Osama Qashoo

[citation needed] Qashoo has said that he found a broken VHS camera in the landfill around his village and filed it with stones, using it to pose as an Italian named Lorenzo and pretend to film a Japanese journalist who had been attacked by Israeli soldiers, causing them to release the journalist and getting a working camera from them as a token of gratitude.

[2] Whilst an undergraduate student he worked as a freelance photographer at various media outlets including Agence France and Reuters based in Palestine.

[4] His safe passage to the UK was organised by Dick Fontaine, head of the National Film and Television School documentary department.

[6] In 2006 Qashoo was invited by the director of Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos (ICAIC, Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry) to attend the summer school at Escuela Internacional de Cine y Televisión (EICTV, The International Film and TV School) at San Antonio de los Baños.

[citation needed] During his time there he produced the film Soy Palestino[7][8] (I am Palestinian) which was shown in festivals and later broadcast by Al Jazeera in April 2009.

"[2] Finding it difficult to make a living from filmmaking though continuing with his activism, Qashoo co-founded the Palestinian restaurant Hiba Express in High Holborn, London, in 2012.

[citation needed] In mid-2024 Qashoo launched a £300,000 crowdfunding campaign to fund the development and completion of Palestine House, a five-storey centre celebrating Palestinian culture.

"[2] In November 2023, Qashoo had the idea for Gaza Cola,[3] an alternative to Coca-Cola, which operates facilities in the Israeli Atarot industrial settlement.

"[3] Due to the politics behind the drink it could not be sold in large stores, so Qashoo persuaded Hiba Express and other Palestinian restaurants to sell it.