In this episode you can hear Palestinian American activist Abbas Hamideh, the founder of Al Awda for the right of return of Palestinians and the founder of the immensely popular Facebook group Mama's Palestinian Kitchen!
Abbas was born in Puerto Rico and grew up in the United States. When he was 12 years old his father took him to his homeland, Palestine. They went to Deir Yassin, in West Jerusalem, where his father is originally from. At the same age as Abbas was during that first visit, 12 years old, his father witnessed the Deir Yassin massacre. He survived it and he ended up in a refugee camp in Jericho. In 1967 they were expelled again and they left to Puerto Rico.
This visit changed everything for Abbas. He understood the sadness, the bitterness and the anger of Palestinians in diaspora. He decided to become an activist, to struggle for the right of return of the Palestinian refugees that got scattered around the world. He established Al Awda and they organized many awareness raising events and protests.
During the Covid pandemic they could not do anymore protests and gatherings. Some of the platforms on social media that Palestinians were on, were not necessarily a safe space where they could publicly share their love for Palestine. There was a particular group where Arabic food was the common ground, but the admins kept blocking Palestinians who were critical and asked to boycott Israeli products.
So Abbas decided to start with Mama's Palestinian Kitchen and he could have never imagined how successful that would be. He had to ask friends to help him moderate the group and they had to come up with some strict rules in order to keep the page manageable and alive.
If you want to become a member of the group you can find the Facebook page here, click:
Mama's Palestinian Kitchen Facebook group
Check out the website of Al Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition
https://al-awda.org/
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