From Gaza to Copenhagen: Organizing Across Borders with DiEM25 and the Academy

So I'm from Gaza originally. I was born and raised in Gaza. And during 2024, beginning of 2025, I've been involved in a lot of support groups, mutual aid, political organizing and activists. And I wanted to get organized with more people and across borders, not just in one city or one country. And at that point I was in Berlin and Mera was running for elections and this is how I got to know to know um about DM25 and I joined in Copenhagen. Um we're a small group of people who want to see a better and more just world for everyone. And so I would say diverse and we work for diverse causes and goals all at the end with the hope in mind that we build a better world for everyone where everyone has equal rights and opportunities and we do many different things. Our last event was run with sumbula in which we had culture, we had music, we had hand making, crafts and embroidery, but at the same time we [music] had talks with people from Gaza about their journey, about their parenthood journey. We're doing parenthood series in which we're talking with fathers, mothers, parents um from Palestine about the different realities of being [music] Palestinian parents and raising Palestinian children. And we also have an action table in which we talk to people and help them see how they can get involved, but also help everyone else in our community who want the word [music] out about what they're doing. if they want volunteers, if they want participants, if they just want the word out about something they're doing. So what when I come to the academy what I expect or what I'm looking forward [music] to is the different people that I meet from different places in Europe who are also engaged and who are also trying to build a better world for all of us and try talking about it solving issues that each one of us might be facing in their organizing or getting deeper understanding. Maybe you see things in a different way, but it's not necessarily the right way, and you build yourself and you grow within that. But also, you connect with people, and then you take these connections and these relations that you've built by coming face to face with these people and talking to them and just being there as humans and see, okay, what do we do now? But sometimes we're also feeling hopeless or helpless and losing that hope and power within ourselves that we can't actually do things. And to see us come together and try to understand why that is and how that happens and how can we move past that is something I got from the academy that really felt good. [music] But I think for me I would say that we are all a part of this and not that it should matter if it's happening [music] to you or it's going to happen to you. If you think you're better than others and that you deserve these [music] rights and you deserve this life and then others don't, I think that's why you're not getting engaged. You're not getting politically organized. But also that it doesn't matter that you wait till it happens to you. just it's enough that it's happening to other people and that there are a lot of injustices but to also remember in Europe regardless of our background we are complicit in the system we are enabling this system we are profiting from this system we are responsible for what is happening in the world and we're sitting on the sidelines and just watching we are not just allowing this to happen we are actually encouraging and enabling these these atrocities and these horrible human rights violations to keep happening because we are benefiting from [music] it and there is really enough resources and enough abundance in our world for all of us to live a fair and just and good life. It's not a competition among us and [music] there is no reason to not fight for that. If there is any hope in humanity, we should all be part of this struggle of this fight where we build a world in which we all have equal rights and opportunities and everyone is afforded a good life because the planet can afford that. We can afford that. Everyone can have a good life. It doesn't have to be select few. What I love about the academy is we can sit and we can talk and discuss and I wish we could I wish we can do more of that actually because I think this is also what energizes people. It's what gives us hope because then you see others who are dedicated or who have that hope just like you and then you're like okay we can do this because the thing is we can't do anything alone but then when you see others who have that as well it really motivates you. It encourages you. It fills you up with that hope. And so for me, if we don't get started in the academy, as soon as I get back, I would like to still put out there the campaigns that we have built and the plans and the ideas and bring us together and actually agree that we're going to follow on with these campaigns and with these ideas and with the projects that we have in mind that it doesn't just start and end in the academy, but we take them home [music] with us and we can work together to do that. And because also the academy reminds you that you don't have to do any of these alone because there are the local collectives and we have these ideas but these ideas and projects and campaigns we built in the academy were built from people from many different collectives [music] and so we don't have to do what we're doing alone. We can come together as different collectives and actually run these projects and this is what I would like to do. Fantastic.