1979, Biosphere Reserve in 1981, Cultural World Heritage in 2010 and as Ngorongoro-Lengai Global Geopark in 2018, MISA calls on UNESCO, the World Heritage Committee (WHC) and advisory bodies ICOMOS and IUCN to:

• Recognise that its recommendations have, over the last 20 years, had a negative impact on the human rights of people in NCA, including their right to food, by encouraging a cultivation ban and prohibiting access to essential grazing areas such as the Ngorongoro, Olromti and Embakaai craters; all these restrictions should be lifted;
• Stop facilitating the displacement of Maasai from NCA including by recommending that incentives be set up to relocate people;
• Recognise that Maasai people, their culture and pastoralist practices are contributing to the integrity and conservation of the site and should be protected;
• Condemn the removal of social services in NCA and demand that people’s right to education, health and housing be respected;
• Review the nomination status of NCA in light of the fact that Indigenous Peoples have the right to FPIC and that Maasai were never consulted;
• Condemn the lack of involvement, participation and consultation of the Maasai in the management of the World Heritage Site, which is contrary to UNESCO rules of procedures, and demand immediate action to ensure co-management by Indigenous Peoples;
• Ensure full participation, involvement and consent of the Maasai in UNESCO and WHC decision-making processes including reactive missions and all decisions about Ngorongoro.

For any media inquiries, please contact:

Joseph Oleshangay, Human Rights Lawyer: joseshangay [a] gmail . com; Mobile +255769637623

The Maasai International Solidarity Alliance (MISA) is an international alliance standing in solidarity with the Maasai of Northern Tanzania. We bring together international faith-based organisations, human rights organisations, international aid and development organisations, as well as grassroots organisations, individual activists, researchers and lawyers representing the Maasai in several land cases. Our alliance includes, among others, the Africa Europe Faith Justice Network (AEFJN), Agrecol Association for AgriCulture & Ecology, Coalition of European Lobbies for Eastern African Pastoralism (CELEP), CIDSE – International family of Catholic social justice organisations (International), Indigenous Movement for Peace Advancement and Conflict Transformation (IMPACT), FIAN International, FINAL GOVERNANCE, KOO – Koordinierungsstelle der Österreichischen Bischofskonferenz (Coordinating Office of the Austrian Bishops’ Conference), Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker (Society for Threatened Peoples), Misereor, PINGO’s Forum (Pastoralists Indigenous Non-Governmental Organisations), PWC (Pastoral Women’s Council), TEST (Traditional Ecosystems Survival Tanzania), UCRT (Ujamaa Community Resource Team) and Welthaus Graz. Our main objective is to put an end to the human rights violations facing the Maasai of northern Tanzania.

Fighting Climate Disinformation Is an Urgent Priority

The fossil fuel industry runs a sprawling, lavishly funded operation spreading lies about the climate crisis. Pushing back against that disinformation needs to be a priority for the climate movement.

By Aaron Regunberg

August 30, 2024

Source: Jacobin




I live in Rhode Island. Drive through any coastal community in our state, and you will see lawn signs opposing the latest offshore wind turbine project. Show up to a town council hearing on these projects, and you will hear residents arguing not just that climate change is a hoax but that wind turbines kill whales (they don’t) and all manner of other specious claims — disinformation directly funded by the fossil fuel industry.

When I was a state legislator, I experienced the overwhelmingly powerful effects of climate disinformation on an even more regular basis. Every time climate advocates fought the proposed expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure in our state, from new pipelines to a massive gas power plant, we came up against the same (now discredited) propaganda: natural gas is “clean energy,” and investing in this “bridge fuel” would actually lower our state’s carbon emissions. This disinformation made it much harder to persuade potential legislative allies to support all manner of supply-side and demand-side climate initiatives.

So when I first saw the headline of the Jacobin essay that has been making the rounds in climate circles this week, “Obsessing Over Climate Disinformation Is a Wrong Turn,” in which author Holly Buck argues that fighting climate disinformation is “a strategic dead end” — I thought I must have misread it.

