Osama Qashoo (born 3 August 1981) is a Palestinian human rights activist, film maker, entrepreneur, and Founder of Palestine House, a London based cultural centre and community space set up in 2024 to provide a home-from-home for those who have faced displacement and oppression. He created Gaza Cola in November 2023 as a revenue stream to support Palestinians in Gaza affected by the Israel–Hamas war and the ongoing Gaza genocide. He is also a co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a Palestinian-led movement committed to resisting the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land using nonviolent, direct-action methods and principles.
Qashoo is one of the founding members of the Free Gaza Movement, which aimed to break the illegal blockade of the Gaza strip. In 2010, he helped organise a mission to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza using a flotilla of ships that became known as the Freedom Flotilla. In May 2010, one of the boats the MV Mavi Marmara from which Qashoo had been coordinating the media and communications, was attacked. He was arrested and tortured while detained along with nearly 700 other activists.
Since 2012 Qashoo has also been actively involved in the hospitality business, and co founded multiple Palestinian restaurants including the flagship Hiba restaurants in London. During the Covid 19 pandemic in 2020 he launched a crowdfunding campaign for the NHS providing thousands of free meals to frontline staff.
Qashoo first arrived in the UK as a refugee in 2003 after being forced to flee Palestine after organising peaceful demonstrations against the separation wall built by Israel inside the West Bank. In 2004 he was offered a place on a Masters degree course studying Documentary Film direction under Dick Fontaine at the National Film and Television school. In 2006 Qashoo was invited by the Director of ICAIC (Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria –Cinematográficos - Cuban Institute of Cinematic Art and Industry) in Cuba to attend the summer school at EICTV, (Escuela Internacional de Cine y Televisión – International School of Cinema and Television) at San Antonio de los Baños. During his time there he produced the film Soy Palestino (I am Palestinian) which was shown in festivals and later broadcast by Al Jazeera in April 2009. His trilogy, A Palestinian Journey, won the 2006 Al Jazeera New Horizon Award.
In 2006 Qashoo established 'Olive Tree Films', a multi-disciplinary production company, based in the UK and Palestine. His primary aim was to expose the un-told stories of minority and marginalised people across the world to a mainstream audience. In the same year Qashoo wrote 'ER Radio' a feature length film script based on his time as a Radio DJ in 2002 during the extended invasion of the occupied territory of the West Bank. Finance was secured and filming due to start in Syria but the project had to be paused when the insurgency started.
Education and early career
Osama Qashoo studied Electronic Engineering between 2000-2003 at An-Najah National University in Palestine. During this period he spent a year at Birzeit University in the West Bank. Whilst an undergraduate student he worked as a freelance photographer at various media outlets including Agence France and Reuters based in Palestine. He also worked as a radio journalist at various stations including Nagham FM, Ajyal Radio FM and Radio Nablus FM.
Qashoo has been invited as a guest documentary film tutor at Maisha Film Lab in Uganda, at the Ghetto Film School in New York and at ESoDoc (European Social Documentary).
Filmography
Samir's Room. Fiction 2011 (15 mins). Director: Osama Qashoo. Samir arrives home from College in the West to find his family, Mum, Dad, Sisters and Cousins, have been thrown out of their home by fundamentalist Israeli Settlers. He is appalled and distraught - but what can he do? In this gentle and life-affirming film, Samir takes an unexpected, touching and delightful revenge... Shot in Syria and Jerusalem, and inspired by the issue of illegal occupation of family homes in East Jerusalem.
Soy Palestino. Documentary 2007 (59 mins) Director: Osama Qashoo. While walking the streets of Havana, Qashoo overhears a street musician Luisito repeatedly singing the words ‘Soy Palestino’ (I am a Palestinian). Curious he learns that ‘Palestino’ is in fact a derogatory slur; and that Luisito is expressing his own demoralising experience of being a social outcast in Cuba.
No Choice Basis. Documentary 2005 (15 mins) Director: Osama Qashoo. “I lived in my former life with my grandma, receiving reports from my exiled family and now, without warning, I found myself in their shoes. Suddenly my life must be lived through the telephone. Being on the edge of different lives, and then, the unexpected exile from my exiled land…Must life be a ‘no choice basis?”
