In one of the highlights of JWE’s #CastLeadPlus10 educational campaign, our good friend Yousef Aljamal joined us on Saturday for a Facebook Live chat about Israel’s military operation against the besieged Gaza Strip ten years ago.
You may know Yousef from his contribution to Gaza Writes Back: Short Stories from Young Writers in Gaza, and his participation in a subsequent speaking tour of the United States.
Or you may have read his work in Electronic Intifada, Middle East Eye, Mondoweiss, and We Are Not Numbers, or in Dreaming of Freedom: Palestinian Child Prisoners Speak, which he translated into English.
For my part, I had the good fortune to get to know him over my years in Gaza, during which we worked together on a number of projects like the editorial team of The Prisoners’ Diaries: Palestinian Voices from the Israeli Gulag.
But however we were introduced to him, everyone who has seen or read Yousef will recognize him as a uniquely talented commentator on Palestine, with the ability to share the human stories that define Palestinian life under Israeli occupation without stripping them of their political context and significance within a liberation movement.
In his presentation on Saturday, he answered questions ranging from his personal memories of “Cast Lead” to its lasting significance today, as Palestinian resistance continues to evolve through the Great March of Return.
Check it out, let us know what you think, and if you like it, please consider sharing it!
Joe Catron is Director of Outreach at Just World Educational.