from Philly ABC
Every year, we raise money for the ABCF Warchest and a single designated political prisoner or organization through our biggest event, Running Down the Walls (RDTW). This year we dedicated the split of proceeds to support on-the-ground mutual aid work in Gaza, but for the first time, we did not announce any specific recipients. Early in our planning, we corresponded with people in Cairo who facilitated evacuations from Gaza, but then Israel seized and closed the Rafah Crossing, rendering this work impossible. Acknowledging that the situation on the ground would likely continue to be fluid and unpredictable, we decided to simply support “mutual aid in Gaza” and choose the specific recipients based on the reality on the ground following the event.
On September 15th, we ran with almost 400 comrades both inside and outside prison walls in the biggest and most financially successful RDTW ever. We’re now thrilled to be able to announce the recipients of the event. We will continue to accept donations and sell t-shirts through November 26th, so if you have not yet contributed to RDTW, or you would like to give a little extra, you can now you can see exactly who your money will be supporting. Since we have already raised record funds for the ABCF Warchest this year, all further funding will go to the following co-recipients in Gaza:
Thamra
Thamra is a new Palestinian organization that promotes food sovereignty in Northern Gaza through restoring water access, building urban food gardens, and providing fresh produce. It was created by farmer Yousef Abu Rabea, whose family has cultivated strawberries in Beit Lahia for generations, and photographer Leena Almadhoun. Yousef managed to hastily collect seeds and seedlings before evacuating his family farm earlier this year amidst heavy IDF shelling. Upon returning to the ruins, he scavenged dried-out peppers and eggplants. He and his brothers began planting anew in rooftop containers, and in the land between their home and a destroyed kindergarten. Once they could provide fresh produce for their family and surrounding community, they began traveling across Northern Gaza, sharing food, seeds, and water, and creating new gardens.
On October 22nd―shortly after we first learned of Yousef and Leena’s work but before we were able to make contact with them―we learned that Yousef had been martyred alongside another team member, Zakaria Abu Sultan, by a targeted IDF airstrike in the Al-Shemaa area. Yousef was 24 and Zakaria was 30. Their work is being continued by Thamra, which means “fruit” in Arabic. We extend our support and solidarity to Thamra in Yousef and Zakaria’s memory.
Operation Olive Branch’s Family Encampment
Since July, the Operation Olive Branch Family Encampment has faced down evacuation orders and the closure of humanitarian corridors to provide food, water, medical care, and other necessities to 300 residents requiring urgent perinatal care in Gaza. It is currently expanding to provide the same level of support to 1000 residents with disabilities and urgent medical needs. OOB is an international organization that links on-the-ground mutual aid projects with international support. The Family Encampment is coordinated by PAL Humanity, two Palestinian doctors and sisters who provide field visits and distribute medical aid; Palestinian dentist Dr. Zayn Eldeen, who distributes infant formula and hot meals; and Palestinian cook Amani Alkahlout, who cooks for hundreds of families in Rafah and runs supply deliveries.
The Sanabel Team
The Sanabel Team is a Palestinian-led mutual aid initiative launched in 2018 to help families in need in Khan Yunis. It has since expanded to provide food, clean water, and basic needs to families displaced internally in Gaza and externally to Egypt. The Gaza team continues to provide daily hot meals despite constant threat of violence and repeated displacement. On at least on occasion (October 7th), the team has been forced to flee their mobile kitchen under Israeli bombardment. On May 27th, Sanabel worker and video editor Muhammad was martyred during the Israeli bombing of a refugee camp that killed 44 other people and wounded more than 200, most of them women and children. Muhammad was 27. We extend our support and solidarity to Sanabel in Muhammad’s memory.
The Sameer Project’s Refaat Alareer Camp
The Sameer Project is a grassroots aid organization led by four Palestinians in the diaspora. Originating in an informal mutual aid network linking an extended Palestinian family, it expanded as the genocide wore on to coordinate shelter and medical aid in central and South Gaza, and food, water, diapers, and medical aid in north Gaza. We are supporting their most recent initiative, the Refaat Alareer Camp, which will provide shelter in central Gaza for perinatal and neonatal people, children with disabilities, and adults with special needs and mobility issues, war injuries, and chronic diseases. Relocated in early September after an Israeli quadcopter came to the camp and shot two of its children, the new Refaat Alareer Camp will include an independent medical clinic, will supply food, diapers, and formula, and will provide mental health support to traumatized children via a virtual reality tent.
The Sameer Project is named after the father and uncle of two of its organizers. In the words of his niece Hala Sabbah :
[Sameer] passed in Gaza in January. … My uncle was a lover of Palestine, a lover of giving, and so we wanted to honor him.
The Refaat Alareer Camp is named after the professor, writer, and cofounder of the organization, We Are Not Numbers, whose last prophetic poem written to his daughter Shaimaa, “If I Must Die” has become a touchstone of Palestinian resilience both in Gaza and internationally. In December 2023, after months of death threats, Refaat was martyred in a deliberately targeted Israeli airstrike that also killed his brother, sister, and four of his nephews. In April 2024, another Israeli airstrike killed Shaimaa, her husband Mohammed Siyam, and Refaat’s infant grandchild Abdul Rahman in their Gaza City home. We extend our support and solidarity to the Sameer Team in their memory, and in the spirit of Refaat Alareer’s final printed words: “If I must die, / you must live.”
Again, if you have not already done so, please consider donating or buying a t-shirt before November 26th to support Thamra, OOB’S Family Encampment, the Sanabel Team, and the Sameer Project’s Refaat Alareer Camp. As we do every year, we will release a detailed reportback outlining the money in, and the disbursement of funds.
