News

When my dear friend and founder of Playgrounds for Palestine, Susan Abulhawa, asked me to write an article for the newsletter, I was certainly honored. Now that I am completing this task at the eleventh hour, I guess I underestimated the thought and emotion that would swell in me as I attempted to explain my motivation and actions for this charity. The Palestinian people have absolutely grabbed my attention as I have attempted to seek out the truth and broaden my view of justice in our world today. The more I learned, the more dialogues that began with my friends and family, and the more I saw from documentaries

As PfP’s small enterprise of selling Fair Trade, organic, Palestinian olive oil continues to grow thanks to word of mouth and the wonderful volunteers who host olive oil parties for their friends and families. This fall, we would like to recognize the contributions of Houda and Dr. Ali Anaim in Philadelphia; and Stacy Grossman in Grand Rapids, MI. We are so grateful to them for their generous efforts in promoting Palestinian olive oil. Houda and Dr. Ali Anaim have graciously given of their time and effort to help PfP by selling olive oil! They moved from California to Philadephia,

This event, which took place on a beach close to the city of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, was organized by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) as part of the Summer Games program. The Summer Games Program is designed to provide Palestinian youth in the Gaza Strip with arts and crafts activities, festivals, and Arabic and math education during the summer months. This kite festival was an attempt to break the previous Guinness World Record for kite flying. By all accounts, the previous record was broken by this event, where as many as 5,000 kites took

This ship which carried reconstruction and 3 tons of medical supplies, in addition to childrens’ toys, also carried passengers such as Cynthia McKinney, a former US Congresswoman and presidential candidate, and Mairead Maguire, a Nobel Peace Prize winner. The reason for the ship’s detainment is the Israeli-enforced blockade on Gaza. The ship’s supplies were confiscated, and the IDF has stated they will be delivered “subject to authorization.” The ship, sent as a part of the Free Gaza Movement, is said to have been in international waters at the time of its capture. Ms. McKinney said “This is an outrageous violation of international law against us. Our boat was not in Israeli waters, and we were on a human rights mission to the Gaza Strip.” This was the eighth boat trip carried supplies to

Dear PfPers, Some good news! The two playgrounds that we installed in Gaza, one in Rafah and one in Khan Younis, a few years ago have been spared and they’re getting good use. We added some pictures of the playground in Rafah and expect more pictures from Khan Younis soon. We had been worried that the playgrounds may have been damaged over the four week long Israeli air and land assault that left most of Gaza in rubble. And with everything that Gazans had lost, including so many lives senselessly ended, we didn’t feel comfortable asking them about the playgrounds. But our wonderful friends at ANERA checked on them for us