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The Olive Press

The Cornerstone of Palestinian Society: Family

by Anera

Nov 28, 2018

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Families have always been the cornerstone of Palestinian society, and serve as the first place where children can learn respect, self-esteem, responsibility, community and most importantly love. These values, when amplified in society at-large, shape a nation. That is why Anera strives to deliver projects and programs that directly benefit Palestinian families in the West…

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Gaza Emergency

by Anera

Jun 13, 2018

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Once again, the crisis in the Gaza Strip is generating headlines around the world. Recent protests at the Gaza-Israeli border left thousands of Palestinians in need of medical aid. These Gaza protests, called ‘The Great March of Return,’ were focused on the right of return for Palestinian refugees and their descendants to family lands or…

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11 Years of Visiting Gaza, Seeing it Deteriorate

Apr 25, 2018

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Since December 2007 I have visited Gaza nine times. It is April 2018 and I just got back from a trip there. Over the course of 11 years, I have seen this beautiful strip of land deteriorate to the point where it is hard to imagine how much worse it can be. On my first…

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7 Years On: Remembering Syrian Refugees

by Anera

Mar 15, 2018

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After seven years of war in Syria, more than 1.5 million Syrian refugees live in informal tented settlements, abandoned buildings, or cramped spaces in decades-old Palestinian camps within Lebanon. Among them are the “twice refugeed”—displaced Palestinian refugees from Syria. They join the half-million Palestinian refugees already living in formal camps in Lebanon. Syrians living in…

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To Help Refugees, Help the Whole Community

Dec 21, 2017

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On a recent trip to Lebanon, my first to the region as the new head of Anera, I met with a group of youth. Two were Syrian refugees, one a Palestinian refugee from Syria (a refugee twice over), one a Palestinian refugee who’s grown up in Lebanon, and one a Lebanese. Though their stories and…

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Spotlighting the Refugee Crisis in Ai Weiwei’s Human Flow

Oct 11, 2017

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There’s an expression in Arabic, khallyh yballt albahar, which translates to, “let him lay tiles on the seafloor,” and is usually said when someone insists on going through with a bad idea they’ve been warned against. I thought of the phrase as I sat down to watch Ai Weiwei’s new film, Human Flow. In it,…

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