AMMC honours Ali Mustafa’s legacy with donations to organizations supporting Gazan journalists and children.

Saturday, March 9, 2024

On the 10-year anniversary of his death, The Ali Mustafa Memorial Collective is honouring Ali’s work and legacy by donating nearly $10,000 to the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund and the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate. 

Ten years ago today, Ali Mustafa was killed along with seven others in Aleppo, Syria, in an aerial bombing carried out by the Assad government. Ali had returned to Syria to continue his work exposing the depths of a human tragedy that he believed the rest of the world could no longer afford to ignore.

Ali was a Toronto-based freelance photojournalist, activist and writer. His work and politics spanned from local organizing in Toronto to working with the Landless Workers Movement (MST) in Brazil, and later to freelancing as a photojournalist in Palestine, Egypt, and Syria.

Ali’s journalistic and activist work, described by many as “People’s Journalism”, was driven by a commitment to solidarity with grassroots liberation struggles across the globe. He told people’s stories – stories of resistance, stories of revolution. 

Ten years later, local Palestinian journalists on the ground in Gaza are engaging in this same People’s Journalism, providing the nuance and context lacking in Western, mainstream media. This work has come at a terrible cost – Gazan media workers have been directly targeted by Israel and nearly a hundred journalists have lost their lives. Donations to the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate will ensure that media workers on the ground have access to basic supplies and safety equipment, so that they can continue sharing news from Gaza.

Ali also cared deeply about the impact of war and humanitarian disaster on children. Many of his photographs in the region feature children as they play, protest, and participate, along with their families, in the liberatory struggles of the region. Almost a generation later, the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund is providing urgent aid to Gaza, providing a lifeline to tens of thousands of children, while rebuilding critical healthcare infrastructure destroyed by Israeli bombardment.

We encourage all of those who knew Ali, who admired his work, and who continue to stand in solidarity with these liberation movements, to donate to these two organizations in Ali’s memory.