Our decision to fight against the Israeli occupation stems from our determination to rise up firmly against aggression and to demonstrate our social and political presence in Lebanon.

Amneh Sulaiman, originally from Palestine, was born and raised in a Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut, Lebanon in 1951. She graduated from Beirut Arab University (BAU) in 1977 with a BA in English Literature and attended several workshops on rehabilitation, illiteracy, child labor and gender issues. She has worked with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), became a refugee camp advisor in 1973 and Deputy Chairwoman of the General Union of Palestinian Women (GUPW) in 1981, whose Lebanon branch she headed in 1982. In 1983 she became a member of the Palestinian National Council.

Amneh Sulaiman has suffered immensely as a refugee, and her conditions were no better than those of all Palestinian women in the refugee camps in Lebanon. Despite the siege, hunger and the death of many family members and friends, they were determined to continue work to maintain their households and keep their lives going. Amneh liaises with the refugees to organize social and patriotic work. The residents of the camps feel they are one family, and they work hard as a group, each in their own capacities. Even the elderly women tidy up the dwellings of the members of the Palestinian fighting guerillas, cook food for them and donate blood for the wounded.

General Union of Palestinian Women (GUPW)