from London events and university on Wednesday 5-2

Leaflet

feedback from Leicester...

I just wanted to say it was fantastic to meet the people from Palestine yesterday, in Leicester.
Thanks so much for sharing your experiences of life..... So interesting.
I think the 'story' about the flag was so touching to all present.
I think you are all brilliant to keep going, to keep learning, to live your lives under such terrible circumstances....
I want you all to know that people do care and want things to change....

It's hard to know what to do to help but many want to help.

You have made a big impression on me, everyone seemed so positive and full of life..... Not to mention your great language skills.

So I'm sending positive thoughts and love to you all...

CADFA students visit to Derby

CADFA students visit in Chester

CADFA students visit in Leicester

CADFA students visit in Sheffield

CADFA students visit in Leeds

https://www.facebook.com/286588884757358/posts/2698130986936457/?d=n

From a paper in Bedford

https://www.bedfordindependent.co.uk/palestinian-students-share-their-experiences-during-visit-to-bedford/

some feedback to the students

We would like to thank you for the very rich and rewarding experience that you gave to us and our students yesterday. In particular, we would like to thank the students for sharing their personal stories and providing a human face to the struggles that Palestinians endure every day. There has already been positive feedback from our politics and international relations students, in particular as a stark reminder that what we debate and discuss in the world are not simply abstract questions, but are concerned primarily with the real consequences and meaning for human beings. The discussion yesterday also provided real insight to the students about the lives Palestinians live under occupation, the lack of human rights and the cultural and structural violence that they endure. These are themes we are picking up in our classes this coming week.

arriving in London seems ages ago already

So much tourism in one day!

وصول المجموعة الطلابية الى كادفا

انطلقت زيارة الطلاب  الجامعات الفلسطينية الى بريطانيا مع جمعية صداقة كامدن أبوديس بلقاء تحضيري اليوم في مقر الجمعية في كافية فلسطينا بحضور مجموعة من طلبة الجامعات البريطانية حيث من المقرر ان تبدأ غدا جولات لجامعات في شمال ووسط انجلترا تستمر حتى منتصف الاسبوع القادم حيث يعود الطلاب لزيارة الجامعات اللندنية 

CADFA students visit in arrived to London

https://www.facebook.com/488449081195591/posts/3661141027259698/?d=n

Waiting for their flights...

A long journey to the UK

Here's an image of the desert sun on their travels sent by our Palestinian visitors (Palestinian Voices Matter students group) who will arrive in London tomorrow after two hard days of travel. Also to draw your attention to the many places you can meet them when they are here (this is in addition to university meetings which are often not public)

On Thursday DERBY
On Friday LEEDS or CHESTER
On Saturday LEICESTER
On Sunday BEDFORD
On Monday NORTHAMPTON
On Tuesday CAMBRIDGE
On Friday at the SPONSORED WALK Cafe Palestina to Parliament
and later the Mayor of Al Walaja will be speaking at Cafe Palestina supperclub
On Saturday CAMDEN - Cafe Palestina
On Sunday at the Students' Twinning Conference at King's College
Please see the events on CADFA FB page and we will put photos as fast as we can on here. 

It's happening! Student visit begins this week!

Here's the first group picture (not quite all of them- good luck Fatema with your exam! And thanks Abed for the picture). Today at a meeting discussing their journey on Monday.. to get here kn Tuesday. WIshing our friends a good journey and we're looking forward to seeing you all!

Palestinian student visit to the UK, Jan-Feb 2020

There has been a long gap in this blog but we've decided to use it again as student links have not been dead, and now they will get stronger again with our 2020 student visit - watch this space!  One reason this blog has been quiet is that for the past two years, our main student visits have been through the Ma'an project  which had its own blog (see maantogether.blogspot.com) - this picture is from one of the visits to London.

Now we are looking forward to students coming to the UK from Al Quds University, Bethlehem University and the Al Quds Open University (Bethlehem) as well as Sameh Iriqat, Co-ordinator of Student Activity and International Links at Al Quds University and Khader Alaraj, Mayor of Al Walajeh, coming to the UK to support the Bedford-Al Walajeh link.

This visit is being funded by people's efforts and contributions as we have no major funding source; students in the UK and in Palestine contributed to this short film which was used as a fundraiser.

