I am a human before being a journalist. I cannot separate myself from what’s happening back home. It’s my home where I was born and I grew up for most of my life. It’s where I took my first breath, learnt my first word, ate my first meal, loved for the first time. It’s where all my memories are. It’s the place that I love the most in this world. The people who are being killed are my family, friends, neighbours, colleagues, classmates, and loved ones. The places that are being wiped out are the places I grew up with and in. My house, my schools, my special cafes, my favourite restaurants, my unique spots around the city, my beach, and above all - my homeland. They are not only massacring us, but wiping our history, our churches, mosques and landmarks. They are erasing a whole people who fought for their lives since they were born. Everything about my life revolves about Palestine. My friends at uni used to call me Yara Palestine because “I speak too much about Palestine all the time” and it’s because I have been fighting for my existence since the day I was born. I am proud of being called Yara Palestine. I never really took pictures of myself while having a break down but today I decided to take one to share with the world that we are humans, we have emotions and feelings, dreams and ambitions, just like you. I am not always as strong as I portray myself. I breakdown. I cry. I panic. I’ve been mainly showing you strong Yara that keeps on reporting, educating western journalists but I’m not sharing with you what Yara the human is feeling. All the battles in my head, all the worst case scenarios (some which already happened), all the fear and the trauma, all the anger and pain. I have never been in this much pain in my whole life. Despite living through 6 aggressions on Gaza (only 2 of which I was abroad), I’ve never gotten used to this suffering, this pain, this shock. I want you to know that you’re only seeing 1% of what’s actually happening in Gaza. Despite all of our efforts to show you our genocide, we are unable to completely convey the reality of what’s happening. Don’t get used to our genocide. Please don’t!
Guys I lost my Quinceañera ring at the Saturday Sept 30 Coldplay concert at the Rose Bowl. If anyone found it, please reach out😭it’s more about the sentimental value than the actual monetary value. It has an yellow/orange birthstone on it #ColdplayLA@RoseBowlStadium 🙏🏼
whatever bts did to me to make me such a happy n productive being back then, I need that again , but I know it won’t be the same bruh I wanna experience it again 😭😭😭