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How to build a community of resistance

A few days ago, I arrived in Bristol to visit my best friend Matt, who is part of the Bristol Apartheid Free Zone group. Matt and I met while we both lived and worked in Gaza for several years working with a community of tech workers dreaming of a better future. When the genocide began in 2023, I watched with helpless rage and sorrow as the places and people I love were turned into targets.

Since then, like so many in the diaspora and beyond, I’ve been searching for ways to keep showing up. Not just in grief—but in action. In 2024, Matt and I co-founded Gaza Champions, a mutual aid network that connects families in Gaza with allies around the world as pen pals and champions for their fundraisers. Growing and nurturing the Gaza Champions network has been a profound reminder of the power of regular people taking action—not through institutions, but through direct relationships rooted in trust, solidarity, and love. 

So when I learned about Bristol Apartheid Free Zone and their door-knocking campaign building a community in solidarity with Palestine, I said yes right away. The ask on the doorstep is for residents to sign a pledge to boycott Israeli goods and a letter in support of shops doing the same. The campaign then takes this community support to the local shopkeepers and invites them to come onboard. 

I was so encouraged to know that to date, over 3000 residents and 60 businesses in Bristol had committed to the boycott. Not only does this boycott create economic pressure on an oppressive system, but the community around it is rising as a political voice within the UK in support of Palestine. 

I know from experience that systems of violence depend on people feeling small and powerless. They depend on our despair. But what they fear is exactly this: local, grassroots organising that turns moral clarity into collective action. 

I had never done door-knocking before, so had no idea what to expect. I felt hesitant—worried that most residents wouldn’t be interested in a discussion about Palestine. But I felt empowered by the fact that I would be trying something new with a supportive community who were experienced in this approach. 

I was really surprised by how energising and deeply encouraging the door-knocking itself was. I was heartened by how many people were receptive and immediately willing to sign the pledge to boycott. Most of them had been watching the atrocities in Gaza unfold, feeling horrified and helpless. This campaign gave them an opportunity—something focused, targeted, and aligned with their values that they could get involved with.

The success of the door-knocking campaign showed me that sometimes what people need isn’t more information, but an invitation.

As someone who’s spent years inside Gaza and now stands outside it, I believe deeply that one of the most powerful things we can do is pressure the systems enabling this violence to stop. That includes economic pressure. Boycotts work. They have worked before. They are working now. And they can grow even stronger when more people join together as a movement to help spread the word.

Next week, I’ll travel back to my home in Washington, DC where I look forward to sharing my experience with my local organizing group to see how we might implement something similar. In a time where the news out of Gaza only gets worse, it is motivating to know there is always more we can do. This is the ripple effect of working in community.  

If you’re feeling the ache of injustice and wondering what to do next—join the Bristol Apartheid Free Zone community. No experience needed. Just your voice, your presence, and your belief that a different world is possible.