Jayyab is a 28 year old Palestinian student from Gaza originally and currently studying Journalism and Social Development at London City University on the Olive Tree Program. He is in his final year. Jayyab grew up in the Jabalia refugee camp just north of the Gaza strip and is the eldest of seven children. When he was nine, he was arrested and imprisoned by the IDF for breaking the curfew and his father who was a politically active, was sent to prison for ten years.
Jayyab emerged even as a young teen to lead his scout group and be a representative of the refugee camp at the Canaan Young Parliament. Then, when he was 16, he was shot in the stomach by the IDF during a demonstration and spent 6 months in hospital recovering. It was there that a UNICEF director who visited him many times helped changed his life. Instead of turning his anger into revenge, he was inspired by this wise mentor to channel his passion to work for peace.
Jayyab has worked as a TV and Radio presenter appealing to a young audience and received death threats from fundamentalists when Hamas won elections in Gaza in 2007… He has been on speaking tours in Europe and been featured on BBC Radio, and has worked freelance in the UK as a journalist as well being researcher for a number of BBC documentaries on the Middle East.
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