[Education For Tomorrow: No 88, 2006]
A Call to Action
As Israel imposes its own ‘solution’ through the construction of the separation/apartheid wall in the West Bank and ‘disengagement’ from the Gaza Strip, it is up to local and global civil society to build pressure for enforcement of international law and human rights — the foundation for Palestinian freedom and a just peace between Palestinians and Israelis.
Celebrate Palestine...07-08 aims to organise a year long series of events in music, theatre, sport, art, academic engagement and similar activities to celebrate the life of Palestinians in resisting a brutal injustice.
The objective of organising events in Britain is:
to involve the British public in realising the extent of the continuing destruction of life as a result of the Nakba (The Arabic term, meaning catastrophe, that Palestinians use to describe the Israeli occupation);
to offer support to grass roots organisations in Palestine and the refugee camps. This celebration will also take place Internationally.
Palestinian organisations represented at the ‘Palestine & the Legacy of Balfour’ Conference held in Scotland late last year made a call to make 2008 ‘The Year of Return.’ In response we seek to mark:
2007 — the 90th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration
2008 — the 60th anniversary of Nakba;
by celebrating Palestinian life.
Since 1948, the year marking the beginning of experiencing ‘Hell on Earth’, the Palestinians have faced a life of land robbery, home theft, road blockings, physical beatings, indiscriminate arrest and imprisonment, murder and assassination, families being ripped apart, livelihood and human uprooting year after year after year.
They are the world's largest refugee population, around six million and the world's longest refugee phenomenon ... 60 years ... three generations.
They protested
They fought
They cried and screamed
They also sang, danced and painted.
From their homes and from the Diaspora ..
We invite them ... to add our voice to theirs.
You can too.
If you would like to be involved in any way at all, with ideas or contacts with children in schools, youth clubs or children's projects, please contact us. We hope to encourage some children to make contact with Palestinian children through e-mail exchange, art, and sport in the hope that a twinning arrangement between projects could be a possible outcome.
Linda Clair
e-mail zoeclair16592@aol.com
Sana Dabbagh
e-mail Sanadabbagh@hotmail.com
Co-ordinating group for Celebrate Palestine 07/08
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