300 Days of War Gaza Strip
The government media office in Gaza has released an update on the main statistics of the ongoing genocide perpetrated by the Israeli occupation in the Gaza Strip on day 300 of the war (Thursday 1st August, 2024).
This year marks Amos Trust’s 40th anniversary, and this month, Chris Rose reflects on 40 years of doing hope and invites you to celebrate with us. We also share news of our partners in Palestine, our new Big Hope Fund and introduce our ‘Amos at 40’ brochure.
The Big 4-0!
Celebrating 40 Years of Doing Hope
Download our 40th anniversary brochure
As we reach this milestone, we mark 40 years of calling for justice, doing hope and creativity. These decades have brought profound challenges and deep sorrow, but also countless experiences of joy, solidarity and the unstoppable power of communities coming together.
Even in the current darkness, we hold onto what has sustained us — the belief that another world is possible, and the commitment to keep working towards it.
Please come and celebrate with us on 20th September at St John’s Waterloo in London. We will be committing ourselves to the next phase of the journey and bringing to life some of the memories featured in our 40th anniversary booklet, which you can download here.
Continuing the journey
Just Walk: A large group of Amos supporters walking through Palestine as part of our Just Walk to Jerusalem initiative.
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In 2021, as part of the Palestine Heritage Trail, we were walking down the dry wadi (river) that divides Teqoa (the Palestinian town and birthplace of the prophet Amos) from the illegal Israeli settlement of Tekoa. As we were finishing lunch, we heard a thunder crack, and our guide made us leave immediately to take shelter in a nearby cave. A light rain fell for the next 30 minutes — the sort you would never have bothered sheltering from if walking in the UK.
As the rain came to an end, streams started to flow down the arid cliff faces, rapidly picking up momentum. Within minutes, where we had had lunch, a torrent of water 15 feet tall carrying boulders before it, careered down the wadi. When the prophet Amos said, “Let justice flow like rivers”, this was what he meant.
This was his lived experience — not some pastoral chalk stream, but a careering wall of water that takes all before it. This is what we’re committed to and what our hope is rooted in. Not drip-feed justice. Not temporary cease-fires in Gaza. Not propaganda food aid programmes. Or rebuilding plans for lives in segregated enclaves surrounded by walls and controlled by Israeli forces.
Hope doesn’t recognise these, and I doubt Amos would either. To do hope in the face of the onslaught is not easy, but the alternative, ‘hopelessness’, has even less appeal and quickly becomes self-fulfilling.
Supporting our friends and partners
Trauma: Young children visit a family health clinic run the DSPR in Gaza City.
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We continue to run our Gaza and West Bank appeal. How could we stop? The last 600 days in Gaza have shown us the worst sides of humanity and some of the very best. Our partners and friends on the ground have continued to amaze us in the face of bombardments, starvation and so much loss (very often at a highly personal level) and to show what Sumud, or you can call it Hope, really means. Your ongoing support continues to make a huge and tangible difference on the ground. Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza City has reopened within days of each horrific attack.
DSPR have changed the location of their trauma work again and again as their sites have been destroyed or were no longer accessible. MA’AN, Welfare Association and the Gaza Sunbirds have used every resource they could to find ways to feed their communities. When we least expected it, pictures have come through of them distributing hot meals or water against all the odds.
We Are Not Numbers has continued to support young writers in Gaza to tell their stories, as well as equipping a new generation of children (through the support of a tent school in al Mawasi) who have been denied education since 7th October 2023. Meanwhile, on the West Bank, as settler attacks grow and conditions get harder, our partners have been ramping up their operations to make sure that they do all they can to prevent communities from losing their land.
Looking Forward
The Big Hope Fund
The Big 4-0: Celebrate 40 Years of Amos and give to our Big Hope Fund.
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Thank you so much for walking with us. Your support is transforming lives.
Your generosity continues to make an extraordinary difference, and we know that with your continued support, we can sustain this vital work.
To celebrate being in our 40s, we’re launching a year-long series of bold, beautiful and ‘deeply Amos’ projects — each rooted in justice, creativity and solidarity. To learn more about some of the creative projects we have planned for the next year and how you can support them, please visit The Big Hope Fund.
Food aid, medical care, toilet blocks, community buildings and more fundraising. Read our summer 2024 update. “When I last wrote in December, only the greatest pessimists were anticipating that the attack on Gaza would still be ongoing and that conditions would have got so much worse.” Chris Rose writes.
For the last 16 years at Amos Trust, May has meant getting on our bikes and hitting the road. This year, it will be ‘saddle sores and smiles’ as Chris Rose and Meg Williams from the Amos team will be riding Coast-to-Coast to raise funds for Gaza. Read the full story.
“The failure of our leaders to back words with meaningful action is glaring. As the 1.4 million people in Rafah face attacks that our leaders know would be catastrophic, they must finally act to stop the slaughter.” Read the statement from thirty one UK NGO’s regarding Israel’s invasion of Rafa.
“We took to the streets with signs in hand and cries of protest. We stood together, supporting each other. I saw many women expressing pain and anger in various ways: through music, graffiti, dance... or simply walking in silence but with their heads held high. Each one had a unique story of experiencing violence.” Alexia Lizarraga Quintero, Amos’ new Partnerships and Climate Fellowship Manager, writes about her experience of International Women’s Day in Mexico.
Amos Trust
7 Bell Yard, London
WC2A 2JR
UK
Telephone:
+44 (0) 203 725 3493
Email:
[email protected]
Registered Charity No.
1164234
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