{"id":195215,"date":"2008-12-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-12T16:57:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?p=195215"},"modified":"2019-03-12T16:57:53","modified_gmt":"2019-03-12T16:57:53","slug":"auto-insert-195215","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/auto-insert-195215\/","title":{"rendered":"Palestinian children exercise their right to play at 2008 Global Peace Games &#8211; UNRWA press release"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">\n<hr height=\"7px\" \/>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:7pt;font-family:Verdana, san-serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><strong>Refugee Stories<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:justify;padding-top:8px;font-size:8pt;font-family:Verdana, san-serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">&#160;<\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:center;padding-top:11px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Verdana, san-serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><strong>Palestinian children exercise their right to play at the 2008 Global Peace Games<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align:left;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;font-size:8pt;font-family:Verdana, san-serif;\">WEST BANK, Occupied Palestinian Territory,&#160;5 December 2008 &#8211; Hundreds of Palestinian children from various cities, villages and refugee camps came to Ramallah to celebrate their &#39;right to play&#39; at the 2008 Global Peace Games for Children and Youth, held last month at Majed Al Asad stadium.<\/span><span style=\"color:#000000;font-size:10pt;font-family:Verdana, san-serif;\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;padding-top:8px;font-size:8pt;font-family:Verdana, san-serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">&quot;Through today&#8217;s activities, I would like to send a message of peace to the world,&quot; said Qussai Al Shalaf, a 15-year-old boy from Ramallah.<\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;padding-top:8px;font-size:8pt;font-family:Verdana, san-serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">The stadium filled with laughter as children enjoyed a day of peaceful play. Some children painted or made kites, while others participated in athletic activities such as football. <\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;padding-top:8px;font-size:8pt;font-family:Verdana, san-serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><strong>&#39;Right to Play&#39;<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;padding-top:8px;font-size:8pt;font-family:Verdana, san-serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">The activities were organized by the &#8216;Right to Play&#8217; organization in cooperation with Ministries of Youth and Sports, Education, UNICEF, UNRWA, Pontifical Mission and the Yalla Ya Zhgar organization.<\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;padding-top:8px;font-size:8pt;font-family:Verdana, san-serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">&quot;Today we are marking Global Peace Day 2008, because we believe that children have a very important and unique power, they are ones who can change the world,&quot; said Right to Play Country Manager Ghada Rabah.<\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;padding-top:8px;font-size:8pt;font-family:Verdana, san-serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><strong>Every child&#8217;s right<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;padding-top:8px;font-size:8pt;font-family:Verdana, san-serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">For children, the ability to exercise and play&#160;should be a commonplace, ordinary right. However, since the beginning of the year, more than 80 Palestinian children lost their lives and many more were injured. For Palestinian children, having a safe area for recreation&#160;helps them&#160;return to a sense of normalcy.<\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;padding-top:8px;font-size:8pt;font-family:Verdana, san-serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">&quot;In our country, there are no places for us to play,&quot; said 10-year-old Yumnah Nujoom, from Jericho. <\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;padding-top:8px;font-size:8pt;font-family:Verdana, san-serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">At playgrounds and youth centres in Gaza and across the West Bank, UNICEF and its partners have worked to create safe, child-friendly spaces. <\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;padding-top:8px;font-size:8pt;font-family:Verdana, san-serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">&quot;For many of these children, these spaces represent a refuge from the harsh reality that surrounds them,&quot; said UNICEF Adolescent and Development Project Officer Lara Abu Shilbayeh.<\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;padding-top:8px;font-size:8pt;font-family:Verdana, san-serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">Yumnah, who says her favourite sports are gym and karate, said she was very excited to have the opportunity for a safe place to enjoy herself. Her dreams are the same as all children&#39;s. She said, simply:&#160;&quot;I want to play and have fun.&quot;<\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align:left;padding-top:6px;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.unicef.org\/infobycountry\/oPt_46774.html\" style=\"color:#336699;text-align:left;padding-top:6px;font-size:6pt;font-family:Verdana, san-serif;\"><u>http:\/\/www.unicef.org\/infobycountry\/oPt_46774.html<\/u><\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Refugee Stories &#160; Palestinian children exercise their right to play at the 2008 Global Peace Games WEST BANK, Occupied Palestinian Territory,&#160;5 December 2008 &#8211; Hundreds of Palestinian children from various cities, villages and refugee camps came to Ramallah to celebrate their &#39;right to play&#39; at the 2008 Global Peace Games for Children and Youth, held <a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/auto-insert-195215\/\"> [&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[],"document-category":[1329],"document-source":[1817],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[2033,1745,2097],"entity":[5343,1729],"document-language":[6542],"class_list":["post-195215","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","document-category-press-release","document-source-united-nations-relief-and-works-agency-for-palestine-refugees-in-the-near-east-unrwa","document-subject-children","document-subject-refugees-and-displaced-persons","document-subject-social-issues","entity-palestine-plo-palestinian-authority","entity-united-nations-system","document-language-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/195215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/195215\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=195215"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=195215"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=195215"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=195215"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=195215"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=195215"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=195215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}