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Paper short abstract

“Continuing” (Istimrar) and bearing witness—despite, beyond, and because of one’s unbearable pain and grief—represent both a choice and a fate for Palestinians. This orientation stems from being part of something larger than mortal life and forms a distinct ontology of Palestinian life.

Paper long abstract

“This is our fate and this is our choice. This is our life on this land, in this mortal world... from God we came and to God we return. We choose this life—before Hamza and after Hamza—and we will continue.”

These words were pronounced by Al Jazeera correspondent Wael Al-Dahdouh as he bid farewell to his son Hamza, himself a journalist, who was killed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza. Hamza’s martyrdom came just months after Al-Dahdouh buried two of his younger children, wife and grandson. At the burial site, Al-Dahdouh was filmed saying: “They are taking revenge by killing our children. Maʿlesh. To God we belong and to God we return.” The word maʿlesh has since been circulated as an expression of Palestinian steadfastness, in graffiti, on t-shirts, and across media commentaries. While often translated as “never mind” or “it can’t be helped,” maʿlesh does not signal resignation but articulates an ethics of endurance—one that holds grief, dignity, and spirituality together, without denying the brutal settler-colonial violence that necessitates them.

"Continuing" beyond and because of unbearable loss—is also not merely an individual heroic response to pain. "Continuing", by virtue of being part of an order and a will larger than the mortal one, functions as a central psychic and embodied infrastructure, forming an ontology of Palestinian life. Fate and choice are not oppositional terms but mutually constitutive orientations through which life is sustained amid genocidal violence.