Laheq Halak

When we look from the outside at a country going through a difficult situation, there is a danger of imagining that its people live stubbornly and solely focused on their misfortune. The media has something to do with this, because they transmit all the bad news to us, but they often forget to show us that people, always and everywhere, strive to move forward, with moments for everything: to work, to laugh, to invent, to build community, to live. Some authors speak of the tyranny of victimhood: a person or a people in a vulnerable situation will be more worthy of our empathy if they visibly remain in the state of suffering and austerity that makes them deserving of our compassion. The moral paternalist distrusts those who do not adequately represent the role of the ideal victim.In Palestine, despite the duration and depth of the conflict, there is life. The life of a people who want to live and be free. Every day people get up in the morning to resume their daily lives. Mothers and fathers dress and feed their children, farmers sow their land, shopkeepers raise their shutters, and on hot summer nights people go out into the street to chat, to sing and dance, to live. We Mediterraneans are like that, everywhere.In Beit Jala, a village next to Bethlehem, two brothers, Jabra and Joseph, have launched a mobile application that presents itself as “the open door to fresh local products from Palestine”. Created with the support of the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation, it is named ‘Laheq Halak’, which in Palestinian Arabic means ‘hurry up’ or ‘seize the opportunity’, and it was born to be a resource that connects Palestinian producers, merchants, and consumers, a useful tool to improve people's daily lives, while strengthening the local economy and promoting more sustainable consumption.Laheq Halak is not a simple commercial application. The initiative is modest, but the objectives are ambitious: to transform food consumption and waste management, minimize food waste, and promote the circular economy. And if that's not enough, Laheq Halak is also a tool for solidarity. I will try to explain it in some order, so that this little marvel can be understood.When opening the application, a message appears that might initially seem discouraging: “Currently there are no vendors operating in your area”. It is understood, however: if we opened the application in the occupied territories, it would show us all the shopkeepers in the area who use Laheq Halak to sell the fresh products they have available. If this were the case, we could buy them directly and pay through the application.So far, all conventional. The plus of Laheq Halak is its secondary purpose, which invites us to install it and use it from the other end of the Mediterranean. When we open the application, we will also see one or more announcements of food collection and distribution campaigns organized in collaboration with social entities, youth organizations, and associations. The day I am writing this article, there is an active campaign promoted by the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul of Bethlehem, which explains its purpose: “Through Laheq Halak you can buy a digital gift card from anywhere in the world and the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul will use it to distribute food to needy families in Palestine”. And it will not be canned food sent by cooperation entities, but fresh products: zero kilometer and without the ecological footprint of long-distance transport. The operation of these campaigns is similar to crowdfunding initiatives. When we click on a campaign advertisement, it explains the objective, the figure expected to be reached, and the end date, and it proposes different contribution amounts, between 20 and 200 shekels, which at the current exchange rate is about 6 to 60 euros. It also allows for a personalized contribution for the amount we decide. Payment is made by bank card. If the set objective is not met, the food distribution campaign will be carried out anyway with the funds that have been raised.Finally, transparency: the promoters of Laheq Halak have an Instagram channel through which they inform about the development of the campaigns. You will find videos with the bags of food collected from the campaigns, tips on sustainable consumption, testimonials from users of the application, and other information to build community among users.In Palestine there is life, and the Palestinian people, in love with their country, strive to live to the fullest. The Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish could not have explained it better: “On this land there is something that wants to live: on this land there is the lady of this land, the mother of beginnings, the mother of endings. Her name was Palestine. She continues to be called Palestine. Lady: I deserve, because you are my lady, I deserve to live”.