Visit the Action Hour homepage to download our newest resource, a list of great children’s books about Palestine! Scroll down to the resource section to download the guide. The guide features this weeks artist, illustrator Aya Ghanameh.

This Friday, we’ll hear from Ben Cohen, activist and co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream. Ben will discuss solidarity with Palestine and his new ice cream flavor in support of Palestinians in Gaza.

Reminder: You can use this link to join every Friday at 12pm ET / 9am PT and you’ll also get an email with the link an hour before the Action Hour begins. The link for the agenda document doesn’t change week to week, so you can always access it!

Gaza Update

Every week Yousef gives an update on life and death in Gaza. You can find all of Yousef’s past Gaza updates on Gaza Unlocked including the update from last Friday. On Friday, Yousef reminded us of something that Palestinians sometimes say about cease-fires: Palestinians cease and Israel fires.

Hannah Moushabeck on Children’s Books & Palestine Publishing

Last Friday, Hannah Moushabeck, author and publisher with Interlink Publishing (the only Palestinian-owned publishing house in the U.S.), spoke about children’s books on Palestine and the work of Interlink. Interlink was started in 1987 by Hannah’s parents because of a need they recognized for those in the U.S. to understand more about Palestinian and Arab culture, history, and life. They wanted to help dispel pervasive and dehumanizing myths that painted Arabs and Arab-Americans as movie villains or terrorists.

Hannah has continued that tradition with her leadership at Interlink and the publishing of her own children’s book, Homeland: My Father Dreams of Palestine. Hannah reminded us that currently more than 70% of children’s books are authored or illustrated by a white person, a percentage that has historically been far higher. She said that throughout her career in the publishing world she kept waiting and waiting for more Arab and Arab-American voices and characters, but after 10 years, didn’t see any so decided to write her own story. Her book, Homeland, was the first traditionally published Palestinian-American picture book in 30 years. After the publishing of her book, Hannah started a support group for Palestinian writers. Since Homeland was published in 2023, at least 7 other picture books by Palestinian authors have been published!

In Homeland, Hannah centered joy and celebration, partly out of a genuine desire to feature parts of her culture that she loves, and partly with an intention to try and avoid censorship. Unfortunately, her book did face a huge amount of backlash, from de-shelving at public libraries (you can counter this effort by requesting books by Palestinian authors at your local library!) to a callout from Sean Hannity. Most recently, Hannah was disinvited from a Banned Book Week event at North Carolina State University because, in an ironic turn of events, the university banned her book!

Some of these attempts to smear Hannah’s book are humorously weak, but Hannah shared that some librarians have lost their jobs defending her book. Hannah said that the negative response to her book reveals part of what it means to be a Palestinian in the United States—regardless of the content of her book, the inclusion of the word Palestine in the title meant that it was guaranteed to face censorship.

In the face of this censorship, Hannah is committed to continuing to tell her story and the stories of other Palestinians to counter the dehumanization of Palestinians in this country and across the world. The Interlink Foundation, which Interlink Publishing just announced, is designed to help counter repression and silencing of voices from the global south through mentorship and efforts to increase representation.

Hannah also spoke about the incredible diversity of Interlink’s catalogue, which includes nonfiction, memoir, cookbooks, fiction, poetry, and children’s books (and audiobooks!). The books she highlighted, linked above, feature renga poetry, stories from Gaza writers, intergenerational fiction, great Palestinian recipes, and illustrations from the artist that did the cover for AFSC’s anthology, Light in Gaza. Interlink also does book clubs where, once you sign up, you’ll receive a book and special perks either every month or every other month for a year. Learn more here, here, and here.  

Hannah, as a children’s book author herself, focused on the children’s books that Interlink has published including a guide to Palestinian culture, a book about land stewardship, and a book by Nora Lester Murad, a past Action Hour guest! This holiday season, Interlink has two holiday boxes of Palestinian children’s books and other special gifts for children. They can be found here and here. The profits from the sales of these boxes go to support the Sumud School and The Palestine Heirloom Seed Library.  

Artist Corner 

On Friday, we featured Aya Ghanameh is a Palestinian illustrator and writer. Her playful and detailed illustrations have been featured in several children’s books, including her own book “These Olive Trees,” which was inspired by her own family and their strong connections to the earth, even in exile. She also illustrated “Everything Grows in Jiddo’s Garden,” which is included in the holiday gift boxes “Palestine Kids’ Book Box” and “Jiddo’s Garden Box” from Interlink Publishing. 

How to Take Action Today  

Contact your representatives. On Friday, we called our Representative and asked that they support H.Res.876. The bill, led by Rep. Tlaib, would declare Israel’s actions in Gaza genocide. Read the full text of the bill! Learn more about H.Res.876 and send an email in support of the resolution here. We also called our Senators in support of the bill. Senators could introduce a Senate companion, make a public statement in support of the bill, or lead a letter in support of its aims.  

You can find the suggested script for calling on pages 5 and 6 in the agenda. To continue to make calls next week, phone the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121. You can also use these email templates on refunding the United Nations Relief and Works Agency and blocking the bombs to Israel. 

More Resources and Ways to Take Action 

Next Monday, check out this great webinar featuring learnings and stories from municipal-level divestment campaigns.  

Tomorrow, join Rep. Rashida Tlaib, Noura Erakat, and Josh Ruebner to learn about H.Res.876! 

Share this Action Hour invitation with your friends, family, and social networks and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, and  Twitter. 

Support our team’s emergency relief work in Gaza and our solidarity and organizing work here in the United States! 

In solidarity,   
Jennifer Bing

American Friends Service Committee
1501 Cherry Sreet
Philadelphia, PA 19102
United States