What Keeps Me Going?

Here's to a little motivation to continue fighting...

What keeps me going? A question I am often asked.

I think of a six year old Palestinian child named Hekmat with medical issues near impossible to treat during this genocide. His displaced family was one of the first we funded medical treatment for in Dec 2023. I stopped hearing back from them for the last 2 years and thought the worst.

An old photo of Hekmat.

At the end of September, I attended ArabCon in Dearborn, Michigan where I met a woman who knew who I was and brought up Hekmat’s name. I was taken aback because I never expected to hear his name again. The woman told me she was his aunt and that he was okay after I begged to know if he was still alive. I started sobbing right there in the middle of the community center and we wrapped each other up in an embrace that lasted for minutes. It felt like God brought us together in that moment and I’m by no means a religious man.

Hekmat’s Aunt and myself at ArabCon 2025.

There are so many friends of mine from Gaza that have been murdered these last few years. You just stop hearing back one day and if you’re lucky enough people will know them and report their death, but not usually. Usually, you’re left wondering with a heavy pit in your stomach.

But in that moment, I felt this incredible love flood through me for a woman I didn’t know, for a family and a young son thousands of miles away in a land I have never touched.

I think of the rubble in Gaza scored with graffiti from my friend Mohammad who wrote one time “Your love for Palestine is why we love you.”

Mohammad Elkoudary in Gaza, October 2023.

Or to the countless times that I have been urged to pass onto the rest of the world, if nothing else, how much Palestinian people love life and how much they loved to live.

All Palestinians want is to be allowed to live free and fulfilling lives, they want to know the world sees their humanity and cares for them. We on the outside are uniquely privileged to elevate their cries for recognition, liberation, and equal rights. It is our shared humanity that connects us and denying that only turns us away from ourselves.

Here in the imperial core, the powers that be are wielded against us with increasing violence and consequence, but never once have I sat and felt that I wouldn’t do everything all over again. Our brothers and sisters in Palestine deserve as much. The only thing we should be regretting is not doing more.

Inshallah, Palestine will be free within our lifetime. If you do what you know is right, always, your soul will always have peace.