Chadia is cooking delicious food again!

A brief pause in a busy women's visit...Today we've been to schools, the University, the Prisoner Museum, a women's group.. and had a long conversation with young people about their lives in Abu District.  In the other room we found Chadia. Look what she's doing! !!

Aida Camp

We went to Aida refugee camp and saw the entrance in the shape of a keyhole and a key. This represents the refugee experience. People left their homes with their keys, expecting to return. This really struck me: we could just walk in and out through the keyhole but they can't go back home because their homes have been taken away. They've been left with their keys but no door. The keys represent hope of returning to their homeland.

We visited the Rowwad Centre where we had an introduction by a young man who talked very fast - he had obviously given this lecture before. He introduced a film about the camp and its international connections. They provide a lot of services for young people. The film showed a lot of theatre and arts - they have toured in a number of European countries. It was interesting to see how they use drama as therapy. We saw a library - everything was so lovely and clean. They had a lot of equipment and they have their own radio service. They can now offer a recognised diploma in media studies.

We didn't walk around the camp and talk to people as it was raining very hard, but we met and had a good conversation with two women, who answered a lot of questions about women and the help they get at the centre. They particularly try and help women to develop the skills for employment - some of the produce was in the shop (embroidery for example).

Women's visit to Palestine 2017 - Our first impressions

As expected, we had a three-hour wait at Tel Aviv airport, for four of us. This ended in a two-minute conversation later, and we were allowed to leave.

We were met and driven back to Abu Dis. On the way, we were fortunate enough to see a wonderful panoramic view of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives. Tired and weary, we arrived at Dar Assadaqa, were comforted by a delicious meal of fish, rice and salad, after which we retired to our accommodation and the rest of the night was a blur.

SUNDAY

Today has been an eye-opener for all of us. The realisation of the Separation Wall and the way it has affected people in a social, political and economic way. Despite the harsh realities of their lives, the Palestinian women we met today are strong-spirited and have a strong sense of their identity. We have come to realise that biased reporting in the media does not represent the Palestinian community.

We had an incredible and informative visit to the historical and religious centre where staff work tirelessly to preserve the records and information of Palestine from the sixteenth century during the Ottoman Empire right up to the 1940s, including detailed records of land, people's livelihoods and income that had been retained for tax purposes. They also have records of court hearings which provide a very thorough social history. We appreciated the efforts of the staff at the centre in explaining their work even though we arrived very late.

Walking around Abu Dis, we could see the cruel and illogical destruction of the town.

Finally, we had a look at the checkpoint to Jerusalem, and learned of the difficulties and tragedies that occur here for the Palestinians. Palestinians living in the West Bank require permission to enter Jerusalem and to enter the checkpoints, even to visit sick or dying relatives, seeking medical attention or just to pray at Al Aqsa Mosque.

women's visit to Palestine March 2017

The lovely women group from the UK at the airport This morning on their way to Palestine

Here in palestine  we're  truly exited to meet you , and spend time with you , to hear from you and to you to hear from us.

to share our stories and life experiences , Have a great time here .
And welcome to Palestine :) 

.....

Palestinian women group  

Video for International Women's Day!!

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1463391133693457&id=267060239993225

Looking forward to the women's visit to Palestine!!

Twelve of us are going to Palestine on this year's CADFA women's exchange - and we're looking forward! Today is 8th March, which reminds us that we've been celebrating International Women's Day in CADFA with events and also with women's exchanges, every year since 2006 (though last year's exchange was in the end in May!)

Here is a video from our women's day in Camden on Sunday to celebrate today... And soon we will be able to show you our women's day in Abu Dis!!

Struggle to hold our International Women's Day in Camden

We had real problems when our International Women's Day celebration in Camden was cancelled... but we ran it anyway, and it was beautiful.   Here is what we wrote beforehand, and the petition we set up to go on running it at Kentish Town Centre, and some photos of the celebration which in the end was at St Pancras Church Hall.

