An interview with Anas Arafat from Plant the Land about the importance of emergency common assistance whilst working on longer-term solutions

~ Will B~

Anas Arafat is a lawyer and longtime humanitarian aid activist based in Gaza. Anas co-founded the Plant the Land Team in 2015 and since then has been working with other activists to distribute plant-based food, medicine, winter coats, blankets, and other parcels to families in Gaza.

Plant the Land is a vegan food justice project that was co-founded by Anas and Laura Schleifer, a Jewish American vegan-anarchist. Plant the Land is organised and directed by Gazan volunteers and is entirely Palestinian-led. The group combines veganism, ecology, communalism, education and mutual aid.

For the last 10 years the Plant the Land Team has carried out numerous mutual aid tasks including distributing food, planting food forests on public land, providing Gazan farmers with seeds and planting tools, and providing medicine. Plant the Land carried out this emergency mutual aid whilst working on longer-term solutions such as planting community gardens on public land to produce food that will be freely available to everyone. Their ability to carry out this work has been drastically curtailed since October 2023 as the team now focus on the immediate survival of people in Gaza.  

In July 2025 Anas’ family home was bombed by the Israeli Air Force and 13 members of Anas’ family were murdered including his mother, his father, his two brothers, their wives, and seven nieces and nephews. Anas is desperately in need of medical surgery and is caring for his children who are scared and hungry. Despite his ongoing personal tragedy, Anas continues to carry out vital mutual aid work in Gaza, and took the time to answer our questions.

WB: I’m so sorry to hear about the loss of your family, if you feel able, could you tell me what happened to your loved ones to help share the reality of what people in Gaza are suffering?

AA: On the 14th of July, my family’s house was bombed without warning and without any reason. This is the case with all families in Gaza who are killed without reason. My family and children were inside the house. The Israeli army destroyed this house and everyone in it.

We are now unable to extract my family from under the rubble because of the ban imposed by the Israeli army on the area where my family’s house is located. We feel let down and helpless, and now it seems that my family’s bodies have decomposed because of what the Israeli army is doing.

Can you explain your current situation, what are your priorities now personally and for carrying out mutual aid work?

The current situation I am very sad and hopeless also because of losing my family, family is everything, I am frustrated especially that I am also unable to reach my family to say goodbye to them, my mother was like medicine to me and my father was always by my side he was my friend, I cannot describe my condition to you, I do not know why this happened, I miss my family, there is nothing like family, Israel deprived me of my family.

My priority is to reach my family’s bodies, but I also try to help people to alleviate their suffering. My father always said that I should do more to help poor families, and I should always be there for everyone who needs help, and I will do that because it is my responsibility and also because my father was always keen for me to help others.

Can you say a bit about Plant the Land, the work they do and how you got involved?

The team was created with my wonderful friend Laura. We were exchanging ideas and how we could help families in Gaza. For that reason, we decided to create a team and named it “Plant the Land Team”. This name represents the importance of land and also how to use land to help others, especially the poor. Now, this team is always working to relieve families in Gaza and provide the assistance for them.

How has the work of Plant the Land changed since October 2023, have you still been able to operate?

Since the start of the war on Gaza, things have become gradually more complicated, as we have begun to suffer from the difficulty of reaching shops and buying the supplies that families in Gaza need because everything has been destroyed by the Israeli bombing. We also began to suffer from a scarcity of resources and high prices, even reaching poor families has become fraught with dangers because of the Israeli bombing of humanitarian workers.

The team is still striving to provide everything possible to help families in Gaza. The team previously had many options to help families in Gaza. The team provided food packages on a daily basis to families, and the team also worked to provide water by digging water wells. The team also worked to cultivate land and provide agricultural seeds. The team provided mattresses and blankets, but now our options have become limited to providing food and water to families in Gaza.

After everything you have personally been through, what motivates you to carry on your mutual aid work?

I work despite all the dangerous circumstances surrounding me. I received a call last year from the Israeli army, threatening me because I help families in Gaza. He told me that he would destroy my house and kill my family, but despite this threat, I continued to work to help families in Gaza. Therefore, my work is risky, but I will continue because families in Gaza need me.

What gives me the strength to continue this work is first my love for my country and second my parents who always told me that I must continue to help people because the people in Gaza need help and I made a decision that I will continue to help people even if it costs me my life.

Why is mutual aid and grassroots collaboration so important? Are there things that you can do that major aid organisations can’t?

What I do is very important, especially since we are alleviating the suffering of children and their families in Gaza, and we are also trying to preserve these families by helping them. Everyone knows that famine has reached its peak, and we are trying to preserve Gaza and its families. Institutions are not always able to reach all families in Gaza, and sometimes some institutions rely on the lists they have and do not update them, but my team always reaches poor families where they are. We have always delivered aid to families without burdening them with transportation, and we seek to reach all poor families in Gaza. During the war, the percentage of poor families became 90%.

Is there anything you want people outside Gaza to better understood about the situation?

I am not an institution or an organisation, we are a team working to help everyone in Gaza and we strive to be a global team capable of helping all people around the world. The world must know that Gaza is dying of hunger, and what is happening is unjust to the families in Gaza. I also have diabetes, and I cannot receive treatment because of the Israeli siege. The world must stand by us because Israel is killing us and our children. The world must boycott Israel and reject what is happening in Gaza.

How can people in the UK and around the world show solidarity with you and people in Gaza?

The world must stand in solidarity with us by supporting Gaza, and breaking the siege imposed on Gaza. I also hope people will provide financial support to us so that we can rebuild what the Israeli army destroyed.