This is perhaps the most powerful and gutting episode of KK&F that we’ve put out in over four years of releasing this podcast. In Krystal’s conversation with Dr. Mohammed Mustafa, a stateless Palestinian, former pro Rugby player and ER Doctor, whose unrelenting advocacy for Palestinians is informed by his experiences as a doctor in Gaza in the last year. In this conversation we begin to imagine the unimaginable: the horrors of a genocide wreaked upon children and families, civilians and entire communities, with total cowardice and silence as a response from the rest of the world. It’s hard to put words to these experiences of suffering and bloodshed. But Dr. Mo eloquently and powerfully takes us through the situation in Gaza and makes it clear why this is a moment with singular moral urgency that calls upon all of us.

Who gives a fuck about the celebrity news of the week? We’re not engaging at all in whataboutism when we notice the utter lack of coverage given to the defining crime against humanity of this century. While bread and circuses grab public attention in the U.S., there are unbelievably courageous people working with practically no international support or material aid to do what they can in keeping Palestinians alive. Dr. Mo is one such person. He’s made multiple trips to Gaza and seen what many Westerners are too afraid or cowardly to see. The driving force of our conversation is the grief and outrage that he feels when noting the lack of aid coming in from other nations to make the lifesaving work of doctors on the ground in Gaza possible (and also to keep those doctors safe). Quite the opposite, in a place like the U.S., where our tax dollars fund Israel’s genocide and our president completely supports and enables Netanyahu. Dr. Mo’s work has also been to bring attention to this situation, calling on world leaders to pay attention to what they don’t want to pay attention to.

There’s nothing harder to listen to than Dr. Mo’s account of the brutality that Palestinians face as they’re murdered and mortally wounded at every moment, while the rest of the world turns away. He’s seen children covered in burns and given them treatment. He was one of the first people to enter Gaza after the Central Kitchen Workers were killed. He’s seen the evil tricks the IOF play to use the humanity of Palestinians against them and kill them in cold blood. But Dr. Mo sees the humanity of Palestinians as the reason why they will be free. That level of care for others, that unrelenting bravery and sense of justice with which they approach every day and care for one another in the face of death, will overcome the brutal, inhuman, and pathetic cruelty of Israel. Our conversation covers both grief and hope, and although it’s difficult to hear, we hope you, too, won’t turn away.

Thank you for listening to KK&F. You can tune in to this podcast when it’s released on major streaming platforms tomorrow evening.