Личная информация
- Страна местожительства: Palestine
Информация
Osama Saeed Hamed, known as “Osama Salwadi,” was born in the town of Silwad in the Ramallah and Al-Bireh Governorate on February 13, 1973. He is married and has three daughters. He completed his primary education at Silwad Secondary School and his secondary education at Deir Dibwan Secondary School, obtaining his high school diploma in the industrial track in 1991. He earned a bachelor's degree in Arabic language from Al-Quds Open University/Ramallah Branch in 2021 and immediately enrolled in a master's program in sociology at Birzeit University. Salwady began his career as a photojournalist with a number of local press institutions during the First Intifada in 1991. He then worked with Agence France-Presse for four years, then with Reuters News Agency for five years. He was then appointed chief photographer for the French Gamma Agency in Palestine. He founded Apollo Agency in 2004, the first Palestinian photo agency. He then founded Wameedh magazine and served as its editor-in-chief between 2007 and 2011. He then worked as a consultant to the Yasser Arafat Foundation to build a photo archiving system between 2008 and 2015.
Throughout his career, Salwady has covered pivotal events in the Palestinian cause, including: part of the First Intifada, the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1994, the first legislative and presidential elections of the Palestinian Authority in 1996, the Tunnel Intifada in 1996, the Al-Aqsa Intifada (Second Intifada) (2000-2005), the occupation’s invasion of Ramallah in 2002, the siege of President Yasser Arafat between (2002-2004), the Palestinian presidential elections in 2005, and the Palestinian legislative elections in 2006. He has worked on documenting the daily life of the Palestinian people through numerous stories and photographic documentary projects, with a focus on documenting Palestinian Bedouin life between (1997-2000), and Palestinian heritage since 1997. Since 2017, he has been working on a research project on the history of food and identity in Palestine, which he calls the Encyclopedia of Land, Agriculture and Food.
He participated in judging a number of international photography awards, including the Youth Eyes on the Silk Road competition, organized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization ( UNESCO ), and the Wiki Loves Monuments competition , organized by the Wikimedia Levant group (2017-2018). He was also chosen as the representative of the International Federation of Photographic Art in Palestine since 2020. Salwady's photographs have been published in international newspapers and magazines such as National Geographic , Time , and Newsweek . He has organized a number of exhibitions in Palestine and abroad, and his work has been displayed in exhibitions in Palestine, Jordan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Italy, the United States of America, and France.
He received a number of certificates of appreciation and medals, including a certificate of appreciation from the Palestinian Ministry of Culture for covering the events of the Tunnel Uprising (1996), second place at the International Photography Festival in Iraq (1999), an honor from the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (2000), an honor from the Al Jazeera International Documentary Film Festival (2010), the Gold Medal for Merit and Excellence from President Mahmoud Abbas (2012), an honor from the Union of Palestinian Writers and Authors and the National Commission for Education, Culture and Science (2014), and an honor from the Our Children Festival in Cairo (2017). He also received titles given to him by journalists and writers from Palestine and abroad, including: The Eye of Palestine and the Documentarian of Palestinian Heritage.
Salwadi has published a number of books, including: Palestinian Women: Giving and Creativity (1999), Here We Are (2005), Palestine… How Are You? (2008), The Siege (2008), Jerusalem (2010), Silk Queens (2012), The Stones’ Confession (2014), The Old Man (2014), Land of Roses, The Adornment of the Canaanite Women, and Ramallah… The Picture… The Story (2018).
Silwadi views the Oslo Accords as a second Nakba for the Palestinian people and the Palestinian cause. He believes they resulted in the marginalization of the PLO and a significant portion of Palestinian factions from resisting the occupation. He argues that the Accords contributed to far-reaching economic and social changes that impacted the Palestinian social fabric, fragmented the Palestinian people, isolated Palestinians in the diaspora from resistance activities, and legitimized the existence of the "Israeli" entity on the majority of historical Palestine. Furthermore, he believes the Accords granted Israel the right to negotiate over the remaining territory and allowed the settlement project in the West Bank time and stability to consolidate its control. Silwadi also maintains that Palestinian resistance, since the First Intifada, has progressed at an increasing pace and with steady development, despite some setbacks due to international circumstances that have labeled legitimate resistance as terrorism. He believes that resistance has continued to develop and adapt to international changes, and that it is a continuous and multifaceted act that cannot be limited to a single form but requires a combination of various forms: popular, diplomatic, and armed.
Salwadi believes the Palestinian cause is undergoing a positive shift towards liberation. He maintains that the only viable solution is the complete liberation of all Palestinian land, asserting that there is no other way. He considers the refugee issue the most complex and sensitive, due to its multifaceted nature and the generational changes it entails. He believes its resolution begins with the return of those who wish to return and provides compensation for all. He describes the official Arab position as deteriorating and beholden to America and Western powers, capable of offering only what America deems acceptable. However, he sees the Arab peoples as promising, committed to the Palestinian cause, and ready to support it if given the opportunity. According to Salwadi, the Arab Spring was a mixture of spring and conspiracy. Arab peoples had suffered greatly under their rulers, making their uprisings natural and expected. However, these revolutions were hijacked and sabotaged from within, their objectives distorted, and new, more violent and subservient dictatorships were installed to replace the old ones.
The division is considered a cancer that has spread throughout the Palestinian body, and Israel exploits and fuels it to increase the fear of the parties involved in the division towards each other, in order to maintain its control over the West Bank and Gaza. The longer the division lasts, the more its damage extends to Palestinian society and the social fabric, and it becomes deeper. There is no solution or end to this division because there is no political will to resolve it among the parties involved in the division. Therefore, the solution will ultimately be the victory of one project over another, and we must wait to see.
Silwadi suffered in his life; he was hit by a stray bullet during a march in downtown Ramallah on October 7, 2006, which resulted in him suffering hemiplegia in his lower limbs.
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