Donors have lifted far more than $100,000 for an incarcerated man in the US who, earning 13 cents an hour in a California jail accomplishing janitorial and porter do the job, donated his paycheck of $17.74 to Gaza relief efforts.
Previous month, Los Angeles-dependent filmmaker Justin Mashouf who has been in correspondence with the 56-calendar year outdated person – identified only by the title Hamza – shared images on social media of Hamza’s Oct time log and a test of $17.74 with the words, “California department of corrections and rehabilitation.”
The time log indicated 21 times really worth of do the job, totaling to 136.50 several hours.
Writing on X, Mashouf claimed, “An incarcerated brother I am in correspondence with donated $17.74 for reduction initiatives in Gaza. This donation is the sum of 136 several hours of his labor in the prison operating as a porter/janitor. May his honest donation be multiplied by the Creator.”
Mashouf’s write-up of Hamza’s donation right away went viral with above 24,000 likes and about 8,200 retweets.
On Instagram, the grassroots group Palestinian Youth Movement shared Hamza’s tale, producing, “Some of the deepest solidarity with Palestine in the US lies in the prison system – not only nowadays but historically… The incarceration procedure in the US and in occupied Palestine are in the end extensions of the exact imperial job – a single that seeks to criminalize the existence of the oppressed, to render them invisible, and to neutralize them as a danger to the dominant social purchase.”
In accordance to legal data reviewed by the Washington Put up, Hamza was convicted of one rely of next-diploma murder in 1986 and was sentenced to 15 years to daily life. At the time of his guilty plea, Hamza was still a teen.
In a GoFundMe campaign webpage Mashouf established for Hamza, Mashouf wrote:“In the 80’s, Hamza unintentionally fired a gun at a cherished 1, which kill[ed] the sufferer, main to his imprisonment for about 4 many years. He has lived with the discomfort of dropping his spouse and children member because of to his own mistake each and every day for a long time. When in prison, he has develop into a devout Muslim and has been pleading for parole for many years.”
In a assertion on the marketing campaign webpage, Mashouf wrote that Hamza is scheduled to be freed at the finish of March.
Considering that its development, the campaign has raised $102,187 for Hamza’s re-entry journey. The funds will be used for rent and utilities, outfits, job lookup and instruction, as well as mobile cellular phone providers, according to the marketing campaign.
In a statement posted to X by Mashouf on Wednesday, Hamza announced his final decision to suspend the marketing campaign.
“From my heart I thank you all for your generosity and kindness in donating these resources to support and help me on my launch from jail,” Hamza wrote.
“However I need to inquire every of you now to remember to … glance upon and look at the suffering children, mothers and fathers of Palestine, Yemen, and Africa dwelling less than inhuman[e] ailments, remaining bombed each hour of the day, without the need of water, shelter, medicine and foodstuff … who are everyday persons and citizens just like all of you dwelling their lives having not a matter to do with the politicians, but are suffering [in]humanely,” he included.
Hamza’s donation to Gaza’s relief efforts appear as Israel proceeds to assault the slim strip. Since 7 October when Hamas attacked Israel and killed all around 1,200 persons when kidnapping approximately 250 hostages,, Israeli forces have killed much more than 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza. Israel’s assaults have also hurt more than 60,000, the the greater part of them women and children, spurring popular international outrage.
Roughly 2 million persons have been forcibly displaced by Israel’s assaults across the slender strip, with 1.5 million Palestinians seeking shelter in the southern town of Rafah.
Aid agencies have consistently warned in new months that Palestinians are staying pushed to the verge of famine because of to shortages in food items and drinking water, as nicely as gas and clinical provides. In the meantime, UN specialists have warned that “grave violations dedicated by Israel … point to a genocide in the generating.”