Peace Bakery Raises $13k for Gaza Aid

Austin, TX -- Oct. 29, 2023

Peace Bakery & Deli in Austin raised over $13,000 on Saturday to fund humanitarian aid for Gaza, the bakery announced on FaceBook.

“I think this is probably the biggest turnout we’ve seen at a fundraiser event,” said Mariam Hammad, an employee and daughter of Peace Bakery’s owners.

A Hamas attack on Oct. 7 killed 1,200 people in Israel, igniting an Israeli bombing campaign on the Gaza strip that has killed over 8,000 Palestinians as of Sunday. The Hamas attack sparked global outrage, however many people have called for a cease fire as Israel’s campaign has disproportionately killed women and children. Local Palestinian restaurant Peace Bakery worked with student organizations from the University of Texas to organize the Oct. 28 fundraiser. The proceeds will go to the non-profit charity Pious Projects’ Emergency Relief for Gaza.

“It’s a humanitarian issue,” Mariam Hammad said. “And the only response we can do is send money and aid, which is having a hard time getting to them in the first place.”

Her parents, Nuha and Jihad Hammad, are a Palestinian couple that founded Peace Bakery & Deli in 2014 when they realized the Austin community lacked authentic Mediterranean cuisine. Nuha developed a passion for cooking as a child growing up in Palestine. She decided to fulfill her lifelong dream of owning a restaurant and serve the Austin community using her family recipes.

Dozens of customers supporting the fundraiser formed a zig-zag line that went out the door of Peace Bakery & Deli. Hammad said they went through six skewers of shawarma. Usually, they only go through 1.5 skewers on a busy day. The restaurant also went through copious batches of side dishes and nearly all the dessert before the fundraiser ended at 6 p.m.

“We definitely underestimated, but we’re glad there was such a good turnout,” Hammad said. “Our employees are very, very tired, but we anticipate doing some more events like this.”

Farwa Zaidi came to support Peace Bakery immediately after attending another fundraiser for Gaza at the Palestinian-owned restaurant Almara.

“This is a simple way for me to make sure I did something that would help the Palestinian people,” Zaidi said.

She is a Muslim Pakistani mother of a 2-year-old and a 3-year-old. Zaidi said her social media is flooded every day with the atrocities in Gaza, and it is impossible for her to continue life as normal.

“All I see are children being pulled out of rubble, children whose brains have been bombed to bits,” Zaidi said. “I’m seeing children that had dreams and visions and whole lives in front of them, and I see my own kids.”

She heard about the Peace Bakery fundraiser through the UT Austin chapter of the Palestine Solidarity Committee on FaceBook. The PSC is a student organization that creates awareness and support for Palestinians through fundraisers, lectures and other events. The PSC, Ahlul Bayt Student Organization and Arab Students Association helped organize and promote the Peace Bakery fundraiser.

A spokesman for the PSC said they are planning more events to support Palestinians and demand a cease fire, including more protests and a walkout on UT campus. He requested anonymity because of recent doxing and hate crimes against Palestinians. The spokesman is a Palestinian student at UT, and he said Israeli airstrikes have killed seven of his family members since Oct. 7.

“My youngest family member, she was nine. Her father had to watch her get torn apart by an Israeli missile that destroyed their entire home,” he said.

The conflict has only escalated each day, and conditions in Gaza are deteriorating. Hammad, Zaidi, and the PSC spokesman expressed feelings of helplessness after the U.S. vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a humanitarian pause and continues to fund Israel.

“Israel has the inherent right of self-defense as reflected in Article 51 of the UN Charter,” said U.S. ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield. “This resolution did not mention Israel’s right of self-defense.”

The failed UN resolution called for temporary cease fires in the Israel-Hamas war to allow humanitarian aid into the Gaza strip. The resolution also condemned all violence against civilians, as the conflict has disproportionately harmed non-combatants.

“This power of the American veto is far too strong. It doesn’t align with the interests of the majority of our population,” the PSC spokesman said. “We’ve seen it in the U.N. General Assembly. We want a cease fire.”

For now, all that Zaidi, the Hammads and the PSC spokesman can do is continue to protest, fundraise and hope that Israel will allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza. However, they all emphasized how social media has illuminated the crisis and enabled them to share Palestinian voices.

“The last form of resistance some of these people have is to die in front of you and show you that they’re dying, to record the death of their children and mothers and fathers,” said the PSC spokesman. “Don’t look away. Contact your representatives. Let them know that we want a cease fire.”