Until Return - Issue 1

September 13, 2007

Welcome and Dedication

Welcome to the first issue of Al-Awda's Palestine Media Center International Newsletter. It is fitting that this premier issue be dedicated to the memory of those who struggled and were martyred at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon 25 years ago on September 15-18, 1982. The deliberate murder of more than 2,700 defenseless people, carried out by the Lebanese fascist paramilitaries took place at the orders of the Zionist junta, with the covert support of the Reagen administration.

A whole new generation of survivors has emerged from the ruins od Sabra & Shatila, and its history is being rewritten in renewed struggle until the return to the Palestinian homeland becomes a reality.

Background to this newsletter

The idea of this newsletter was born during the Third Annual Convention held at UCLA-California in April of 2005. The activists who participated in the media workshop decided that there was an urgent need to start and sustain an electronic newsletter that would address all Al-Awda members, the international exile community, the valiant people in the camps or displaced in their own land, and our allies, about the latest news and issues related to the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to return to their home lands without compromise.

The committee, which was formed to initiate this important project, hopes you will find this newsletter useful and informative. We sincerely depend on you, our readers/supporters, for productive feed back that will help us improve our precious product.

This first issue includes an editorial by Dr. Jess Ghannam, a current Al-Awda Executive committee member, and representative of the San Francisco chapter - Reports from the Al-Awda 5th Annual Convention held in Anaheim, California May 25-27, 2006, some coming attractions, and links to further information about this newsletter.

Al-Awda Media Center

During the Fifth Annual Al-Awda Convention, the media workshop set for the media committee (PMCI) the goal of establishing a media center at the Al-Awda office in Carlsbad. This move came as a natural part of Al-Awda's strategy of professionalizing its grassroots activism for The Right of Return. The first step of establishing the center is hiring a part-time employee who would be in charge of the smooth running of the media center. The second step is purchasing some basic editing and filming equipment. We have faith that the center will start its operations by the end of September.

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