Saturday, 25 October 2008
Sunday, 19 October 2008
A message from Abu Dis
To everyone at the birthday party on 18th October 2008
I want to thank you all for the efforts that you have been putting into Camden Abu Dis Friendship Association for the last four years.
People in Abu Dis – in fact people across Palestine but in particular lots of people in Abu Dis - are very pleased with what CADFA has been doing in these past four years. This is useful work in bringing attention to the Palestinian human rights situation under the Israeli occupation.
There are so many things that CADFA has done, too many to list. Really so many…
The first thing that jumps into my mind is the work that CADFA has done to shine a spotlight on Abu Dis, to put the name of our town on the map, so people know what is going on here.
This shines a light that is very important on the miseries that the people here have been going through since the Israeli occupation. CADFA has looked at what is happening now, and also what has happened in the past.
CADFA has done some work documenting the history of the occupation. I was pleased to be part of a project of gathering oral history from the time of the 1967 occupation (“The First Six Days”). This was really useful work, not only for telling our story to people internationally. People in Abu Dis itself learnt from it too.
We have done other things like this too in CADFA – the book “Voices from Abu Dis” collects stories from 1948 onwards. There are stories on the internet about our experiences, because CADFA listens to the voices of people from Abu Dis.
As for things going on now, CADFA is showing the world the pressures of the Israeli occupation on Abu Dis organisations such as the schools. When soldiers entered a school and beat the children, CADFA raised this internationally. We feel supported by CADFA’s activities such as prisoner adoption; and activities in Camden when people in Abu Dis have been killed, such as Shahadeh Mohsen two years ago and Maryam Ayyad last month. CADFA always does something.
Also important are the visits that CADFA have organised which take ordinary people from Abu Dis and give them a role in explaining internationally about the suffering of the Palestinian people. And the visits in the other direction which give us hope and establish links. And so many other things.
We are still suffering so much in Palestine, from the the expansion of settlements and from land expropriation and from all the Israeli violations - the checkpoints and the Wall – all the things that go along with the taking of the land. There is no sign at the moment of any political solution.
We need the world to take notice of this and to do something about it, and CADFA is playing a good role in this.
I also want to ask you to help CADFA in the future, because it needs your help. All this wonderful work that CADFA is doing, the best thing for it is to continue. So to make it continue, CADFA needs all the support it can for the coming period.
Sometimes because of what this organisation is doing, people think that this is a big organisation with huge and stable resources. Unfortunately it isn’t true. It is depending on the voluntary work of individuals who are working hard.
And it will only continue if people can manage to find solid help and support.
The important issue is to make this work sustainable.
I am asking all of you who are here to see what you can do to ensure that the organisation continues and put all of your efforts into helping it for the next 4 years or more…
From Abdul Wahab Sabbah, CADFA Abu Dis Co-ordinator
I want to thank you all for the efforts that you have been putting into Camden Abu Dis Friendship Association for the last four years.
People in Abu Dis – in fact people across Palestine but in particular lots of people in Abu Dis - are very pleased with what CADFA has been doing in these past four years. This is useful work in bringing attention to the Palestinian human rights situation under the Israeli occupation.
There are so many things that CADFA has done, too many to list. Really so many…
The first thing that jumps into my mind is the work that CADFA has done to shine a spotlight on Abu Dis, to put the name of our town on the map, so people know what is going on here.
This shines a light that is very important on the miseries that the people here have been going through since the Israeli occupation. CADFA has looked at what is happening now, and also what has happened in the past.
CADFA has done some work documenting the history of the occupation. I was pleased to be part of a project of gathering oral history from the time of the 1967 occupation (“The First Six Days”). This was really useful work, not only for telling our story to people internationally. People in Abu Dis itself learnt from it too.
We have done other things like this too in CADFA – the book “Voices from Abu Dis” collects stories from 1948 onwards. There are stories on the internet about our experiences, because CADFA listens to the voices of people from Abu Dis.
