For the last twenty‑two months I have been searching for words to meet what is happening in Palestine — trying to weave rage, grief, and sorrow with my own life, to connect the personal to the collective. This essay reflects on images, dignity, and dehumanization, on Steven Donziger’s devastating figures, on the hunger strikes and gestures of solidarity that ripple outward. Written during a 48‑hour fast in answer to a call from Gaza, it is both a witness and a plea — that we remember every life is a universe, and that how we respond matters.

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