Today is CADFA’s in­ternational women’s day celebration in London! n Palestine, CADFA will also ta­ke part in an Intern­ational Women’s Day celebration with Dar Assadaqa and the Ge­nder Studies Centre at the Al Quds Unive­rsity) We’re very mu­ch looking forward to celebrating with Palestinian food, int­ernational music and dabkeh dance from Palestine as well as speakers from the UK (Baroness Jenny Ton­ge) and Palestine (S­hahd Abusalama from Gaza and – by video – young women from Dar Assadaqa, Abu Dis­).

We’re doubly looking forward to this bec­ause of the problems we’ve had in the la­st few days since an unnamed caller to Camden Council questi­oned the suitability of Jenny Tonge to be speaking – we’re sure as a way of caus­ing problems for our organisation – and Kentish Town Communi­ty Centre withdrew their room  booking in a way we believe was unnecessary and wrong. 

We mounted a small petition that got 250 signat­ures in a day, and we know the strength of feeling around us as our inbox was fu­ll of messages of su­pport. We gave KTCC plenty of information but they were not able to listen, so we decided in any case that we’d rather be somewhere else. We are very happy that we’ll be in St Panc­ras Church Hall today and we’re looking forward.

There are perhaps fo­ur main focuses now, all of them focuses on struggle, uneven progress,  huge cha­llenges and the need to keep going.

Focus one is on wome­n, particularly ackn­owledging the streng­th and contribution of women in Palestine and Britain in so many ways. It’s such a contradictory time with opportunities and strengths on the increase and oppre­ssion and limitations very strong as wel­l; it’s great to see our daughters in bo­th countries take so­me things for granted we their mothers couldn’t do, its great to see their stren­gth and energy in ed­ucation and work and political struggle, but it’s an uneven picture. They’re str­uggling on amidst wh­at feels like an even worse picture of women and even worse pressures in some wa­ys than we had, in our very different so­cieties (each with their very different parts). Women have been particularly imp­ortant in CADFA since the beginning and more on that in point 4.

Another focus obviou­sly hugely important is on Palestinian human rights: it’s so shocking that the situation for women and men alike has got worse in Abu Dis and Palestine since we began in CADFA and it was already shock­ing in 2003. We care a lot about women in Palestine but also men and young people girls and boys. All are suffering badly from systematic hu­man rights violations in a racist regime that can be compared to apartheid.  Look at the headlines from just Abu Dis in the past ten years (in our recent bookle­t)…

The third focus, exe­mplified by our stru­ggle to run this eve­nt and that of many other recent meetings on Palestine,  is the situation in Bri­tain: the onslaught on free speech, part­icularly on Palestin­e, the problem faced by our own event and many others round the country, the ways the government’s Prevent agenda is used in a discriminatory and unwise fashion, particularly agaon­st Muslims, and incl­uding in some cases a crazy use of the wod “Palestine” as a trigger for danger, and the misuse of the term “antisemitism” – outside the cont­ext of racism – to target criticism of Israel and shut down debate.

This women’s day of ours is taking place at the end of Israe­li Apartheid Week – noted in universities across the country with stalls, meetin­gs, mock checkpoints etc … but this ye­ar seemingly under attack by people want­ing to shut their me­etings as they (whoe­ver they are) nearly shut ours. We will be keen to work with them and others to argue for Free Speech on Palestine – in order for people to understand and then to raise their voices against discrimina­tion and racism and for human rights for everyone.

Focus four is ac­tivity to work on th­ese things. In the context of today, what we want to think about is CADFA’S wome­n’s links, which have been going since 2006 and are proudly moving on Some things to draw attention to are
– exchange visits to Palestine and to the UK -we’ve had a woman’s visit a year since 2906 and the 12th is coming up this month!
– volunteers in the UK and Palestine
– our women’s book and films
– the women’s stall
– the women’s blog
– human rights media work in Palestine (and coming here)
– projects such as the girls’ football visit.

We hope you’ll come today if you can! And if not, please be aware of these things that happen and jo­in in our activity and help!!

CADFA 5th March 2017