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With everything unfolding in Palestine right now, it is important to not only educate our community about the political climate in Palestine, but to educate them about the enriching culture and heritage of Palestine. We honor and uphold Palestinian identity by offering our community programs and workshops. From our Dabka classes, to our Tatreez workshops, to cooking, to Palestine storytime, every one of our programs allows our local community the opportunity to educate themselves about Palestine while relating to the authentic Palestinian experience.
Our Spring 2024 program session will start on Saturday, April 13. We will be offering our usual programs, plus brand new private Dabka and Cooking classes and weekly Saturday workshops for the community to enjoy! For more information on our programs and community workshops or to register, visit our website paccusa.org/programs.
Fajr Scientific is a not-for-profit organization that has made its mission and vision to serve world-class medical care to underprivileged communities. They visited PACC to discuss its plans and efforts in helping to rebuild Gaza by funding and building a hospital once this is a possibility. There were 58 guests in attendance.
We were joined by Dr. Ahmad Alhussaina, Professor of Israa University, the last standing university in Gaza that Israeli forces have since destroyed. Currently evacuated to Egypt, Dr. Alhussaina shared the emotional journey evacuating Gaza and the current state of Gaza as a whole. He discussed Israel’s attack on education, in particular on university & academic institutions. There were 35 participants onZoom.
In partnership with Asal Aromas, we hosted a candle-making workshop! Our attendees created their own custom made scents and decorated their own candles while enjoying light refreshments. We had 30 people in attendance.
With the amazing help of Erva Kalkan, we held another Paint and Sip workshop! Our attendees gathered and enjoyed their time painting fruits native to Palestine. It was a night to remember, with an audience of 55 people.
We gathered women in our community to make Ramadan treat boxes with Huda Ghazwna! Huda taught us how to make and decorate beautiful date truffles and we packed them in our own personal boxes along with other goodies to take home. It was an amazing afternoon as we watched our communities’ women take comfort in creating beautiful and tasty treats for their families. We had 30 women in attendance.
We hosted another Blood Drive this month for the American Red Cross and were able to collect a total of 30 pints of blood! Amongst the 30 people who donated, 6 were able to do a Power Red donation, which donates twice the amount of red blood cells than the average blood donation. In all, 51 lives were saved so thank you to everyone who showed up and donated!
We kicked off our conference weekend with a kids night for Gaza! The event opened with a song that our Arabic kids prepared for the conference, The kids were then split into two age groups. The younger kids enjoyed a story by Ruba Qasem, one of the founders of Kunooz Library, and a birds of Gaza craft led by Tasnim Rabee. The older kids decorated envelopes that were packed with money that our grant writer Jessica Elgamil raised that she will be delivering to Palestinian refugees in Egypt. We had close to 60 kids and their families in attendance! It was beautiful to see the center filled with the next generation.
We hosted a Tatreez workshop this month at Rutgers University. Our teacher Wafa Ayyad continues to educate communities and groups around New Jersey about the beautiful art of Tatreez and its rich history in Palestine. Bring a tatreez workshop to your work place or place of student, by clicking here
PACC hosted our third community workshop dedicated to the intergenerational art of Palestinian Tatreez. Our Tatreez instructor, Wafa Ayyad, taught our diverse audience of 60 people how to stitch Tatreez patterns while explaining their regional significance! PACC plans on hosting these workshops on the first Saturday of each month so that the community can continue learning about this beautiful form of Palestinian culture, art, and resistance. You can book your Tatreez workshop here.
We launched a new traveling dabka workshop and ran it twice in Madison Arts Center! Our Palestine education team gave a presentation on Palestine’s history and our boys advanced dabka instructor, Yazan Dabbous, taught attendees the basics of dabka. It was a great way to educate the community in Madison, NJ about Palestinian history, culture and advocacy. You can book your own dabka workshop here
For our ACE meeting this month, we discussed advocacy in depth with our ACE leader Barry Mahmoud and our Palestine Education Director Basma Bsharat. Our team learned about the various advocacy tactics used to advocate for Palestinian rights in the United States.
On Presidents Day, we participated in Paterson Mayor Andre Sayegh’s press conference to send a message to President Joe Biden to demand a lasting and permanent ceasefire. Watch our remarks for the press conference here
Our Executive Director Rania Mustafa, was part of an important interview with the Community Relations Service (CRS), a component of the Department of Justice. The interview was part of CRS’ efforts to expand and enhance their training programs, particularly in addressing anti-Arab bias and hate crimes. They are currently developing an inperson “Partnering and Engaging with Arab Communities” training and interviewed PACC to inform and shape the structure and content of this training.
In Doha, Qatar, PACC honored Wael Al-Dahdouh for his tireless efforts in covering the events surrounding the Gaza genocide. Wael is a true hero, sacrificing greatly to uncover truths that many journalists, including those at major global news networks, were not courageous enough to do.
For Black History Month, we honored George Floyd’s memory on social media with a graphic of his mural in Palestine. The post was a reminder to our community of Black and Palestinian solidarity and how our struggles are intertwined. Read our post here.
The IOF began carpet bombing Rafah, which was supposedly the last “Safe Zone” for Palestinans in Gaza. Rafah is densely populated with residents and displaced Palestinians who were told to evacuate their homes in the north of Gaza. The attacks were followed by the loss and murder of Hind Rajab, along with 7 of her family members and her rescuers who were murdered before they could reach her. See our post here
PACC reposted a video made by Imam Omar Suleiman and Know Collective of an ad that should have played during the Superbowl. We wanted to send a message, that while America is distracted by the superbowl, the people of Gaza are being massacred. Watch the full video here.
Thanks to our community, in partnership with Voice For Humanity Project, we were able to secure 5 more billboards! The first one went up on RT 17S and I-80E by Exit 64! Check out the billboard here!
