Amplifying Palestinian women through Israeli Apartheid Week events
We’re in the midst of another eventful Israeli Apartheid Week, with students in Palestine solidarity societies across the world endeavouring to educate their classmates and the public about Israel’s gross human rights violations against Palestinian people.
Through our programme Students Advocates for Palestine (SAP), we have been pleased to collaborate on events with several dedicated Palestine societies at UK universities, bringing Palestinian speakers to student audiences to share their insights, as well as organising screenings of the award-winning documentary film Naila and the Uprising.
Dr. Ghada Karmi inspires students at KCL
In partnership with KCL Action Palestine, on Tuesday 19 March we hosted Dr. Ghada Karmi at King’s College London. Dr. Karmi commenced her rousing talk on resistance through the ages telling the students, “You are the heirs to a decades-long story of resistance”, before giving a decade by decade overview of the Palestinian story, laden with insights of her own experiences.
Dr. Ghada gave her own four tips for effective resistance today:
1. Work locally – use the apparatus of power around you to push the cause, whether in your local mosque or church, political group or place of education
2. Support BDS – it hits Israel in the all the right places and it’s working!
3. Use social media effectively – share stories and inspire others
4. Go there! Visit Palestine, see it and make your presence felt
A big thank you to Dr. Ghada Karmi who stayed with the students for dinner, sharing her stories late into the evening, and solidarity with our friends and comrades at KCL Action Palestine. Despite being busy with exams and engulfed in media attention yesterday after their members were barred from entering the University during the Queen’s visit, they continue to push the Palestinian cause with resilience and determination.
Support their #ApartheidOffCampus campaign which calls to end their university’s partnership with Technion, Israel’s leading research and development institution for its arms trade.
Child in the Time of Apartheid. Yana Shabana at York University.
Kicking off proceedings early before their term ended, Yana Shabana spoke at The University of York about the psychological trauma of living under apartheid, in particular the effects on children.
Yana is working towards a doctoral project at The University of Birmingham, researching the role of translation in the elimination of indigenous people in settler-colonial contexts. She is also interested in short story writing and feminism.
Both the students and Yana thoroughly enjoyed the talk, with lots of good questions asked in a friendly atmosphere, so clearly, it’s more about quality than quantity.
Naila hits university screens across the country
Naila and the Uprising tells the remarkable tale of Naila Ayesh and her role as a student organiser, leading an underground women’s network of civil resistance in Gaza during the First Intifada.
PCF are bringing Naila’s remarkable tale to universities in Bristol, Aberdeen, Lancaster, Sheffield and King’s College London. On 20 March, the students in Lancaster benefited from a Q&A following the screening with Emma Alpert, who works as impact producer for the team behind the documentary Just Vision.
Do get in touch if you’d like to host a screening of the film.
Resources Galore!
The elves in the PCF office also worked hard to create and get out to Pal Socs what we hope are original, creative and useful resources, for students to spread across campuses this Israeli Apartheid Week and beyond. We look forward to seeing the places our Postcards Against Apartheid can reach 🙂