Crips for eSims for Gaza needs support moving resources to Palestinians!
Background
Since the escalation of genocidal violence against Palestinians in October 2023, the Israel state and Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have murdered over one hundred thousand people, injured & disabled many more, and devastated the physical infrastructure of Gaza. The material and ideological complicity of wealthy nations like the U.S., Canada, and many western European states has supplied Israel with near-limitless military resources and media outlets all too willing to downplay the atrocities committed by the Zionist settler state. The announcement of a temporary ceasefire in January 2025 offers some hope, but Israel has yet to show any real commitment to ending its onslaught, and repairing the damage done to Palestinian communities and institutions will take decades.
In addition to the constant threat of death & displacement, Palestinians have faced an Israeli economic blockade that makes moving basic resources like food, water, and cash into Gaza nearly impossible. Meanwhile, the IOF relentless attack wifi and cellular service to prevent Palestinians from communicating with their families, sending and receiving warnings about Israeli bombings and military activity, and sharing information with the world about conditions in Gaza. These communication blackouts are also exploited by the IOF to perpetrate atrocities with greater impunity.
One avenue of direct support that remains viable is helping people access eSims - digitally activated cellular voice/data service cards.
Crips for eSims for Gaza
Inspired by the work of Egyptian writer and activist Mirna El Helbawi, who founded
#ConnectingGaza to get eSims directly to people in Gaza, Crips for eSims for Gaza is a collaboration between Jane Shi, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, and Alice Wong. Recognizing the inextricability of Palestinian liberation and global disability justice movements, the group came together in late 2023 to rally support from disabled people around the world to purchase and maintain eSims for use by Palestinians trapped under Israeli occupation.
Since the project's inception, nearly $2 million CAD has been contributed by over 35K supporters to buy and top-up over 10K eSims, thousands of which are in active use. This mutual-aid driven communications network has supported "doctors, nurses, paramedics, journalists, family members, and students, from those covering the Flour Massacre and the massacres at Al Shifa Hospital to students downloading PDFs for their online classes, after their universities and libraries have all been destroyed."
More information about Crips for eSims for Gaza, their relationship with Connecting Humanity team, and other organizational details are available on their
crowdfunding page and at the
Disability Visibility Project.
Why an itch.io bundle?
Despite the support & solidarity Crips for eSims for Gaza has garnered, the constant erasure of the genocide makes fundraising an ongoing challenge. Itch.io has hosted several bundles over the past decade that have mobilized millions of dollars for racial and social justice struggles, and we hope to tap that collective capacity to move resources directly to Palestinian people fighting for their lives, for visibility, and for liberation.
As a creator, contributing to the bundle is a simple but meaningful way to build solidarity with grassroots organizers directly supporting Palestinians. Israel's efforts to shut down communication and block the flow of vital resources to families, communities, and freedom fighters is brutal and inhumane. eSims create avenues of connection and hope where they are otherwise scarce.
How will the proceeds be spent?
The Crips for eSims for Gaza Bundle is a mutual aid bundle directly supporting the critical work of moving resources to Palestinian people. 100%
of bundle proceeds will be forwarded to
Crips for eSims for Gaza, a volunteer-run non-profit organization that uses contributed funds to purchase and top-up eSims for use by Palestinians.
Crips for eSims for Gaza's financial accountability document is publicly viewable
here.
What kind of submissions are you looking for?
Broadly speaking, we invite a full spectrum of digital and physical content: video games, tabletop games, zines, comics, books/novels, asset packs, and any other existing itch.io project you'd like to submit!
Additionally (these are important, please take note!):
1. Honoring the demands of the global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, all submitted work should respect these core principles of Palestinian sovereignty, as paraphrased from Wikipedia:
This doesn't mean your project has to address Palestine directly, but we will not include work that in any way undermines the fundamental humanity or struggle for liberation of Palestinian people under Israeli occupation.
2. We will not accept or platform work that promotes racist, sexist, fatphobic, transmisogynistic, ableist, saneist, xenophobic, anti-black, anti-Muslim, anti-Indigenous or otherwise oppressive ideology. We welcome submissions that engage with real-world power dynamics in thoughtful, critical ways, but any overt or implicit (dog-whistling) reactionary content will be rejected.
3. Recognizing the role of "AI capitalism" in the mass theft of creative and intellectual labor and accelerating environmental devastation, "AI"-generated or "AI"-centric content will not be included in the bundle.
4. Finally, we may choose not to include submissions that feature sexually exploitative or exclusively sexual content. This is not a debate about the basic legitimacy of sexually explicit content, but a consideration made in the broader context of the bundle.
That all sounds great! How do I submit?
Awesome, we're happy to have you! The submission period is open from January 27 to February 17, 2025. To apply, you must do BOTH of the following:
- Fill out this 12 question Google Form to verify your account, opt-in status, and submissions
- Join this jam page and submit your projects
You're welcome to submit more than one project (up to a maximum of 3), but each will require its own application. Don't worry, we've tried to keep the process relatively short! In all cases, you must complete BOTH steps listed above. The Google Form is for the bundle coordination team, and the Jam Page is what itch.io staff will use to import submissions.
If I submit my project to the bundle, do you own it?
Nope! The Crips for eSims for Gaza bundle claims no ownership of any project selected to participate. We may use screenshots and videos you provide to promote the bundle on social media, or as ask you to offer Streaming/Review Keys to press or other public-facing bundle supporters.
What about other information I submit?
Applicant information will be kept confidential and is solely used for context when considering your submission. All data will be deleted once the submission process is complete.
Who's coordinating the bundle?
This bundle was developed in direct collaboration with Crips for eSims with Gaza by Barabones, BáiYù, and hexcavator.