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/students-together

Calling UK students to communicate with us!

From a students' group at Dar Assadaqa, Abu Dis
(translated from the Arabic)

We are university students from Al Quds University have just joined the twinning club at Dar Assadaqa. We live in a very difficult situation and we don't think it can be the same situation in universities in other countries. We think it must be difficult to imagine the situation the Israeli occupation are putting us in, having to travel to university through military checkpoints and sometimes not being able to get there because we are stopped by the army who close streets, losing years of your life and studies because of being imprisoned by the Israeli army. 

We are coming here but one of our colleagues who was meant to be with us, Osama al-Khateeb, a second-year student from the Law School, was arrested by the Israeli army at Jabaa checkpoint  yesterday army on his way to university.  

Students don't just suffer when they are on the way to university but even when they are there, they can be attacked by the Israeli army at any time. When the army invades the university it is really difficult. They do a lot of destruction and damage inside the university. They throw tear gas and sound bombs everywhere, which causes injury among the students. Many students get hit by rubber bullets and even live ammunition.

We would like to send this message to the students in the UK, to give you a brief idea of what we are facing on a daily basis as university students in Palestine. We are sure that in your universities, you have issues and problems that you are suffering from - we would like to hear about your issues and to exchange information and to have meetings between us to allow us to know more about each other's  lives as students. As Palestinian university students, we believe that we are facing violations of our human rights which are illegal under international law, and we know that these are violations against the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. All these crimes against humanity should be faced up to. We hope that together we can make some change.

Balquis Mohsen, 2nd year English student
Aos Maraabeh, 2nd year law student
Mohammed Othman, 2nd year law student
Lutfeh Dar Omar, 4th year business student.

تقرير وصور حول تبادل فرنسا في مشروع معاً من مشاركة من نادي توأمة الجامعات

تقرير وصور عن تبادل فرنسا ضمن مشروع معاً

كانت زيارة فرنسا جزء من مشروع معا الذي يضم تبادلات بين فرنسا و فلسطين و بريطانيا و كانت زيارة فرنسا احدى تبادلات هذا المشروع و الذي كان هدفها او موضوعها الاساسي العنصرية بحيث اننا زرنا متحف خاص بالعنصرية (musée de l'homme paris) و تعرفنا فيه على كتير من اشكال للعنصرية في انحاء العالم مثل الاحداث الي كانت في جنوب افريقيا و كمان قمنا بسؤال العديد من الاشخاص غير فرنسين الاصل مثل جزائرين و تونسين مصرين عن اذا كان هناك عنصرية بفرنسا او تعرضوا للعنصرية و كانت هناك اجوبة مختلفة و بنفس الوقت سألنا فرنسين الاصل اذا بشوفوا ان فرنسا من الدول التي تمارس العنصرية و ايضا في هذه الزيارة قمنا بتعريف الناس على فلسطين و على ماذا يحدث في فلسطين و عن معاناة الفلسطيني بشكل خاص بحيث ان فلسطين من اكتررالدول التي تعاني من العنصرية و ايضا على صعيدي الشخصي تعلمت من زيارة فرنسا اولا التعرف على ثقافات و ثانيا تطوير من لغتي الانجليزية و تعلم اللغة الفرنسية و ثالثا تطوير من مهارات التكلم و الاختلاط مع الناس و خاصة من ثقافة و لغة مختلفة و كمان زرنا العديد من الاماكن المعروفة بفرنسا مثل برج ايفل و الذي يعد من اهم الاماكن الاثرية في العالم و متحف LOUVER و الذي يعد من اهم المتحاف بالعالم و يحتوي على لوحة الموناليزا و يوجد بالمتحف جزء خاص للعرب و المسلمين و ايضا زرنا قوس النصر انا برائي ان هذه زيارة كانت جدا مفيدة على الصعيد الشخصي بحيث انها اعطتني الفرصة بالتعامل مع شباب من ثقافات و لغات مختلفة في النهاية بوصي بزيادة من هذه التبادلات او المشاريع لانها تفتح للشباب الفرص في تطوير من مهارات الاتصال و التواصل و التعرف على ثقافات مختلفة و التواصل معهم