%20(550%20%C3%97%20550px)%20(1000%20%C3%97%20100px.jpg){kind=small}
%20(1).png){kind=small}
.png)
Team TJPL Begins 195km Stride for Palestinians 2026 to Support Medical Aid for Palestinians
Starting on 1 October, TJPL Media Network will cover 195km along a virtual route from Jenin to Gaza, turning every kilometre into an opportunity to raise money, amplify Palestinian artists and keep Palestinian lives in view.
Tomorrow, 1 October 2026, I begin.
Across the next month, I will complete 195km by cycling and using a treadmill, tracing a virtual route through Palestine from Jenin to Gaza. I will move five days each week, logging every kilometre in support of Medical Aid for Palestinians.
The official Stride for Palestinians 2026 challenge runs from 1 to 31 October. Participants can walk, run, cycle or push the distance wherever they are and at an intensity suited to their accessibility needs. Money raised through the event will support MAP’s medical projects for
Palestinians living under occupation and as refugees.
The First Kilometre Begins Tomorrow
Completing 195km from the safety of the UK cannot mirror what Palestinians have been forced to endure. I would never pretend that it could.
This challenge is not an attempt to recreate somebody else’s suffering. It is a commitment to keep returning to it, day after day, when turning away would be easier.
Every kilometre becomes another opportunity to ask people to donate. Every update can place Palestinian voices back into view. Every share can carry this campaign beyond the audience TJPL could reach alone.
The distance matters because repetition matters. Attention often arrives quickly and disappears just as fast. Palestinians do not have the luxury of living only within the moments when the rest of the world is watching.
For October, I am choosing not to look away.
Why the Olive Harvest Matters
This year’s Stride for Palestinians challenge is connected to the Palestinian olive harvest.
The harvest represents far more than agriculture. It connects families to land, tradition, culture and livelihoods built across generations. Medical Aid for Palestinians describes the olive harvest as a symbol of Palestinian resilience, connection and rootedness, particularly as olive trees and Palestinian land continue to face destruction.
That symbolism cannot become decorative. It must lead somewhere.
For Team TJPL, it leads towards financial support for Palestinian healthcare and towards a wider effort to recognise Palestinian people through their lives, work, ambitions and art.
The Email From Gaza That Changed the Word “Independent”
The reason this journey sits within a music platform began at 4am on a Thursday.
I was awake, working through submissions sent to TJPL Media Network, when an email arrived from Gaza City.
It came from Hicats Sam, a 23-year-old Palestinian rapper, songwriter and filmmaker, asking us to consider his music film FEAR for editorial coverage.
His was not an ordinary music submission.
Sam told me that members of his family had been trapped beneath the rubble when their home was bombed. He lost his home, laptop and the small studio he had hoped would mark the beginning of his musical career. After repeated displacement, he now lives with his family in a tent.
He also lost his close friend Qassem, who had supported his recording and artistic development.
Yet Sam continued creating.
With limited electricity, internet access, equipment and safe places to work, FEAR took five months to complete. Its video was filmed on an iPhone.
Sam taught himself English because he believed it could help his music and story reach more people. At the end of his submission, he wrote:
“I hope you might give this independent release a chance to reach listeners beyond Gaza.”
That sentence has not left me.
TJPL Media Network was built to support unheard musicians and help independent voices travel further. Sam’s message changed the weight of the word “independent”.
This was not simply an artist working without a major label. This was an artist trying to build a musical future while surviving the conditions surrounding him.
I told Sam that TJPL would help tell his story. I meant it.
Hear Hicats Sam, Not Only What Has Happened to Him
Sam must not be flattened into another account of war.
He is an artist with a name, a voice and a future. His work carries loss and displacement, but it also carries education, ambition, identity, creativity and the decision to continue.
On his official website, Sam describes music as the way he carries his story forward and turns pain into something people can hear. His Bandcamp page presents FEAR as a confrontation with intrusive memories and the experience of being forced to relive them.
Watch the film. Listen to the work. Learn his name.
