Salwa Abu Lebdeh
Camerawoman and documentary filmmaker
I am a director. I try to show a picture that’s different from the one you see on television that depicts a nation being killed, a nation that lacks life—with only funerals and flags. I show our life: a people with a history, civilization, and heritage. [...]
Badia Khalaf
Chair of Annahda Women’s Association
The best thing in life is love. Without love we cannot live. As Christians, we want only peace. This is our Christianity. We can love each other, we can live with each other. It’s not hard for us to live with Jewish people, Israeli people. [...]
Khawla Dawoud Ahmad Alazraq
Director of Psycho-Social Counseling Women’s Center
The occupation puts immense pressure on women. The men used to earn incomes by working in Israel, now they cannot go to Israel. They are frustrated, cannot feed their kids, and do not feel like real fathers who can support their families. This expresses itself in violence against women and children. [...]
Wejdan Jaber
Board member of Filastiniyat and advocate for the disabled
The Palestinian people have their own history, culture, and traditions. We are normal people; we don’t cook bombs in our kitchens. Palestine is beautiful. We have wonderful oranges, a beautiful beach, great food like hummus and tabbouleh. I want people to dream of visiting Palestine not only as a holy place but to enjoy the beautiful culture, language, and music. [...]
Khuloud J. Khayyat Dajani
Professor and Chair of Al Quds Child Institute
The Palestinian nation has one of the highest fertility rates and a median age of 18. Large numbers of children need special care. It is obvious nobody looks out for them by the results in the streets of Gaza and the camps of Beirut and the West Bank. There’s little investment in refugee children by Palestinian leaders or Israelis, so they don’t know how to be proper citizens of the world. They suffer from a toxic environment—if you feel your country move towards civil war, it tells what kind of atmosphere the children live in. [...]
Maha Abu Shusheh
General Manager of Abu Shusheh Trading Company
We are a nation that deserves to live, and to live in peace. What is happening to us now leaves us hopeless, and no one can live without hope. We have been neglected for a long time, and we are not going to be the only nation that will pay the price. The whole neighborhood of nations will pay because we have been left without hope. [...]
Rula: Thursday
My day started at 6:00 am, like every day, and everything went well and smooth today. Memo went to school at 7:30 and then I return back home to prepare breakfast for my parents and myself, and then hurry to AL-Ram to attend my second day of the workshop that Fakhira my friend and [...]
Rula Salemeh: Saturday
Yesterday was the last meeting for the four of us as the book team before Patricia and Ruth left Jerusalem for Washington to prepare for our book launch there. We met at the American Colony for nearly two hours before our dear Elana left to her daughter’s birthday party.
I finished discussing a few things [...]
Hekmat Bessiso Naji
Project Assistant with Medico International for health services
The world hides its ears and eyes from the miserable life of the refugees in the camps in Gaza and the West Bank. The issue is not just living here, but who’s responsible for this and when will this change. For refugees, all our lives have been under a question mark. [...]
Bushra Mukbil
Consultant with Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator
I was having lunch with a friend and her young son in Ramallah when Israeli soldiers attacked a café across the street. They had guns, shattered windows, threw gas bombs and sound bombs. The kid asked his mom, “What’s happening?” She told him, “It’s a Hollywood movie.” I said, “You have to tell him the reality.” She said, “No, I don’t want my kid to live in fear. At one point he will know it himself.” [...]
