On January 27, 2023, we held a virtual conversation with Dr. Christos Giannou on his experience serving in Palestinian refugee camps during the Lebanese Civil War.
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Dr. Christos Giannou was born in Toronto, Canada, 1949, the son of Greek immigrant parents. From 1980-90, Giannou was a surgeon with the Palestine Red Crescent Society during the civil war in Lebanon. He worked as senior registrar at the Gaza Hospital in Beirut and then, in 1981, founded the PRCS hospital in Nabatieh, South Lebanon. He was taken prisoner of war by the Israeli army during the invasion of Lebanon in 1982, and released after two weeks. From 1985-88, Giannou was director and sole surgeon of the PRCS hospital in the besieged Shatila refugee camp, Beirut, during the War of the Camps. In 1987, he was named a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Red Crescent Society.
He was inducted a Member of the Order of Canada in 1990 and was awarded the Star of Palestine by the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1987.
At present Giannou is an Honorary Lecturer in the Masters of Trauma Sciences programme at Queen Mary, University of London and Co-President of the Scientific Committee of the Centre for Research and Education in the Ecology of War, American University of Beirut.
Said Arikat (moderator) is a member of the Palestine Center Committee, and the Washington bureau chief for the Palestinian newspaper al-Quds, a daily for which he is a writer, columnist, and analyst. He previously served as spokesman and director of public information for the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq, and currently teaches as an adjunct professor at American University in Washington, DC.
