Abbreviation | WANN |
---|---|
Established | February 2015 |
Purpose | Telling the stories of victims in conflict areas |
Official language | English |
Parent organization | Euro-Med Monitor [1] |
Funding | Donation |
Website | Official Website |
We Are Not Numbers (WANN) is a project established in 2015 by Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor to provide English-language writing workshops for young Palestinians in Gaza. It provides each participant with six months of training and mentoring with experienced English writers, professional authors, reporters and communicators. The features, stories, news reports and social media content produced as part of the program have been featured by various media outlet, among them HuffPost , Mondoweiss , The New Arab, Palestine Chronicle and +972 Magazine.
WANN was launched in February 2015 to provide mentorship for young writers from Gaza on English-language content creation. [2] [3] The project originated in the personal mentorship by Euro-Med Monitor's Pam Bailey of a depressed Gazan youth, identified as Ibraham, who had lost a brother and close friends in an Israeli airstrike. Bailey encourage Ibrahim to write about his experiences, which he did. The receptivity of international outlets for the resulting article became a "turning point" for Ibrahim that led him to found WANN together with Bailey. [4] Writer and professor Refaat Alareer was one of the organization's founders. [5]
The program provides each participant with six months' training with native English-speaking mentors, [6] and began in 2015 with around 40 young people from Gaza writing on an English-language blog while receiving mentoring from experienced authors and journalists. The aim was to open a window to "the people behind the numbers in the news". [7] [2] Within a few months of launching, it had raised over $8,200 using the crowdfunding platform Indiegogo. Mentors including Ali Abunimah, Susan Abulhawa, Ramzy Baroud, and Laila El-Haddad. [8]
A year later, Mondoweiss reported, the project had grown to involve more than 75 writers from Gaza, and mentors included Miko Peled, Alice Rothchild, and Ben Norton. [9]
Days of Palestine reported that Bailey was denied entry to Israel in August 2016, despite having a permit to enter Gaza, due to her "illegal" work. She said that an Israeli lawyer suggested she had been added to a blacklist of Palestinian and international NGOs involved with human rights advocacy. [10]
In 2019, a collection of works from the project was published in German as the book We Are Not Numbers: Young Voices from Gaza (German : We Are Not Numbers: Junge Stimmen aus Gaza). [7] The following year, WANN launched a Hebrew-language website called We Beyond the Fence to provide Israelis with access Palestinian articles, poems and personal essays about life in Gaza. [11]
In 2021, WANN was involved with 30 NGOs and other organizations, [6] and had at that point mentored 300 young Palestinian writers. [12] WANN had also expanded into providing virtual online tours of Gazan cities, sponsoring talks by Palestinian intellectuals and activists, and providing mental health support to its writers. [12] In 2023, the program accepted its 17th cohort of prospective writers. [13]
WANN is a platform to encourage creativity and writing among the youth in Gaza by having them share their stories and experiences. [14]
WANN distinguishes itself by encouraging its writers to focus on the everyday lives and challenges of people rather than the narratives of war and conflict that dominate mainstream news cycles. [14] [15] While some WANN stories are political, the primary aim of the stories is to shed a personal light on the conflict, blockade, poverty and despair that define the lives of the writers. [14] [15] They also explore themes of hope, resilience, and the power of storytelling as a means of resistance. [14]
Despite living under difficult circumstances, the writers find solace in their Palestinian identity and use writing as a way to challenge stereotypes and misconceptions about Gaza. The project has gained attention from international readers and media, amplifying the voices and experiences of young Gazans beyond their borders. [14]
In contrast to the political calls to armed resistance in Gaza, WANN's writers draw inspiration from non-violent advocates such as Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi. [15]
The Gaza Strip, or simply Gaza, is a polity and the smaller of the two Palestinian territories. On the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, Gaza is bordered by Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the east and north.
Pallywood, a derogatory portmanteau of "Palestine" and "Hollywood", is a conspiracy theory used to allege that Palestinians use media manipulation, distortion or fraud to win the public relations war with Israel. The term came into currency following the killing of Muhammad al-Durrah in 2000 during the Second Intifada, involving a challenge to the veracity of photographic evidence. Israeli pundits have used the term to dismiss videos showing Israeli violence or Palestinian suffering. During the Israel–Hamas war, it has been used to dismiss Palestinian suffering.
Sami Abu Zuhri is a senior spokesman for the Palestinian organization Hamas.
