“The idea that walking away is childish and unproductive is predicated on the inability to imagine anything but a walking away from, never a walking away toward – never that there might exist another destination.”
~ Omar El Akkad, One Day Everyone Will Always Have Been Against This (2025)
Between October 2024 and October 2025, I have been part of a small group organising three solidarity walks to raise money for families in Gaza. Each walk has followed the outline of Gaza transposed onto a different location: along the River Tweed in October 2024; Edinburgh in May 2025; and north Northumberland in October 2025.
In placing one map on top of the other, the first thing you notice is how tiny Gaza is. 25 miles of coastline; a population of over 2 million people; bombed relentlessly, with barely a pause for breath, and no possibility to hide or escape. Each walk is approximately 64 miles / 103 km long and each one took us 4 days. In total, these three walks have raised over £16,000, sent directly to families in Gaza to help them survive the genocide.
Each journey has been precisely as Omar El Akkad describes: a walking away towards. A temporary collective space held amid a ruined present. A moment to focus, rage, grieve. To support one another and restate again the love and care and anger that bind us. To remember and imagine. Away towards together.
We have now put together a zine to encourage people to organise their own solidarity and fundraising walks. You can download it as a digital version or as a print-ready version (choose booklet printing).
El Akkad continues: “The walking away is not nihilism, it’s not cynicism, it’s not doing nothing – it’s a form of engagement more honest, more soul-affirming, than anything the system was ever prepared to offer.”