There are so many examples like those I’ve experienced of how climate disinformation is — in real, concrete, practical terms — helping the oil and gas industry block and delay what Buck describes as “the actual work of climate action, which, at the end of the day, is remaking physical systems to replace the 80 percent of fossil energy that now powers our lives with clean energy.” That’s why the climate movement’s focus on combating this disinformation is so urgent and essential.
The Disinformation Obstacle

The strongest point Buck makes is that, at a moment when we in the United States “actually have some funds for climate action on the ground” from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the climate movement should be focusing on “things like explaining to people what heat pumps are, campaigning to expedite transmission lines, and helping communities understand the labyrinth of federal funding.” Buck argues that, in these kinds of conversations, climate disinformation isn’t the right organizing or communication framework — and she’s right. But in my experience, she’s mostly arguing with a straw man here; I certainly don’t often hear climate advocates claim that we should dismiss people’s concerns over whether “they can afford electric cars” or whether “wind and solar can power everything” as disinformation and then “write off the people with these concerns as disinformation victims.”

If that were the extent of her thesis, then it would be correct, if somewhat banal. But that’s not the thrust of her piece. Buck is essentially claiming that climate disinformation is not a serious obstacle to climate action, an argument that rests on several incorrect premises.

The first is what seems to be a misunderstanding of how Big Oil’s climate disinformation strategies actually work. Buck writes that “most people are not in fact swayed by corporate reassurances” because “people are profoundly skeptical of not just fossil fuel companies but of all corporations.” But aside from corporate greenwashing campaigns, the fossil fuel industry has never used direct communication as its primary tool for spreading climate disinformation.

Oil and gas companies are not sending representatives to people’s homes saying, “Wind turbines kill whales, trust us” — they’re supporting the creation of a whole network of front groups to deliver that messaging in much more organic ways. They’re not only funding ads to gin up a gas stove culture war — they’re also paying popular social media influencers to do that dirty work for them. And they aren’t just producing materials on their corporate letterheads falsely claiming fracked gas lowers carbon emissions — they’re funding programs and researchers at elite universities to launder these claims through prestigious academic institutions and scientific journals.

To say that people are immune to such efforts because they distrust corporations is to ignore the way these corporations seek, often very effectively, to deliver their disinformation not as corporate missives but as messages of culturally hegemonic common sense.

Second, Buck seems to imply that efforts to address climate disinformation are soaking up resources and attention that should be going into programs focused on helping people access and buy into decarbonization programs. But that’s simply not true. A huge amount of attention and funding in the climate movement is currently being directed toward, for example, IRA implementation. Indeed, Buck references one such program in her piece: the Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Pollution Reduction Grants, which is investing $5 billion into local decarbonization planning efforts. I’m confident that if you added up the funding going into every advocacy effort that deals even tangentially with climate disinformation, you’d still be at least an order of magnitude away from that single IRA implementation program.

The work of deploying climate solutions is also, of course, an entire sector of the economy, with companies like Ford pushing electric cars and multibillion-dollar solar companies advertising for new customers. That’s not to say there isn’t a role for philanthropy and nonprofits, but that too is comparatively well-funded: big climate groups recently launched a $55 million ad campaign touting the economic benefits of the IRA, while new organizations like Rewiring America have raised millions to “tell stories of electric transformation” in order to help “make electrification simple.” The real funding gap in the climate space right now is for frontline communities that are resisting fossil fuel expansion — the very organizing efforts that often have to deal most directly with the political effects of Big Oil disinformation and manipulation.

Third, as climate activist and scholar Thea Riofrancos observed in a response to Buck’s piece, Buck seems to be conflating two very different questions: Is Big Oil disinformation a problem? And is it the best framework for climate organizing? In many circumstances, the answer to the second question may be no. But that does not tell us the answer to the first question.

