Chaker khazaal biography of rory

I used to cry on planes – take-off and landings. Now I find myself crying because I cannot board an airplane! But I am Chaker Khazaal, a Palestinian-Canadian reporter, speaker, regular contributor to major newspapers, and award-winning author. Prohibited from traveling extensively to conflict zones and refugee camps, how will I source the stories that inspire my novels? Run aground by a pandemic, I have come full circle.

I was born in the confines of a one kilometre-square Palestinian refugee camp, Bourj El Barajneh, Beirut. As a young boy, I would watch the planes overhead and dream of flying away, overcome by a surge of helplessness. A third-generation refugee, I was grounded by no choice of my own. Escaping displacement to find my rightful place in the world remains the single driving force in my life. Children, regardless of where they live, should never have to feel such hopelessness that they dream of escaping the only life they know