In a season of peace we speak to those who have been denied peace. Using these billboards, we: Reclaim the truth, honoring the Palestinian refugee born in Bethlehem; challenge the ongoing erasure of Palestinian identity, culture and rootedness to the land; highlight the reverence for Jesus in Islam, fostering interfaith understanding against forces that seek to divide us; and proudly assert our truth in the most visible public space, refusing silence.
Our reality has not changed. We are still under siege. Israel still has full control over our air, land and sea; it is still blocking sick and injured Palestinians from leaving and journalists, war crimes investigators and activists from going in. It is still controlling what food, what medicine, and essential supplies enter. The siege has lasted over 18 years, shaping every moment of our lives. I have lived under this blockade since I was just three years old.
Other civilian convoys-including the Global Sumud Flotilla, on which Greta Thunberg was detained on 1 October by Israeli security forces-were designed to carry aid to Gaza, where, under sustained Israeli attack, at least 66,000 people have been killed and 640,000 suffer from what a United Nations-backed expert panel recently dubbed a "man-made" famine. Israel has blocked food and medical aid from entering Gaza, barred all foreign journalists, and killed 223 Palestinian journalists.
Some of the most urgent films at this year's Toronto International Film Festival aren't here to soothe. Together, Orwell: 2+2=5, Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, and Frankenstein play like sizzle reels of caution, and at their best, they're award-worthy symbols of alarm. These films, the first two of which are documentaries, don't just entertain-they confront fractured humanity, closeness and distance under Israel's siege of Gaza, and a creation we've set loose, growing beyond our control.
