Most of our communications up until October were centered around agriculture. Coming from a farming background myself, we connected through a shared love for growing food. In the last month, the tone of our conversations changed. Abu Rabie’s fields had been destroyed by Israeli bulldozers. Israeli forces had killed 640 Palestinians in north Gaza in seventeen days. He was trying merely to survive.- On 19 October, after messaging back and forth a while, I decided to ask him about the current agricultural situation, expecting that all efforts had ceased. I was stunned to hear that he had planted again. This time, on a smaller scale, he was growing lettuce, arugula, parsley, spinach, radishes, and turnips. I wished him a successful crop. He wrote back, “Inshallah”.
- Israel killed Abu Rabie on Monday, 21 October. He was a light for Gaza and the whole world.
The murder of Youssef and so many like him, leaves us little room for optimism. Still, it is necessary to note that farmers have planted seeds during this year of genocide, harvested tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions. These growers find strength in each other, resisting the Israeli state violence through their steadfastness.… Abu Rabie put it to me this way: “We do not wait for aid and humiliation. This was the goal: to cultivate our land and cultivate hope again in Gaza, especially in Beit Lahia.” When Israel stopped all seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides from entering the strip last year—a policy that has not let up—this was a decision to inflict state-sanctioned starvation.
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