Gaza: The Age of the Olive Trees
Tuesday 27th January, 2026 at 6pm (UK)
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From the rooftop
the world lay beneath me….
I watched and wondered if
I had slipped out of God’s memory.
— Extract from Bird by Haia Mohammed

What has it been like to live through the genocide in Gaza?
What has it been like to watch from a distance as your family are trapped there?

Poet Haia Mohammed and women’s activist and journalist Hala Hanina will be in conversation with Amos’ Chris Rose.

Haia was only able to leave Gaza to study in the UK in August 2025, while Hala had arrived in the UK to do her PhD at the start of October 2023 and longed to be with her family in Gaza.

“Haia Mohammed's poems feel to me like the most important work being written in the world today. They are staggeringly impactful in their honesty, strength and beauty. The people of Gaza, as Haia says, are different; they write poems that defy death. These pieces are miracles of language and spirit, they are humanity at its best and most resilient.” Max Porter

About the webinar

Haia will talk of her experiences in Gaza during this period and share some of her poetry and prose before reflecting on the role that poetry has played in Gaza during the genocide.

Hala will reflect on her work as a journalist reporting on Gaza — where over 260 colleagues have been killed — and on her research on women's rights and empowerment in Gaza. They will also talk about the situation now in Gaza and how the genocide has not ended.

We are delighted that Xananine Calvillo from the Amos Climate Fellowship will also be joining us to ask more about women’s rights in Gaza and the environmental impact of the genocide.

About our guests
Hala Hanina

Hala's goes here...

Haia Mohammed

Haia's bio goes here...

Xananine Calvillo

Xananine is an Indigenous woman from the Ngiwa people, who have inhabited the Tehuacán Valley for over two thousand years. She became involved in climate activism three years ago through Legado Gaia (LEGAIA) — a Mesoamerican youth collective for climate justice — and the Stop Financing Factory Farming Coalition.