Take, as one example, Buck’s call that the climate movement should be focusing on “things like explaining to people what heat pumps are.” Sure. But the fossil fuel industry is spending millions of dollars to derail efforts to electrify homes and buildings by flooding social media with disinformation about heat pumps. Yes, organizers working to effectively respond to such disinformation need to meet people where they’re at and should not simply say, “You’re a victim of disinformation, those concerns are dumb, snap out of it.” But that doesn’t negate the severe threat that such disinformation campaigns pose to our clean-energy transition.
We Need to Take on Disinformation

This last point speaks to what I think is the biggest weakness in Buck’s overall analysis: her underestimation of political as opposed to technical obstacles to decarbonization. Certainly, the work of transitioning our entire economy from fossil fuels to clean energy requires solving a million technical challenges, one of which is the effective implementation of programs like the IRA, which, in turn, requires developing buy-in from regular people who may have legitimate questions and concerns regarding this transition.

But humanity can overcome technical challenges, even massive ones. When it became clear that we were destroying the ozone layer, humanity came together, phased out the CFC chemicals causing ozone depletion, and solved the crisis. We were able to do so, in large part, because the CFC industry did not have the inclination or capacity to engage in a massive campaign of disinformation to sow doubt about the existence of the ozone problem and delay and block solutions to it, as Big Oil did and continues to do regarding the climate crisis.

The fossil fuel industry remains the biggest obstacle to the clean-energy transition, and climate disinformation remains its most potent tool. It is very much in Big Oil’s interest for climate advocates to, as Buck suggests, stop “obsessing over climate disinformation.” But we should resist such suggestions. The climate movement can walk and chew gum at the same time; we can work hard to fight climate disinformation while using other on-the-ground organizing frames when they’re more appropriate. Indeed, given the urgent tipping point deadlines the climate crisis imposes on us, we don’t have time for anything less.


Aaron Regunberg is a progressive organizer, former state representative, and senior climate policy counsel at Public Citizen.

‘We Won’t Leave Our People’: The Medical Workers Refusing to Evacuate Central Gaza’s Last Functioning Hospital

Medical staff at al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital are refusing to abandon their patients after an Israeli evacuation order. “If we leave our positions, we will fail ourselves and our society,” a doctor at the hospital told Mondoweiss.

By Tareq S. Hajjaj

August 30, 2024

Source: Mondoweiss

Wounded Palestinians wait for treatment at the overcrowded emergency ward of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City following an Israeli airstrike on October 11, 2023. (Photo: Wafa)

On August 21, the Israeli army ordered different areas in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip to evacuate their homes and newly-erected tents. This was the first step in the army’s invasion and campaign of destruction in Deir al-Balah, the last town that had not been completely leveled throughout the war. 

One of the blocks ordered to evacuate included the last fully operational hospital in central and southern Gaza, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. Affiliated with the Palestinian Authority, the governmental hospital has been working at four times its capacity, hosting over 700 patients.

As the military order spread among people in the area, dozens of doctors and nurses evacuated too, knowing what would likely happen to anyone in the hospital who remained, with the horrors of the massacres and mass graves at al-Shifa Hospital and Nasser Hospital still fresh in their minds. 

But there are others working in the hospital who have refused to evacuate under any circumstances, intent on remaining to care for the patients that keep streaming in.

Mondoweiss spoke to several medical workers at al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital who refused to abandon their posts when the Israeli army ordered the evacuation. They preferred not to be identified and have been given pseudonyms in this story due to their fear of reprisal by the military. Based on numerous past experiences throughout the war, they believe that the Israeli army has been deliberately targeting doctors and hospital staff who refuse to adhere to evacuation orders. During the second invasion of al-Shifa Hospital in March, medical workers were singled out for killings and arrests, and the Director of al-Shifa was sent to the notorious Sde Teiman torture facility, only to be released in late June with no charges. 

Ayat is a physician who refuses to evacuate the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. She also witnessed the al-Shifa invasion and was one of those forced to evacuate to the center of Gaza. She has remained at her post since the start of the war but is now biding her time, waiting until the last possible moment before she is eventually forced to evacuate or risk getting trapped in the hospital whenever it comes under siege. 

