On Saturday, internationally renowned photographer, Motaz Azaiza, attended the PALESTINE WILL BE FREE event in Seattle, Washington. With his prominent appearance across most social media platforms, Azaiza’s photographs have impacted tens of millions.

Later, Motaz Azaiza was welcomed to the stage. His appearance was a total, unique surprise. The reception to his presence by the festival’s audience was filled with shouts of joy and thunderous applause. Seconds turned into minutes. In the end, Azaiza received upwards of five minutes of applause the moment he stepped onto the stage. It went on long enough for me to get back to the festival and find out what was up, after I had been re-charging my phone in the parking lot.

The appearance of Motaz Azaiza at the peace rally was a surprise to one of the most relevant people there: megastar recording artist Macklemore. In the weeks leading up to the day’s peace awareness event, Macklemore had bestowed his characteristic friendly persuasions to the world, in favor of Palestine, by announcing the festival to his millions-strong fanbase more than once. Azaiza succeeded in surprising Macklemore right when the multi-platinum recording artist arrived backstage.

Azaiza was born inside a Palestine refugee camp located in south Gaza, back in 1999. Sometimes, it’s such a relief to see someone like him continue to remain alive and speak about factual data. Today, he assumes a role of inspiration for those who seek peace for Gaza. Millions turn to his photographic journal to take in his updates. His information is uniformly deemed trustworthy judging by each post’s comments section.

Backstage, shortly after his arrival, Azaiza himself was surprised by indigenous femme Sii-am Hamilton (@siiamhamilton) alongside one of the festival’s performance-givers: the artist Calina Lawrence (Suquamish, @calinalawrence). Together, Hamilton and Lawrence presented Azaiza with a FREE PALESTINE t-shirt—one that had been made inside Hamilton’s territory.

“I think that as indigenous people we have a responsibility to show up for Palestinian people. I think that our struggles are inter-changeable. I think we are all experts on colonization, as both indigenous people and Palestinian people. I think we know these struggles really well and we have to support one another and build solidarity efforts because we can’t do this alone. I think that the more of us who unite together, the stronger we are. And I think that the more people realize the proximity between our struggles, the better off we are,” said Sii-am Hamilton.

After that, Azaiza posted about his gratitude to the event organizers, as well as to rap artist Macklemore who, these days, often goes by Ben Haggerty.

One post by Azaiza read, “I tried to surprise Ben… Just wanted to thank him personally for everything he has been doing since the beginning. He has been a great surprise for Palestine, using his voice and platforms to advocate and raise awareness in his songs.”

Macklemore’s Dream For Palestine… Part III: “MOTAZ AZAIZA”

Macklemore’s Dream For Palestine… Part II: “UNTIL WE’RE ALL FREE”