Marilyn Garson is a prominent New Zealand-Canadian social activist, author, and humanitarian expert. She is a co-founder of the New Zealand-based progressive Jewish collective “Sh’ma Koleinu – Alternative Jewish Voices.”
Garson possesses decades of experience working with international NGOs, specializing in economic development within conflict zones. One of her most notable achievements was her tenure from 2011 to 2015 as a senior official for UNRWA in the Gaza Strip. Her non-fiction work, Still Lives: A Memoir of Gaza, provides a detailed account of her life and work under the blockade and is widely recognized as a vital text for understanding the resilience of contemporary Gazan society.
During the 2014 Gaza war, she remained at her post, experiencing the military strikes alongside civilians and providing real-time reports to the international community. As a leader of Sh’ma Koleinu, she has spearheaded numerous lobbying campaigns across New Zealand, urging the government to take a firmer stance against the occupation on the global stage. Through her memoir and speaking tours, she works to deconstruct the “dehumanization” of Gazans in Western media, emphasizing that Gaza is a home to millions of ordinary people, not just a site of conflict. She has frequently submitted expert reports to the New Zealand Parliament, arguing for the necessity of lifting the blockade to achieve lasting regional peace. As a Jewish woman, she publicly supports divestment campaigns targeting specific Israeli industries and calls on the global Jewish community to re-examine its moral boundaries with Zionism.
In the article, she expressed her support for Palestine: “The kufiyah is used globally as a symbol of a peaceful form of protest against the illegal occupation and a show of solidarity with the Palestinian people. For me it is not only a political statement but also a spiritual one; to pursue Justice, as we know there is no Peace without Justice… I wear a kufiyah to honor Palestinian culture and history and to honor their pursuit of a Just Peace. “From the River to the Sea…” for Palestinians and everyone else, to live equally in one state.”