Kite Fly For Gaza

I grew up believing and understanding that politics is life and we confuse the situation if we believe that politics is only for politicians. The Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote that humans are a political animal and that ethics and politics are closely linked.

The role of our elected candidates literally exist to represent us but if we don’t tell them what we think and believe and oppose them when they act against our beliefs then we leave the door wide open to those that are willing to shout louder than us.

Just looking at the state of the environment and its impact on our oceans and our health should be enough to help us understand that profit is often considered more important than people.

The atrocities in Palestine are not new. We have been, and should continue to recognise Palestine as an anchor for what it means to be human, an anchor for social justice and we should question every time someone tells us that we are wrong for helping a people that have been silenced to have a voice.

Palestine has always been special because it’s the one that the world doesn’t want us know about, let alone care about.

Politics is embedded in surfing and what we do at Yonder, it has to be. Surfing is a rebellion, an act of resistance against growing up; fitting in, spending our time how society would like us to spend our time. We span borders, cultures, beliefs. We look to far flung places as inspiration; possibility, opportunity. We make friends and connect over a love for a simple act. Rebellion.

Yesterday I sent a press release to every local paper regarding our Kite Flight for Gaza, I haven’t had a single response from any press or media and I don’t expect to. I guess we all have to use our own platforms to share our beliefs and that’s ok, these movement are bottom up. If we waited for them to be top-down, we’d still be waiting for so many of the rights we enjoy today.

On Saturday we flew kites on our local green. We spoke to each other about the things we are witness to. We showed that we are not alone and made it ok to care. We can’t ignore the suffering of children in Gaza.

Coming together in solidarity is one small way our community can show we care. We’re calling for government to do more. It must take meaningful action, including a full military embargo.

We raised £590 for the Palestinian Red Crescent

We delivered 84 signatures to our MP from attendees

Thanks to everyone who came along and all the other organisers; to everyone who donated time, money and energy to making it happen.

Our thoughts are with the surfers of the Gaza Strip who have grown up living by the sea, share that connection we also have that are currently living under very different circumstances.

If you want to follow two surfers currently living through this, please follow Rawand and Abdullah here.