Yasmine has been living in Aida Camp for a month, helping out at the Lajee Center and also playing football with the Women’s National Team. She is 18 years old and is on a gap year. She lives with her family in New York. In this piece she talks about her involvement with the national team and shares her thoughts on football in Palestine.
photo credit: Lila Abu-Lughod
music: Waving Flag by K’Naan ft. Nancy Ajram
Embroidered dresses are an important part of Palestinian culture and history. Dating back to ancient history, women have been hand making beautiful dresses. Once an indicator of class and marital status, the dresses have now become a more symbolic costume to remember Palestinian culture and keep the tradition alive. In this piece, Sondos Nidal talks about this important handicraft and interviews her grandmother about the history of embroidered dresses.
Story by Sondos Nidal
Photo credit: Athal Al Azza
Since the beginning of the Intifada, Palestinians with West Bank or Gaza Identity Cards have needed to obtain permits from the Israeli Intelligence in order to enter Jerusalem. Jerusalem, the capital of Palestine, has important prayer sites for Muslims, Christians, and Jews. In this clip, 15 year-old Rania Roomi, talks about dreams of one day being able to visit Jerusalem.
Story by Rania Roomi
Photo credit: Mohammad Alazza
I have written this piece because I want everyone to know about Ghassan Kanfani. He put something in my heart and made me feel proud about being Palestinian.
Story by Athal Al Azza
Music by Le Trio Joubran
photo accessed from http://www.bintjbeil.com/articles/2003/ar/0709_bazzi.html
Personal stories like this one are extremely difficult to tell, but the telling is very important. It’s taken a long time for Radio Lajee’s Mohammad Qassim to finish this post and it’s been well worth the wait.
Here in Palestine, coffee is a MAJOR part of our life. We drink it first thing in the morning, second thing in the morning, after lunch, whenever people come to visit, at work during meetings, to resolve disputes, at weddings, at funerals…Yep, we pretty much drink it all the time. In Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine, locals tend to drink a Turkish style of coffee made from a combination of brown and black beans and ground until extremely fine and soft.
When people from outside the Arab world come to visit us, they often develop a taste for this style of coffee but have difficulty making it themselves. We often get asked the same series of questions: how many spoons of coffee should I use? How long should I keep the coffee on the stove before it’s done? How do you keep it from overflowing and making a huge mess? Well now, thanks to Radio Lajee’s Layan Azzeh, all will be revealed in this cute, instructional video of hers. If you enjoy watching it and find it helpful, don’t forget to leave a comment for her below.
Happy coffee making!
Each year, a number of internationals visit Palestine for the first time as part of the Lajee Center’s International Summer Workcamp.
Radio Lajee spoke with some of this year’s participants to find out what surprised them most about their experiences here.
This video was produced by Radio Lajee’s Linda Azzeh, Basil Zboun, Maren Rosenberg and Daz Chandler.
For further information about the International Summer Workcamp, please email info@lajee.org
Here in Aida Camp and in fact most of the Arab world, Ramadan is a pivotal occasion which takes place for 30 days of every year. It’s the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar and historically commemorates the period when the first verses of the holy Qu’ran were revealed.
On a surface level, Ramadan is about fasting so if you’re in good health, adult and Muslim, you should refrain from eating or drinking anything during the daylight hours. When the sun sets, Muslims break the fast generally alongside their entire family.
On a deeper level, Ramadan is a time for spiritual advancement, self-improvement, generosity, empathy and community.
Like any significant religious occasion, some people love it, while others dread it. One thing’s for sure though, Ramadan certainly means something different to everyone.
To give you a better understanding of what these 30 days are about, Radio Lajee’s Shoroq Asad prepared this slide-show. If you like it, don’t forget to leave a comment and share with others!
Recently we posted an interview with UK-based Palestinian hip-hop artist, Shadia Mansour.
What made the piece particularly interesting was its exploration of hip-hop from a Palestinian cultural perspective. There’s a really mixed reaction here to Western or American styles of music – if you missed it and you’d like to learn more, you can catch the interview here.
Since then, we met a local 18 year old who not only is a massive fan of hip hop but a burgeoning artist himself.
Athal Azza got the details.
Photo: Mohammad Qassim
Suhaib Omar Mislat is 18 years old and lives in Beit Jala. His family are Palestinian refugees from Beit Natef village. When Suhaib was just 11 years old he started listening to hip hop and writing some rhymes.
“Hip hop is a great way to express yourself, and communicate the truth about what’s happening here in Palestine.” He explained.
“I’ve always loved the music – especially from the legendary 2Pac.”
Now, just seven years later, Radio Lajee has helped Suhaib AKA Black Shot’s Band For Change to record his first track. We think it’s pretty awesome – let us know what you think!
A big thanks to Radio Lajee’s Layan Azza, Hesham Zakai and Asmah Abdul-Hamid for translating the lyrics into English (click ‘show transcript’ below to check them out for yourself.)
We think that Knafe is easily one of the most delicious desserts in all the world so we are very proud that it is also Palestinian. When we were in Nablus, the home of Knafe, we went to Al-Bashir sweet shop on El-Hessbe street to see how it was done. Enjoy the video and sahtain o’affya!
Camera : Hiba Al-Azraq
Story: Layan Al-Azza
Editing: Layan Al-Azza, Jason Azcona
Illustrations: Manu Cordia
Food Styling: Linda Al-Azza
Music: ‘A Bakers Dozen’ by Reem Kilani