Personal Info
- Country of residence: Portugal
Information
Yasser Ahmad Qaddoura was born in the Rashidieh refugee camp south of Tyre, Lebanon, on October 16, 1970, to a displaced family originally from the village of Sahmata in the Acre district. He is married and has two children. He completed his primary education at Al-Huda School in Beirut and graduated from Al-Rawda School in 1988. He earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the American University of Beirut in 1993, followed by a diploma in education from the same university in 1996. He obtained a master's degree in Islamic studies from Imam Al-Awza'i University in 2007 and enrolled at the University of Tripoli in 2021 to pursue a master's degree in the Palestinian question. He worked in education at schools run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) between 1996 and 1998, and then worked at Al-Wurud Schools in the United Arab Emirates for twelve years until the end of 2010.
Qaddoura adopted Islamic thought in the mid-1980s, influenced by the First Palestinian Intifada in 1987, and by the deportation of 415 Palestinians to the village of Marj al-Zuhur in Lebanon in late 1992, where he frequently visited the deportees and participated in their cultural programs.
He was active in student activism during his studies at the American University, where he headed the Palestinian Cultural Club, which included students from diverse political backgrounds. In 2008, he launched the “Identity” project, which aimed to preserve Palestinian heritage and the roots of Palestinian families. This project later evolved into the Identity Foundation, where he became the director. The project's website contains over 8,000 documents related to land ownership, family origins, and photographs that document the Palestinian narrative. In 2010, he was chosen as the general coordinator of the “Belonging” campaign, which includes dozens of institutions in Lebanon participating in commemorating the Nakba throughout the month of May each year. He received the “Inspirational Teacher” award from Cambridge University in 2007 and a certificate of appreciation from the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.
Qaddoura considers the Oslo Accords a “new Nakba” with all its associated security coordination and concessions to the occupation, which he believes can only be defeated through resistance. He emphasizes that Palestine can only be one, encompassing its sea and river, and all its cities and villages, whose heritage we are preserving today so that it is not forgotten. As for the refugees, they will remain committed to preserving the details of their fathers' and grandfathers' lives before the Nakba and will not relinquish their right of return. He believes that the Palestinian cause has retained its luster despite what has happened in the Arab region, denying that it has been affected by the defeatist spirit that some have tried to spread, as he puts it.
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