Shot at on the way to school

Shot at on the way to school. This injury to a 15-year old from a rubber bullet was one of a number sustained before school in Abu Dis today. The Israeli army put jeeps in the area of the two secondary boys' schools as if they had made a plan to disrupt and stop the schools today. Tear gas and shootings with rubber bullets met the boys before they arrived at school, and the schools are now closed (*for at least the fourth time this month*) because the tear gas makes it impossible for them to stay open.  Boys working hard for their exams and to improve their future have a serious obstacle in their way,  boys who aren't well are made worse by the tear gas... The situation is appalling and tense.

Today is Land Day, commemoration of a day in 1976 when the Israeli army shot and killed demonstrators protesting against the confiscation of land - and on that day too,  Ali Afaneh from Abu Dis, aged 11, was shot and killed when on a demonstration after school against the developing Israeli settlements (his story is in our book "Voices from Abu Dis")  #CADFA #LinkingTogether4HumanRights

13_3_2017

في هذا اليوم اجتمعنا نحن والوفد النسائي البريطاني ولقد تحدثو مع الاطفال وتبادلو الاسئلة

27_3_2017 monday

في هذا اليوم تم الغاء نشاطنا لاننا منعنا من الوصول الى دار الصداقة بسبب مواجهات البلدة

Telling it how it is

The Cadfa women's visit to Abu Dis, March 2017, were able to meet with Aseel,  Fayiz and some of the young people from Aseel's youth group. It was really good to meet them and we'd like to thank them very much for their time.

They told us a bit about their lives. Two of them had been on a CADFA youth visit to the UK and had met CADFA young people in Abu Dis last summer. They said that the difference between their lives and the lives of young people in their UK was that here in Palestine "everything is forbidden." You can't go anywhere; you can't for example get to the sea. The Israeli soldiers in Abu Dis make a difference to their lives: at any time you can be stopped by them. On Fridays there are usually clashes and tear gas and rubber bullets. You can be arrested for just bring in their street.

Everyone knew boys in prison.  They knew someone who had been killed. "It cut me like a knife" said one of them visitors "to hear what they said when we asked about their hopes for the future." One of the boys said. "Well we don't know what will happen to us. Maybe we'll end up dead like the person who was killed yesterday in Jerusalem."

That was terrible. Yesterday a young man on his way to dawn prayers was shot in the head and killed by Israeli soldiers. One of nearly 300 since October 2015. Who in the west hears of it?

We are going to go on working to support youth clubs like yours, help if we can with links to young people in the UK and to take up your issues as strongly as we  can. We see you have much in common with the young people in their west... football, play station, etc... We want you also to have the same freedoms that you see that they have.

اصدقائنا البريطانين

 مرحبا من نادي توأمة جمعية صداقة كامدن أبوديس الى الاصدقاء البريطانين نحن سعداء لاننا اتيحت لنا الفرصة  للتعرف عليكم ومحاولة تكوين علاقات وصداقات معكم تهدف للتبادل الثقافي ونقدر جهودكم في مساعدتنا في تغيير واقع الشباب الفلسطيني ونطمح بالمزيد من التشجيع والتطوير ولكننا لم نستقبل منكم اي مشاركة لنادي التوأمة لذلك نتمنى منكم ان تشاركونا نشاطاتكم لكي نكون حلقة وصل بيننا وبينكم ....

فاعضاء النادي هنا يتمنو منكم مشاركة قريبة ودائمة