APN | Beirut

3 June 2024

The Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture at the American University of Beirut invited APN Chairperson, Razan Zuayter, to deliver a speech at the student graduation ceremony. As an alumna of the same faculty, she highlighted how the education she received there opened doors for her, enabling her to swim against the current in her public and private endeavors.

Zuayter recounted key moments in her life where agriculture played a pivotal role, serving as a liberating path through which she pursued green resistance by protecting land and Palestinian sovereignty through tree planting. She explained the impact of this in confronting the militarization of food practiced by the occupation, also affecting Lebanon.

She provided an overview of APN's programs and achievements over more than two decades, mentioning the "Revive Gaza’s Farmland" project launched to combat systematic famine in Gaza. This project supports small farmers with production inputs, enabling them to cultivate their orchards and any possible arable spaces not destroyed by the occupation.

Zuayter concluded her speech by stressing that agriculture is heroism, urging graduates to spread awareness of its importance, protecting it from marginalization, and supporting the Faculty of Agriculture to remain a beacon of knowledge and action.