Homeless Football World Cup

Currently held in Rio de Janeiro… With Palestine representing for the first time, and bring a whole new meaning of what constitutes “homeless”. It is being represented by a team of Palestinian refugees from Camps in Lebanon.

But there’s a difference between being homeless and not having a homeland. For the first time in the cup’s eight-year history, there’s a team for Palestine, made up of players from refugee camps in Lebanon.

Guest Post: Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon Deserve Civil Rights

Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon face a very uncertain future. They deserve better. When Palestinians were kicked out of their homeland at gun point in 1948, some found a safe haven in Lebanon, where they were received with an open arms. Lebanese provided them shelters, food and other life essentials years before the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) took over. For that I am grateful, because I was born in one those 12 refugee camps 59 years ago.

Free Food Poisoning and Other Gifts from the International Community

It’s not like Gaza hasn’t seen enough damage. In a place where most the population is impoverished and dispossessed, when it rains it indeed pours New sources confirm that nearly 80 female students have been transferred to the local Nassir hospital in Khan Younis (South of Gaza City), as a result of food poisoning. The [...]

Palestinian Honeymooners

photo: Matthew CasselCabanas, huts, cabins, and shacks are all temporary places of choice for honeymooners. Now Palestinians have added tents to that list. A news story on Al-Arabiya, reports the emergence of a new trend in Gaza weddings. As a result of the Israeli assault on Gaza and the full and the partial destruction of [...]

Refugees Squared – A Problem of Terminology

This Al-Jazeera, English report says that Israel has displaced 13,000 refugees within Gaza. Given that 80% of Gaza’s residents are refugees and that Israel has been hitting refugee areas the hardest, what do we call refugees forced from their camps? Double Refugees? Refugees Squared? [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDDEozxtX3I] Israel calls them “human shields,” “terrorists,” and “demographic threats.” Israel [...]

Gaza: Where families die together

I’ve had this open for two hours now, trying to write and finish earlier than usual so that I can get some real sleep tonight. But the words weren’t coming out. The constant, continuous and very real fear that every conversation with my family in Gaza might be the last, the hard-hitting anxiety I feel [...]

No new year’s resolutions, just resoluteness

Friday, January 2nd 2009. The seventh day of one of the most asymmetrical wars in recent times: the state of Israel and its mighty army versus the besieged refugees of the Gaza Strip. I was woken by a text message from a friend in America, who wanted to talk about some of things I’d written [...]

Chronicles of a Refugee: Get it Now!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPyXTW3bjyI] The long-awaited documentary, Chronicles of a Refugee, is now ready for purchase from the Palestine Online store or the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. This six-part series on the global Palestinian experience of displacement since Israel’s foundation is one of the most important documentaries about Palestinians to come out in some time. Why? [...]

To Sum Up My Feelings on Egypt

The half-Palestinian, half-Egyptian Tamim al-Barghouthi, son of Palestinian poet Mourid al-Barghouthi has a long poem that he wrote after he was deported from Egypt in 2003 for taking part in an anti-Iraq war demo in which he talks about the conflicting feelings he has towards the country in which he grew up but that will [...]

Nakba Demonstration in Safuria Attacked

**Please click here for video from www.panet.co.il.***What happened to the people of Safuria? Thousands of people converged Thursday on the land of Safuria to mark the anniversary of the Nakba and to demonstrate for the right of return of the refugees. The crowd included mainly Palestinian citizens of Israel, and some Jewish citizens. Chants included [...]