As for things going on now, CADFA is showing the world the pressures of the Israeli occupation on Abu Dis organisations such as the schools. When soldiers entered a school and beat the children, CADFA raised this internationally. We feel supported by CADFA’s activities such as prisoner adoption; and activities in Camden when people in Abu Dis have been killed, such as Shahadeh Mohsen two years ago and Maryam Ayyad last month. CADFA always does something.
Also important are the visits that CADFA have organised which take ordinary people from Abu Dis and give them a role in explaining internationally about the suffering of the Palestinian people. And the visits in the other direction which give us hope and establish links. And so many other things.
We are still suffering so much in Palestine, from the the expansion of settlements and from land expropriation and from all the Israeli violations - the checkpoints and the Wall – all the things that go along with the taking of the land. There is no sign at the moment of any political solution.
We need the world to take notice of this and to do something about it, and CADFA is playing a good role in this.
I also want to ask you to help CADFA in the future, because it needs your help. All this wonderful work that CADFA is doing, the best thing for it is to continue. So to make it continue, CADFA needs all the support it can for the coming period.
Sometimes because of what this organisation is doing, people think that this is a big organisation with huge and stable resources. Unfortunately it isn’t true. It is depending on the voluntary work of individuals who are working hard.
And it will only continue if people can manage to find solid help and support.
The important issue is to make this work sustainable.
I am asking all of you who are here to see what you can do to ensure that the organisation continues and put all of your efforts into helping it for the next 4 years or more…
From Abdul Wahab Sabbah, CADFA Abu Dis Co-ordinator
Saturday 18th October
This morning all the Abu Dis teachers did different things with different friends in London, but we all met along with lots of other people at the CADFA BIRTHDAY PARTY - CADFA is now officially 4! Many thanks to everyone who helped make it a really good party, including the dancers from Maria Fidelis, the musicians Les, Ros, Nancy and Tom and all those in Abu Dis who worked on the children's films that we saw for the first time today - The New Map of Abu Dis, and The Great Wall of Palestine...
** NOTE If you missed these films, they will be shown soon in Abu Dis and also on 20th November in a special showing for children's day, see www.camdenabudis.net for details! **
These are some photos from the event - but a lot of them didn't come out very well... Perhaps Fiona whose photos are always good, and who was seen there with her camera, will let us have some better ones?!Also, separately, a message from Abu Dis.
Friday, 17 October 2008
Friday 17th October
Today fell into four parts, all very different from each other...
(1) A morning workshop on using IT to keep in touch with each other - which meant lots of work on getting on to the blogs and making and leaving a mark there...
(2) A visit to Regent's Park and the Central Mosque, which all the visitors enjoyed very much
(3) A meal at Nandita's, and
(4) A visit to the theatre....
Thursday 16th October
Thursday morning was another school day for most people, but Moein went to Westminster Kingsway College. At lunchtime there was a visit (by some of the teachers) to the NUT HQ to talk about education links with Palestine. And afterwards a very useful workshop looking at the differences between Camden and Abu Dis schools and also the possibilities of working together. I will type up the lists of ideas that people had, in due course; there are lots of good ones.
In the evening, a meal at Calthorpe included some lecturers and some others .... and gave a chance for a bit more discussion and some photos and presentations..
Abu Dis teachers in Camden
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Abu Dis teachers visit Camden to find out a bout schools in London and to make strengthen links between Camden and Abu Dis school.
Abu Dis Palestinian Teachers Visit to Camden Schools in London.
Arab Institute School
Under the patronage of the Chair of CADFA Dr Nandita Dowson , Abu Dis Palestinian teachers held a meeting with the British Teachers Union at the Institute of Education. Palestinian Teachers talked about the difficulties that challenge the Learning & Teaching Process. At the end of the meeting , there was a very interesting discussion about how teachers exchange with each others the educational experiences.
Under the patronage of the Chair of CADFA Dr Nandita Dowson , Abu Dis Palestinian teachers held a meeting with the British Teachers Union at the Institute of Education. Palestinian Teachers talked about the difficulties that challenge the Learning & Teaching Process. At the end of the meeting , there was a very interesting discussion about how teachers exchange with each others the educational experiences.
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