Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Ahmad Fouad Alkhatib (born April 25, 1990) is a Palestinian-American humanitarian activist and blogger . He is the founder and executive director of the Unified Aid Project, a non-profit organization working to establish a humanitarian airport in the Gaza Strip , to be operated by the United Nations .
Origin and education
The Khatib family originated in the Gaza Strip . His ancestors lived in Hamama and Ramla , but were displaced during the Nakba .
Al-Khatib was born in Saudi Arabia, where his father worked as a doctor for the United Nations . He and his family returned to Gaza in 2000, and his father began working in the Jabalia refugee camp . As a child, Al-Khatib hoped to become a politician or diplomat. At the age of eleven, Al-Khatib was injured in an Israeli airstrike, which killed three of his friends and left him with permanent hearing loss in one ear.
Al-Khatib left Gaza in 2005, when he was 15 years old, to participate in a one-year cultural exchange program sponsored by the U.S. State Department . He spent the year in Pacifica, California , and attended sessions with Living Room Dialogue, a Palestinian Jewish group based in San Mateo , the first time he had spoken to Jews or Israelis .
After completing the program, Khatib attempted to return to Gaza via Egypt but was unable to do so. The kidnapping of an Israeli soldier led to the closure of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt. Khatib remained in Egypt for months without being able to enter Gaza. He applied for and was granted political asylum in the United States, where he graduated from high school at San Francisco Waldorf and then attended City College and the University of San Francisco , where he studied marketing and became interested in social entrepreneurship . In 2023, he earned a master's degree in intelligence studies from the American Military University.
Writing and Professionalism
Al-Khatib has published articles in The Atlantic , The Forward, Haaretz , Newsweek , The Times of Israel , The Jewish Chronicle, The Wall Street Journal , and WINPB .
He is a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council .
Unified Assistance Project
Khatib had a lifelong interest in aviation and a desire to work in the field, especially during the period when Gaza International Airport was in operation. After the Gaza airport was destroyed by Israeli airstrikes during the Second Intifada , he was convinced that he needed to “play a role in restoring aviation services to the people of Gaza.” The Unified Aid project represents the culmination of Khatib’s interests in aviation, social entrepreneurship, and desire to help the Palestinian population living in Gaza.
Personal life
He became a US citizen in 2014, at the age of 24.
Al-Khatib said that 30 of his relatives were killed during the 2023-2024 Palestinian-Israeli war , most of them killed by Israeli airstrikes.
Ben Gurion Airport Incident 2017
In 2017, while trying to visit his sister and parents in Israel , Khatib was deported from Ben Gurion Airport . Although he is a naturalized American citizen and had not traveled to the Palestinian territories for more than a decade, Israeli authorities claimed he was a Palestinian with “active citizenship.” Khatib later detailed what happened during the deportation in an op-ed in the Jerusalem Post.
Source
Achievements and Awards
- Years in active
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