 My name is Suzanne, I'm Palestinian, born and raised in the Middle East. I wanted to thank the MCC for giving me the opportunity and safe space to talk about my country, Palestine. I grew up in the Middle East. My parents were Palestinian. They were one of the millions that had to leave Palestine in 1948. Both my mom's side and my father's side were put on buses and trucks and forced to move out with whatever little belongings they could carry in their hands. My grandparents had brutal stories of that day. They told it to us for years. My mom's grandma literally had to give birth, they had to stop the bus, let her go under an olive tree, give birth to my uncle and continue. They were not allowed to go back and the bus did not stop and they had to continue their journey to get out of Palestine. They had to wrap the baby and keep moving. Both my mom's family and my dad's family struggled to start over, to start from nothing, to start intense. My family still have the key to our land in Palestine. They still have the keys to the farms, to the houses, to their businesses. We still have hope that we're going to go back one day. They always talk about this beautiful land they have, the fig trees, the olive trees. Vegetables there taste better than anywhere else in the world. Fruits have a different flavor. Sadly, my family was never allowed to enter Palestine. We're Palestinians, my dad and my mom are Palestinians, but we're never allowed to enter it. It's our land, even despite having other citizenships, we're not allowed to. Because our story never begun on October 7th. It begun before 1948. And what's happening today is nothing short of a genocide. Bombs being thrown on children, babies, women, innocent civilians is never okay. The difference today is that it's documented for the world to see. I don't know how a father can ever recover from holding limbs of his child in plastic bags rushing to the hospital. Palestinians have been under siege for years and their basic needs have been controlled by Israelis. Water, food, shelter, medical care. Who's allowed to enter the country and who's allowed to leave and how long your stay is, despite whatever citizenship you may have. We had our homeland taken from us. And no matter where we were in the Middle East, we were still treated as second class civilians, basically. I can tell you from my own experience, I was always the top of the class. But because I'm Palestinian, because of the paperwork that my grandparents carry, I was never allowed to be honored in front of my school. They always had to pick someone else from that country because I'm Palestinian. They would give me an honor award. They would put my name on it. But because I'm Palestinian, the school cannot know that I was the top of my class. And I thought, moving out of the Middle East, I'd finally have a voice. We migrated to Canada. Even then, because I'm Palestinian at university, other people with different last names got higher grades, working on the same project, giving the same essays and the same things. It didn't matter where I was. The suffering of Palestinians have endured for years before the world noticed. And it's unfathomable and difficult to register what world we live in today and how worse it's getting. The pain runs deep and there's no words that can express how we feel right now. It's very difficult to swallow killing thousands and thousands of innocent civilians, dehumanizing us and making us immune to the atrocities they're doing. I'm sickened of what's happening. And I stand here as a Palestinian feeling like my hands are tied, like I can't do anything. So what I did try to do, I attempted to reach out to our elected representative. I was met by dismissal of the justice against the Palestinian people. And I will read you his email to me. He said, please know that my heart breaks for the 1,000 Israelis murdered by Hamas of his brutal acts of terrorism, as for the hundreds of Israelis taken hostage. My heart also breaks for the many innocent Palestinian civilians injured or killed, not mentioning that there's over 8,500 as of today. And then he continues, and he says, to me, for Israelis right to defend itself and then administration's swift action to provide support for our allies. And they have every right to defend themselves. And we have given them over 100 million to support the Israelis to defend itself against Hamas's terrorism. So even being in the United States, I still don't have a voice. Hope to return to my country, to my homeland. It was my father's last wishes to pray in Mesut al-Aqsa. Before he passed away two years ago, Alayah Hamal, he used to tell my mom on his last day, I got to pray in al-Aqsa after every prayer. And my mom would look shocked at him. And she would be like, what are you talking about? We're home. We're not in Palestine. And he would say, I just prayed. I just prayed in al-Aqsa. The thing that brings ease to my heart is one of the 99 names of Allah, al-Jabbar, the compiler. The one who reforms what is broken, the resolver of the affairs of all creatures, the caterer to all the needs of all, the compiler, the most high, the irresistible and the sublime. They think they have their bombs, we have our faith. I will end with this short drive. Oh, Allah, help and protect the people of Palestine and Gaza. Oh, Allah, ease their pain and suffering. Oh, Allah, bestow mercy on them, conceal their faults, calm their fears, protect them from everywhere, before them, behind them, from their right, from their left, and from above them. Allahumma kun li ahli falasitina awnan wa nasra, wabaddil khawfa hum amnan. Allahumma tlih ahwaal al-muslimina fi falasitina wabadza. Bana afreg aleyhim sabran wa thabbit aqdamahum, unsurhum al qawma al-kaafireen. Allahumma inna nastawdiwa waka khazda wa ahliha wa falasitina. Allahumma kullahum nasiran wa mo'inaan. Yarab al-alameen. Thank you so much. I ask for the acceptance of this talk. Salamu alaikum.