My Dear Olive Tree. Documentary 2004 (18 mins) Director: Osama Qashoo. Militant ode to the Palestinian struggle shows the explosive atmosphere that arises when the Israeli army flattens an age-old olive orchard that for generations was the sole source of income for twenty Palestinian families. Graduation Film (National Film and Television School)
'Inside Outside. Documentary 2004 (12 mins) Director: Osama Qashoo. How do Palestinians born in the UK understand their identity?' Generations of émigrés explain the sickness of exile to the filmmaker, newly arrived from Palestine after being forced to leave, and now starting to understand at first hand how it feels to be an exile himself.
References
- Adrian Cousins (2010-06-09). Gaza Flotilla Testimony of Osama Qashoo | Palestine Solidarity Campaign meeting | London | Jun 9. Retrieved 2024-12-09 – via YouTube.
- Al Jazeera English (2009-04-30). Witness - Soy Palestino - Part 1. Retrieved 2024-12-09 – via YouTube.
- Al Jazeera English (2009-04-30). Witness - Soy Palestino - Part 2. Retrieved 2024-12-09 – via YouTube.
- "OLIVE TREE FILMS LTD overview - Find and update company information - GOV.UK". find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk. Retrieved 2024-12-09.
- oqasho (2009-09-02). ER Radio. Retrieved 2024-12-09 – via YouTube.
- "Nagham FM". naghamfm1053.com. Retrieved 2024-12-09.
- "AJYAL Radio (راديو أجيال) FM Listen Live Online | West Bank, Palestine". RadioLy. Retrieved 2024-12-09.
- "Radio Nablus FM 93.5". OnlineRadioBox.com. Retrieved 2024-12-09.
- "Maisha Film Lab | Osama Qashoo". Retrieved 2024-12-09.
- Qashoo, Osama, Samir's Room (Short, Drama), Sahar Fozy, Antoinette Najeeb, Salim Shreiky, Olive Tree Films, retrieved 2024-11-28
- Al Jazeera English (2009-04-30). Witness - Soy Palestino - Part 1. Retrieved 2024-12-09 – via YouTube.
- Al Jazeera English (2009-04-30). Witness - Soy Palestino - Part 2. Retrieved 2024-12-09 – via YouTube.
- "Osama Qashoo: Triple Bill". Google Arts & Culture. Retrieved 2024-11-28.
- www.oberon.nl, Oberon Amsterdam. "My Dear Olive Tree (2005) | IDFA Archive". IDFA. Retrieved 2024-11-28.
- "Osama Qashoo: Triple Bill". Google Arts & Culture. Retrieved 2024-11-28.
Media
- Fallon, Amy (November 23, 2024) 'Genocide-free’ cola makes a splash in the United Kingdom' Al Jazeera.
- Larsson Piñeda, Naomi (November 1, 2024) ‘Osama Qashoo Q&A:You cannot defeat Palestinian culture’ Hyphen.
- (September 15, 2024) 'Inside Palestine House: the UK's Palestinian cultural embassy' TRT World.
- Noble, Will (July 25, 2024) 'Palestine House: Crowdfunder For Five-Storey Cultural Venue In Central London' Londonist.
- Jacques, Juliet (July 26, 2024) 'London’s First Palestinian Cultural Centre Is Within Arm’s Reach'' Novaramedia.
- Shallu Gupta (May 28, 2024) In conversation with Osama Qashoo. Islam Channel
- Moss, Elliot (November 21, 2020) Jazz Shaper, An interview with Osama Qashoo Jazz FM / Mishcon de Reya.
- (June 10, 2010) Gaza Flotilla Testimony of Osama Qashoo | Palestine Solidarity Campaign meeting
- Lowe, Rebecca (June 3, 2010). "Osama Qashoo arrives safely in Turkey". Haringey Independent. Retrieved August 13, 2012.
- Lowe, Rebecca (June 3, 2010). "Family quit hunger strike after Osama Qashoo declared safe". Haringey Independent. Retrieved August 13, 2012.
- Omaar, Rageh (April 30, 2009) 'Witness - Soy Palestino - Part 1'. Al Jazeera
- Omaar, Rageh (April 30, 2009) 'Witness - Soy Palestino - Part 2' Al Jazeera
- Qashoo, Osama (August 23, 2008) "Intimidation will not stop our boats sailing for Gaza." The Guardian.
External links
- Osama Qashoo at IMDb