we are not numbers

emerging writers from Palestine tell their stories and advocate for their human rights

about

"There’s really no such thing as the ‘voiceless.’ There are only the deliberately silenced, or the preferably unheard."

When the world talks about Palestinians living under occupation and in refugee camps, it is usually in terms of politics and numbers — specifically, how many killed, injured, displaced, homeless, and/or dependent on aid.

But numbers are impersonal and often numbing. What they don’t convey are the daily personal struggles and triumphs, the tears and the laughter, and the dreams and aspirations that are universally experienced but often not recognized for Palestinians, who instead have been dehumanized.

That’s why established and aspiring wordsmiths from around the world have joined with young people from Palestine to create We Are Not Numbers. Through this platform, WANN shares with the world authentic and compelling stories from the next generation of Palestinian writers and leaders.

We Are Not Numbers, by Ahmed Alnaouq and Pam Bailey. a groundbreaking collection of essays from the young people of Palestine. Coming April 2025. Pre-order now.

A collection of writings from the first 10 years of We Are Not Numbers is scheduled for publication on April 24, 2025, by Hutchinson Heinemann, a literary imprint of Penguin Books UK.

Readers in Europe can preorder now from Amazon UK. A North American partner will be announced early next year.

The book will include WANN’s most memorable essays and poems, as selected by WANN co-founders Ahmed Alnaouq and Pam Bailey; the pair has also contributed an epilogue covering the experiences of WANN writers during Israel’s ongoing aggression in Gaza.

Watch this video to learn more about the book.

The story behind WANN

The idea for WANN was conceived in 2014 by the American journalist Pam Bailey and was brought to fruition in early 2015 in collaboration with Dr. Ramy Abdu, chair of the board of directors for the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor (Euro-Med Monitor). The scholar and poet Dr. Refaat Alareer was a key source of inspiration and guidance to We Are Not Numbers from its inception and provided trainings to several cohorts of WANN writers until his untimely killing by Israel in 2023.

WANN is registered in Gaza under the umbrella of Euro-Med and its fiscal sponsor in the United States is Nonviolence International.

Pam was inspired to start WANN by her work with Ahmed Alnaouq. During the Israeli military attack against Palestinians in the summer of 2014, Ahmed’s 23-year-old brother, Ayman, was killed by an Israeli missile. Ahmed sunk into a depression from which he thought he would never emerge. Then he met Pam, who encouraged him to celebrate his brother’s legacy by writing about him. (Like many young people in Gaza, Ahmed was majoring in English literature to improve his language skills. Pam figured writing a story would help him achieve that goal.)

The two passed Ahmed’s draft story back and forth over three months. Pam published the resulting story on a Western news website, and Ahmed attained a sense of accomplishment that helped him emerge out of his depression. 

Pam wanted to extend these benefits to others, and so WANN was born. 

A WANN Cohort
The 18th and most recent cohort of We Are Not Numbers. Photo: Yousef Dawas

Activities

WANN provides training to developing storyteller–journalists in Palestine (primarily Gaza) in such topics as language, narrative development, the writing/revising process, working with editors, and connecting with English-language audiences. 

WANN also pairs young writers with mentors recruited from around the world who are experienced, published writers in English. Mentors help writers develop their theme and topic, shape their narrative, and refine their writing so that they connect with Western audiences. In the process, mentors and writers establish relationships that continue long after the story they worked on together is completed.

WANN promotes the published stories through its web-based platform, social media, and a newsletter, with the objective of connecting the writers’ words with the largest possible global audience.  At the same time, WANN offers people outside Palestine the opportunity to better understand the lived experience of occupation and exile and the Palestinian quest for self-determination.

Many of our writers have built on their writing successes at WANN to build careers in journalism, law, public service, and other pathways and to become the next generation of leaders in and for Palestine. 

Our logo

In November 2024, We Are Not Numbers (WANN), a youth-led Palestinian nonprofit project in the Gaza Strip, adopted a new logo that embodies the aspirations and dreams of its writers.

The kite image was inspired by the poem “If I must die,” by Refaat Alareer. A scholar and poet, Dr. Refaat was a key source of inspiration and guidance to We Are Not Numbers from its inception in 2014; many WANN writers attended his classes at the Islamic University of Gaza, where he taught comparative literature and creative writing. Dr. Refaat provided training sessions to several cohorts of WANN writers before he was killed by an Israeli airstrike on December 9, 2023.

WANN’s logo depicts a kite that reaches great heights despite being constantly buffeted by the wind. It is a reminder of Palestinian writers like Dr. Refaat, who have been lost, and an embodiment of new generations of Palestinian writers who press onward.

The logo design flexibly allows for its use as a white kite (as suggested in the poem) and in the Palestinian colors, and with or without the tail.

In conjunction with the launch of its new logo, WANN redesigned its website.

WANN’s new logo was designed by Antidote. The website design is by Plethora Design.

WANN logo
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Vision

Through powerful storytelling, WANN inspires positive political and social change that advances the Palestinian quest for self-determination, human rights, justice, and peace.

Mission

WANN empowers emerging Palestinian writers to bring the people and places behind news statistics to life, humanizing the Palestinian experience. WANN provides the world with direct access to Palestinian narratives without restriction and without foreign intermediaries speaking on their behalf. It amplifies the Palestinian perspective that historically has been suppressed in the mainstream media.

Ahmed Alnaouq

Director and Co-founder

Pam Bailey

Co-Founder

Walaa Sabah

Director of Operations

Rahaf Abuzarifa

Social Media Coordinator

Mahmoud W. Mushtaha

Assistant Manager

Alice Rothchild

Mentor Coordinator

Catherine Baker

Senior Editor

Zeina Azzam

Poetry Editor