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April 6th, 2022 
Awake Goy 
Yumna Patel, Mondoweiss’s correspondent in Bethlehem, lives a half hour drive from Jerusalem. But even as a US citizen, her visa restricts her from entering the city at all. Tareq Hajjaj, our Gaza correspondent, lives 40 miles from Tel Aviv – but getting there to cover a story would take a miracle.
And the idea that the two of them could have an in-person staff meeting? Next to impossible.
Creating a newsroom for all of Palestine – including the West Bank, Gaza, Jerusalem, inside ’48, plus refugee camps around the region and the global diaspora – requires more reporters than it would take to cover any other similarly sized community or geographic region. And that’s 100% due to Israeli apartheid policies.
And this week only, a generous donor has pledged to match all gifts, up to $20,000, to do just that: Build a newsroom for all of Palestine.
A fully staffed newsroom in Palestine would mean having fairly compensated, full-time Palestinian journalists in every region of Palestine.
Mondoweiss is perfectly positioned to create this newsroom. Our existing capacity covers not only the struggle for Palestinian rights, but the everyday experiences and joys of Palestinian life, with full time journalists based in Bethlehem and Gaza, linked directly to our team covering the US.
Will you become a Mondoweiss donor today with a $25 gift, instantly matched to $50?
And I’d argue there’s no greater need in the movement today. In every Palestinian community – from Sheikh Jarrah to Bay Ridge, Brooklyn – grassroots organizing is at a peak unseen since the 1980s. Major NGO’s have finally started to call Israel what it is: an apartheid state. And in the US, there’s a willingness among liberals and progressives to listen to Palestinians that is simply unprecedented.
Those stories need to be told. But that takes more full time journalists who can go to where those stories are happening. And it takes the equipment we need, especially for video, recording, and editing, to broaden the range of channels in which to tell our stories and the number of audiences we reach.
It takes producers, professional editors, translators, and fact-checkers. And, because of how we’ve always done our work, it takes staffing to nurture partnerships among activist organizations to get the best placed sources and distribution, and to make sure that we have an accountability mechanism for representing the nuance and variety of Palestinian lives.
Since its founding, Mondoweiss has been laser-focused on the question of Zionism in the Jewish community, and that will never change. In fact, it is an essential piece of the newsroom for a free Palestine. But for that exploration to work, it must be grounded in the experiences, understanding, and vision of Palestinians who are most impacted.
Those two pursuits: challenging Jews to look at ourselves, and building a megaphone for Palestinian activists, has helped drive almost unimaginable changes in public opinion about Palestinian rights. But the intensity and focus that got us to this point isn’t going to be enough to take the next steps.
That’s why a committed donor has put up this special $20,000 match, and why your support is so urgent. Giving is truly a political act – will you click here and send a gift today?
The entire world needs to know about how Palestinians are building a better future – for us all. And the best way we can support that is by building a newsroom for all of Palestine.
This week’s fundraising drive is going to be crucial – not just to covering our annual budget, but our next phase as a news organization. Will you chip in today?
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