People of Palestine Ahmad Jamhour
People of Palestine is a project by Ahmad Jamhour, PACC’s Content Management Intern, a very active member of the community, and a talented photographer. This August, he launched his photography project “People of Palestine” which highlights Palestinian American youth in the Greater New York Area. The photos can be viewed on his Instagram @peopleofpalestinenj. We will be featuring his project throughout volume five of Falastin. Maryam Abukwaik “To be a Palestinian in diaspora for me means to be mixed with other stories, other cultures and other narratives. It means being on the outside. My diaspora experience is always being asked for solutions instead of how I feel inside. I want people to see that I am Palestinian. But I am also South Asian. Neither of those identities come first. I am a woman. I am Muslim. I have a blue passport that tells me I belong to the United States but I know that I do not belong here. I know that I am a settler while also having land stripped from me across an ocean. I know that I carry generational trauma but the direct occupation is something I have never experienced for a long period of time. I am complicit in another, older occupation. This is Palestine in diaspora for me. It is entrenched in being oppressed while being an oppressor. It looks like fighting my own people sometimes, being told I have to choose my identity, forced into small boxes of other people‘s minds and it all gets to me. Diaspora has taught me to define myself on my own terms and who I want to be within all my identities. It’s taught me Photo by Ahmad Jamhour to confront fear by designating it only to God. Diaspora is painful but I realize now I can only thank it for the lessons it’s given me.” Barry Mahmoud “Being Palestinian to me means more than just knowing how to do Dabka and having a flag in your Instagram bio. Growing up in a Palestinian household with two falahi parents made me into the person I am. Palestine is more than just a label, it’s a part of me. Living outside of the homeland is supposed to make keeping my identity difficult but, thanks to the strength of this community, it’s hard not to have Palestine on your mind at least 100 times throughout your day. I attended public schools and lived in Clifton my entire life, yet at times I feel I have a stronger connection to my culture than those living abroad. Whenever I visit Beit Anan, my home town, many are surprised by how “the American'' is so immersed in his balad and its people. Even here, my parents often receive compliments over how strong my Arabic is and how great of a dancer I am, and I thank them for giving me the push to ensure that their identity lives on through me and the ones who will come after me.” Photo by Ahmad Jamhour 11
