Felafel is now on the menu for kids in Masara Village!
I just came back from another inspiring visit to the Masara Cafeteria! I sat with Um Hassan over tea this morning and heard all about the last few months in their kitchen. Here are a few of the highlights:
The women are now able to make and serve warm felafel sandwiches for children! This new nutritious snack made from garbanzo beans is only possible thanks to your support.
Palestinian refugees in Syria starving to death, report
by Ramzy Baroud
A worst case scenario is unfolding in Syria, and Palestinian refugees, particularly in the Yarmouk refugee camp, are paying a heavy price for Syria’s cruelest war. They are starving, although there can be no justification, nor logistical explanation for why they are dying from hunger.
My sea, my day
It's 5:30 am. This is around the time I usually wake up. I live near the beach, on the 10th floor. The only exercise women can do outdoors in Gaza is walking. Many women are denied even this, for different reasons. I like to walk. It's one of the best ways to heal the spirit, aside from music, reading and writing.
Syria Needs a Ceasefire: The true cost of war for children
I was a young mother, draft counselor and anti-war activist when the US was dropping napalm and Agent Orange on the people of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia more than forty years ago. Today, as a result of this massive toxic exposure, large numbers of children are still being born with severe physical and intellectual disabilities, and people of all ages suffer from a host of cancers.
Chemical weapons are horrible.
And the US uses them. Most recently (as far as we know) in the Iraqi city of Fallujah.
I hate borders
I hate borders. My family, like most Palestinian refugees, is torn apart and divided by Israeli borders and restrictions. The simple act of sitting around one table became an impossibility for me and my siblings. Because of this dispersion, any political conflict in the Middle East affects my family, and all Palestinian refugees. Right now in Syria, many of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees are being forced across borders again, forced to start all over from scratch, forced to return to life in tents, and forced to live without the support and comfort of their families.
Remembering the Sabra And Shatila Massacre
Monday marks the 31st anniversary of the Sabra and Shatila massacre that took place starting on September 16 1982, after the Israeli occupation army, led back then by Ariel Sharon, surrounded the refugee camp after invading Beirut, and granted access to the Phalanges to enter the camp to slaughter its refugees.
“My Home is Now my Jail:” Silwan partner brings school and support to children under house arrest
The number of Palestinian children under house arrest has increased in the past few years, especially in East Jerusalem and the neighborhood of Silwan, where MECA has been working in partnership with the Madaa Creative Center for several years.
Children’s Books on Palestine
This article from Rethinking Schools suggests different books for children about Palestine.
“The jail stays inside you,” says Ziad Abbas on Palestinian Prisoners’ Day
The mother of hunger striking prisoner Samer Issawi stands near a portrait of her son made out of bread at a rally on Prisoner’s Day in Ramallah, 17 April. (Issam Rimawi / APA images)