Ayat tells Mondoweiss she does not want to stay for an inevitable death, but is torn about leaving her patients. “Both choices are painful for me, but I know what the army is going to do when it invades the hospital. I’ve been at al-Shifa Hospital. They were running over people with bulldozers and tanks.”

“Will the world allow us as doctors and patients to meet such a horrifying fate? Is that the humanity and the Hippocratic oath that the world created?” Amani, an ICU nurse at al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital

“There is no chance for survival inside the hospital if we are surrounded by the army,” she continues. “On normal days, we are short on everything: medical supplies, staff, and medical equipment. And this leads us to wonder what would happen if everything stopped coming in altogether for just one day, let alone a long siege.”

The hospital has not made an evacuation plan, but it has not made one for working under siege either — the choice of whether to remain or evacuate has been left up to each individual. 

Ayat is staying with the hope that the army would notify the staff ahead of invading, as they did with al-Shifa. “The Israeli army has not called the hospital so far, but we can’t trust them really,” she says. “They may invade any second, and they have already issued warnings to residents of the block where the hospital is located.”

“I’ve seen the army make no difference between doctors, nurses, civilians, patients, and even premature babies in incubators,” she says. “If I can escape at the last moment, that’s what I will do, but I refuse to witness the same massacre again.” 

‘Who is going to care for my patients?’

On Tuesday, August 27, the morning shift in the hospital is attended by three doctors and ten nurses. Over 700 patients were in the hospital before the evacuation began, but several hundred still remain today.

Hakeem, an emergency room physician at al-Aqsa Martyrs, tells Mondoweiss he is worried about what will happen to the injured and the sick who cannot evacuate with those who leave. “If we leave, who is going to care for my patients?” Hakeem asks. 

“We have no plan to evacuate and we have no plan to operate in the event of a siege. We don’t have anything stored for such a scenario,” he says. “We’re working under impossible conditions, but if we leave our positions, if we give up on our duties, we will fail ourselves and our society. We will fail our families and the friends who count on us.”

“We will try to do our best until our last breath.” Hakeem, a doctor at al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital

Even after the Israeli warning was sent to residents in the area, injuries continued to arrive at the hospital, being the only possible refuge for people affected by the bombardment.  

“The injuries arrive every hour,” Hakeem says. “On normal days we’re overwhelmed, but now the number of cases has jumped dramatically. It’s beyond the capacity we’re able to deal with.” 

For 11 months, the hospital has not once gone out of service, but Hakeem says that its medical capacity is now less than it has ever been. “If the army surrounds the hospital, neither us nor the patients will be able to survive for very long. But we will try to do our best — until our last breath.”

“We chose this path, and we will stay with the patients and save their lives,” he vows.  

‘Will it be even worse than the other massacres?’

Despite their resolve, many of the medical workers cannot hide their fear of what may befall them if the army reaches the hospital entrance. The only encouraging sign is that the army has not called the hospital directly, but this only partially assuages their fears.

“We expect anything from the Israeli army, we saw everything,” Amani, a nurse operating in the ICU, tells Mondoweiss.

“We’re afraid because of what we saw at the other hospitals. If the army surrounds us, we’ve considered every possible scenario. Being killed, being buried alive, being burned — we imagine the Israeli army is capable of anything,” Amani says. “But we won’t leave our people,” she adds.

“Sometimes we think out loud with one another and ask, will it be worse than the other hospitals? Will the same massacres happen again? And will the world allow us as doctors and patients to meet such a horrifying fate? Is that the humanity and the Hippocratic oath that the world created?” Amani says.

Hassan Sulieh and Osama Kahlout conducted the interviews for this report from inside al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza. 

Tareq S. Hajjaj is the Mondoweiss Gaza Correspondent and a member of the Palestinian Writers Union. He studied English Literature at Al-Azhar University in Gaza. He started his career in journalism in 2015 working as a news writer and translator for the local newspaper, Donia al-Watan. He has reported for Elbadi, Middle East Eye, and Al Monitor. Follow him on Twitter at @Tareqshajjaj.