School Students Picnic

On 20th July 2015 Cadfa held a picnic on Hamstead Heath for all school children in the local area to attend in order to raise awareness about Palestine and encourage local participation in the kids visit from Palestine next year.

Roughly 20 school kids from Camden schools showed up for friendly conversation and in depth discussion of Palestine. Many of the school children were surprised to hear that Nadine, with an Israeli ID from West Jerusalem, and Momin, with a Palestinian ID from Ramallah in the West-Bank, although both Palestinian have completely different rights. An interesting illustration of this is that Nadine has the right to unrestricted travel throughout Israel and the West-Bank whereas Momin requires special permission from the Israeli Occupation Authorities even to travel within the West-Bank, which is not easily obtained.

We hope that many who came were inspired to get involved for the benefit of the Palestinian people.

Student life in Gaza, one year on

It has been exactly a year since Israel's bombing of Gaza in summer 2014, in which 2,200 Palestinian lives were lost and 100,000 buildings were damaged and destroyed, although life has yet to recover. The limit imposed by Israel on the resources allowed into Gaza has meant that most houses still stand in ruin and over 150,000 Gazans are homeless.

Life as a student in Gaza is understandably bleak, and education has suffered. Not only have university premises in Gaza once more been damaged, as in 2009 when the Islamic University of Gaza had its science laboratories destroyed by Israeli bombs, but simple education materials such as books, stationary and computers are in scarce supply. The ability to teach is furthered hindered by the temperamental electricity supply, which allows buildings in Gaza approximately 6 hours of electricity per day.

Perhaps, however, the most daunting aspect of student life in Gaza is the likelihood of being unemployed after graduation. The worries of future employment prospects are familiar to students in the best corners of the world, and they are most definitely not at loss to the students in Gaza, where youth unemployment, standing at 60%, is almost a certainty upon graduation.

There is in conclusion, little hope of a normal life for the students of Gaza.

Memories - 'Ma’an. Students Together’

This short animation was made during the project 'Ma’an. Students Together’, which took place from the 9th to the 19th of June 2013, held by CADFA (Camden Abu Dis Friendship Association).
Twelve students from Palestine and twelve students from British universities had the chance to meet and work together. The main aims of the program were to share life experiences of the students, to build a website and to promote twinning links between British and Palestinian student unions. However, it should be underlined that the project was not political or religious but it was rather something related to the promotion of human rights which are meant for everybody.

The animation reflects part of what has emerged during the project and it shows the memories of a British young boy and those of a Palestinian student.

For more info about the report of the project visit: giacomotirelli.com/2013/07/04/maan-students-together-project-report/

Here the association CADFA's website: camdenabudis.net based in London

Some Words from Students in Al Quds

In today’s session with students from the university we discussed a range of topics. We talked about favourite TV shows (Top Gear was in there) as well as music we like listening to. 

The students also wanted to talk about what we (the visitors to Palestine) thought were the positive and negative attributes of the country. 

But most interesting was something a student said about what he would like to tell others about Palestine. He said “I have a message in me. It is we have a country. And it is called Palestine.” 

Another student wanted to share his favourite poet with us. Tamim Barghouti. He recited the poem ‘In Al Quds’.  He wanted us to share it. 

In Al Quds 

By our lover's house we passed but we were turned away…
By the enemy's laws and walls

A blessing it could be for me I said…
When you see it, what do you see?
What you cannot bear is what you see…
When from the side of the road its houses appear…
When every soul sees its lover …
And every absentee surrenders to happiness…
To see him before their meeting is her secret as much as it is his…
Even her happiness does not give her safety…
When old Al-Quds you see once…
When the eye shall see it, where ever it turns the eye shall see it…
In Al-Quds… a cabbage vender from Georgia…
Tiring of his wife… a holiday he plans or his walls he shall paint…
In Al-Quds a Torah and an old man from upper Manhattan did come…
Its codes and rules a Polish kid teaches…
In Al-Quds an Abyssinian policeman closes a road in the market…
A machinegun on a twenty years old settler’s shoulder is carried…
A skullcap greeting the Wailing Wall…
Blond European tourists, Al-Quds they never see…
Photos they take for each other or with a reddish woman vender…
In Al-Quds soldiers with their boots as if over the clouds they creep…
In Al-Quds on the asphalt we prayed…
In Al-Quds. Others are in Al-Quds, except you…

CADFA Students film 2015

Hi students!

How are you? I hope everything is going well! This week I did a small film with pictures about your participation in 'twinning in action project' with CADFA in London. Doing the film I remembered a lot of beautiful moments that we spent together in the residential, during the universities visits and having fun in London. I hope you will enjoy this small film and hopefully we will see each other again!

Emilio Sanchez

EVS Volunteer

Film of the student twinning visit in Jan/Feb this year

Emilio made this film....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16eXnBVXgjY&feature=youtu.be

Finals and soldiers at Al Quds University

From the facebook of a final year student at Al Quds today               

اذ يطلقون قنابل الغاز المسيل للدموع عليك لا تحفل بهم ".. طيب و ازا 4 حالات اختناق بالسكن برضو ؟
كان بدها جرعة غاز الواحد يصحصح و هو بيدرس فاينل !! بلشت اللعبة .. لعبة الفاينلز و الجيش !‏

Rough translation

Tamim Barghouthi (Palestinian poet) says 'if the soldiers throw tear gas towards you, don't panic, don't give them any attention' - OK< but what can we do when we have four people from our student accommodation choking from the gas? That's all we need, to focus on our studies, to have tear gas in our house. It's always like this with final exams - finals and soldiers

 

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