One California inmate’s efforts to help Palestinians suffering from Israel’s ongoing military campaign ended in a huge outpouring of support.
Last week, Los Angeles-based filmmaker Justin Mashouf shared photos on X of a pay stub that belongs to a 56-year-old man identified only as “Hamza.”
Hamza is currently serving time in a Northern California prison where he makes only $0.13 an hour working as a janitor. The work log Mashouf shared showed Hamza was paid $17.74 last October after working 136.5 hours over 21 days.
Hamza donated every last cent of those earnings to Gaza victims.
“An incarcerated brother I am in correspondence with donated $17.74 for relief efforts in Gaza,” Mashouf wrote on X. “This donation is the sum of 136 hours of his labor in the prison working as a porter/janitor.”
Mashouf’s post took off on social media, landing thousands of retweets and likes.
Mashouf launched a fundraiser on GoFundMe to raise money for Hamza’s reentry into society. Hundreds of donations poured in over the last six days, and as of March 5, more than $102,000 has been raised.
The Washington Post reported that Mashouf has known Hamza since 2009, when the filmmaker was working on his documentary called “The Honest Struggle.”
After seeing the news last year about the Israel-Hamas conflict, Hamza reached out to Mashouf to see how he could donate to civilians in Gaza.
“These last few months, he’s been very anxious about the state of the world, especially since he knows he is reentering the real world,” Mashouf told the Post in a phone interview.
Hamza was recently granted parole and will be freed from prison at the end of March. The Post obtained legal records showing he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 1986 for shooting and killing his uncle. He was sentenced to 15 years to life.
He was denied parole 13 times between 1995 and 2023, but after nearly 40 years behind bars, his release was finally granted.
“In the 80’s, Hamza accidentally fired a gun at a loved one, which killing the victim, leading to his imprisonment for over four decades,” Mashouf wrote on the GoFundMe page. “He has lived with the pain of losing his family member due to his own mistake every day for decades. While in prison, he has become a devout Muslim and has been pleading for parole for decades.”
Mashouf wrote that the donated funds will help him “access essential resources, secure housing and transportation, and navigate the challenges of his new freedom.”
“He gave people hope by showing how selfless he is, and then they gave him hope through their kindness. But when people began showing him kindness, it really helped ready him for this reentry,” Mashouf told the Post.
The fundraising page was updated with a thank you note from Hamza, who not only expressed immense gratitude for the donations but also called on people to continue helping and advocating for those in need.
“From my heart, I thank you all for your generosity and kindness in donating these funds to help and assist me upon my release from prison,” Hamza wrote. “However I must ask each of you now to please, please, please look upon and consider the suffering children, mothers and fathers of Palestine, Yemen, and Africa living under inhuman conditions, being bombed every hour of the day, without water, shelter, medication and food.”
The Post reported that Hamza will also be donating the earnings from his March paycheck to Gaza civilians.
Health ministry officials in Gaza estimate that more than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war started last October. Israel’s attacks have also reportedly injured more than 60,000 people, most of whom are women and children.