Follow Hicats Sam on Instagram: @hsrealmusic
Why a Spotify Playlist Belongs Beside a Medical Fundraiser
At first, placing a Spotify playlist beside a medical fundraiser can feel counterintuitive.
A stream cannot treat a patient. A playlist cannot replace a home, reverse displacement or deliver medical supplies. Listening must never be presented as a substitute for donating or taking meaningful action.
Yet there is another failure we must avoid: speaking about Palestinians without hearing them.
When people are discussed only through figures, headlines and images of destruction, the whole person begins to disappear. Music interrupts that distance. It carries language, anger, memory, humour, grief, resistance and ordinary human life in ways statistics cannot.
The playlist is not the action by itself. It is an invitation to listen while we act.
Hear the voices. Follow the artists. Save their music. Share it with somebody else. Buy directly from artists where that option exists. Then return to the fundraiser and ask what else you can do.
The music does not soften the reality surrounding this campaign. It stops that reality from swallowing the people living inside it.
Where Team TJPL Donations Will Go
Donations made through the Team TJPL fundraising page support Medical Aid for Palestinians.
MAP works alongside Palestinian communities to uphold their rights to health and dignity. Its work includes developing sustainable, locally led healthcare services, providing medical aid during emergencies and challenging barriers preventing Palestinians from accessing healthcare.
MAP confirms that funds raised through Stride for Palestinians will support its medical projects for Palestinians living under occupation and as refugees.
Donations are handled through the official Medical Aid for Palestinians fundraising platform.
Four Ways to Support the Journey
The official challenge registration deadline has passed, but supporting Team TJPL does not require a race number or a fundraising page.
1. Donate
Give whatever is realistic for you through the official Team TJPL fundraising page. Small donations still move the total forward.
2. Share
Send the campaign to a friend, repost our updates or place the donation link somewhere new. One share can take the fundraiser beyond everybody we currently know.
3. Listen
Watch FEAR. Visit Hicats Sam’s website. Play the Spotify playlist. Follow the artists and allow their work to exist beyond the circumstances in which it was created.
4. Stay With Us
Follow TJPL throughout October as each kilometre is completed. The campaign should not disappear after its announcement. Awareness becomes meaningful through consistency.
Tomorrow, We Move
The first kilometre begins tomorrow.
I will share the distance, the progress and the reasons behind it throughout October. Each update will return to the same purpose: raising money for Medical Aid for Palestinians while refusing to allow Palestinian lives and artists to fade from view.
This is for Sam.
It is for every Palestinian artist who has approached TJPL asking for help carrying their voice beyond the conditions surrounding them.
It is for Palestinian lives that cannot be reduced to numbers and Palestinian futures that remain worth fighting for.
I am striding for justice. I am striding for hope. I am striding for Palestinian lives, voices and futures.
If you have been waiting for a moment to act, let it be before the first kilometre is logged.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Stride for Palestinians 2026?
Stride for Palestinians is a virtual 195km challenge organised by Medical Aid for Palestinians. It takes place from 1 to 31 October 2026 and follows a virtual route across Palestine from Jenin to Gaza.
How can I donate to Team TJPL?
Donations can be made through the official Team TJPL Medical Aid for Palestinians fundraising page.
Can I support the campaign without donating?
Yes. Share the fundraising page, follow the 195km journey, watch Hicats Sam’s FEAR, listen to the accompanying Spotify playlist and help Palestinian artists reach new audiences.
Who is Hicats Sam?
Hicats Sam is a 23-year-old Palestinian rapper, songwriter and filmmaker from Gaza City. His music film FEAR was created amid displacement and severe limitations on electricity, internet access, equipment and safe working spaces.
$50
Product Title
Product Details goes here with the simple product description and more information can be seen by clicking the see more button. Product Details goes here with the simple product description and more information can be seen by clicking the see more button
$50
Product Title
Product Details goes here with the simple product description and more information can be seen by clicking the see more button. Product Details goes here with the simple product description and more information can be seen by clicking the see more button.
$50
Product Title
Product Details goes here with the simple product description and more information can be seen by clicking the see more button. Product Details goes here with the simple product description and more information can be seen by clicking the see more button.