The state of human rights in the West Bank and Gaza Strip is determined by Palestinian as well as Israeli policies, which affect Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territories both directly and indirectly, through their influence over the Palestinian Authority (PA). Based on The Economist Democracy Index this state is classified as an authoritarian regime.
The Rafah Border Crossing or Rafah Crossing Point is the sole crossing point between Egypt and Palestine's Gaza Strip. It is located on the Egypt–Palestine border. Under a 2007 agreement between Egypt and Israel, Egypt controls the crossing but imports through the Rafah crossing require Israeli approval.
The Erez Crossing, also known as the Beit Hanoun Crossing, is a border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel. It is located at the northern end of the Gaza Strip, between the Israeli kibbutz of Erez and the Palestinian town of Beit Hanoun.
Al-Aqsa University is a public university with campuses in Gaza City and Khan Younis, Palestine. Established in 1955 as a teachers' institute before later expanding its curriculum, it is the first and oldest public higher education institution in the Gaza Strip. It caters for some 26,000 students and has some 1400 employees, 300 of whom are lecturers and professors.
The Islamic University of Gaza, also known as IUG and IU Gaza, is an independent Palestinian university established in 1978 in Gaza City. It was the first higher education institution to be established in the Gaza Strip. The university has 11 faculties capable of awarding BA, BSc, MA, MSc, MD, PhD, diplomas and higher diplomas, in addition to 20 research centers and institutes and the affiliated Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital.
Al-Qarara or Al Qarara is a Palestinian town located north of Khan Yunis, in the Khan Yunis Governorate of the southern Gaza Strip. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, al-Qarara had a population of 29,004 inhabitants in 2017, The town is 15 miles south of Gaza City, and used to be a farming village. It lies on trade routes dating back to the Bronze Age.
The economy of the Gaza Strip was dependent on small industries and agriculture. After years of decline, the Gaza economy experienced some growth in the late 2000s, boosted by foreign aid. According to the International Monetary Fund, the economy grew 20 percent in 2011, and the per capita gross domestic product increased by 19 percent.
The Palestine Marathon is an annual road running event, including races over the marathon, half marathon, 21 km, 10 km and 5 km distances, that takes place on the streets of Bethlehem, Palestine. It was held for the first time on 21 April 2013, and has been held annually since.
Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor is an independent, nonprofit organization for the protection of human rights.
Ramy Abdu is a Palestinian financial expert, assistant professor of Law and Finance, and human rights advocate who was born in the Gaza Strip. He is the founder and chairman of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, established in 2011. As the chairman of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, Abdu delivered several oral statements and took part in different events at the United Nations Human Rights Council, addressing human rights violations in the Middle East and North Africa Region.
Mohammed el-Kurd is a Palestinian writer and poet, who has gained prominence for his description of Palestinians' lives under occupation in East Jerusalem, the rest of the West Bank; el-Kurd has referred to evictions as a form of ethnic cleansing, and has also accused Israel of imposing apartheid-style laws and regulations onto Palestinians in the occupied territories. He has also spoken out about the oppression in the Gaza Strip, notably the Israel–Hamas war.
Maha Nazih Al-Hussaini is a Palestinian journalist, human rights activist, director of strategies at the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor in Geneva, Switzerland, and a member of the Marie Colvin Network of Women Journalists. She is a based in Gaza. She started her journalism career by covering Israel's military campaign on the Gaza Strip in July 2014.
Mosab Abu Toha is a Palestinian poet, scholar, and librarian from the Gaza Strip. His debut book of poetry, Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear (2022) won the Palestine Book Award and an American Book Award. It was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Walcott Poetry Prize.
Refaat Alareer was a Palestinian writer, poet, professor, and activist from the Gaza Strip.
Sumaya Awad is a Palestinian American writer and activist based in New York City. She directs strategy and communications for Adalah Justice Project, and co-edited the book Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, published in 2020.
Israeli forces damaged or destroyed at least 16 cemeteries in the Gaza Strip during the 2023 Israel–Hamas war in various places in Gaza within Palestine, as determined by evidence gathered by CNN, the New York Times and Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor.
In March 2024, during the Israel–Hamas war, civilians seeking humanitarian aid were attacked at the Kuwait roundabout near Gaza City. According to the Gaza’s health ministry, 20 Gazans were killed and 155 were wounded. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) responded to the accusations saying they did not open in fire at the convoy, claiming that armed militants fired against the Gazan civilians while waiting for the aid convoy to arrive.