“Happy Fourth! Independence Day is a wonderful celebration of our birth as a sovereign and independent nation.

For all the difficulties we face as a nation, imagine if we faced them without the freedom and autonomy to make our own choices. This is why every Fourth of July is bittersweet to me. All nations are not free. Palestine is not free.

We can do something about this. Most fundamentally, Iqraa represents the right of Palestinians to an education, which—once earned—no one can take away.

Education makes us more capable as individuals and as nations. Think of education as a step toward knowledge—which is itself the outcome of education and experience. Knowledge is power, the saying goes.”

–Kirk Campbell

*Kirk Campbell is the coordinator for Iqraa, a local DC running group that raises funds for UPA’s Mahmoud Darwish Scholarship Fund. Read more about Iqraa here.