RefineLa, Forward host pop-up thrift market to raise funds for Palestine
By Sam Mulick May 15, 2024 4:54 p.m.
RefineLA and Forward hosted a pop-up thrift market Thursday on the Sunset Village Plaza lawn to benefit Palestine.
The market – which included vendors selling art, secondhand clothing, jewelry and baked goods – came after the UC Divest Coalition and Students for Justice in Palestine at UCLA created the Palestine solidarity encampment in Dickson Plaza on April 25 to demand that the UC divest from companies associated with the Israeli military. The encampment was later attacked by counter-protesters and was disbanded by law enforcement May 2.
All proceeds from the market will go to mutual aid for Gaza, said Mindy Luo, the president of RefineLA, a sustainable fashion club on campus. Luo, a third-year art history and cognitive science student added that members of her club were motivated to join the fundraiser after seeing the encampment and the Israeli military’s recent bombing and invasion of the Palestinian city of Rafah.
“Everyone has been really generous and really happy to support,” she said. “We should focus on … how we can use our own strengths to help the cause.”
In a written statement to the Daily Bruin, a spokesperson for RefineLA said the group raised $2,100 from the market and is splitting the sum equally between Salam and Solidarity, an organization providing aid throughout the Gaza Strip, and Fadi AbuTaqiya, who is raising money to evacuate his family from the war-torn region.
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“Palestinian and Israeli leaders finally recover the Road Map to Peace, only to discover that, while they were looking for it, the Lug Nuts of Mutual Interest came off the Front Left Wheel of Accommodation, causing the Sport Utility Vehicle of Progress to crash into the Ditch of Despair.”
― Dave Barry, Dave Barry’s History of the Millennium