Press release for the student visit (from London)

 LESSONS FROM DISCRIMINATION

Students from Palestine show film of their lives at events across Britain as part of CADFA's Twinning in Action project.

Twelve students from Palestine's Al Quds University will be meeting up with students from universities in the north of England and in London for ten days at the end of January and the first week of February.

The exchange is organised by CADFA (Camden Abu Dis Friendship Association), which has facilitated dozens of exchanges between Palestine and Britain in the past ten years,bringing students, women, school children, musicians, footballers to meet each other and learn about each others' lives.

As part of their preparation for the exchange, students are making short films of aspects of their lives. Many aspects of students' lives and concerns are similar of course, but life under Israeli occupation means that Palestinian students have experiences are very different from their friends in the UK. One of the students, for example, has spent one and a half years of his time as a student in an Israeli jail: imprisonment (particularly of boys and men) is one of the issues that students in Palestine have to contend with.

The films by the students will show how their lives are affected by the particularly tense situation in Palestine at the moment as well as the inequality that Palestinians face all the time. In the early summer Mohammed Khdair (aged 17) from Shu'fat, Jerusalem, was kidnapped by Israeli settlers and set on fire. One of the students comes from Shu'fat, and for her film she has interviewed lawyers and families to look at the very different way Israel has treated Mohammed Khdair's killers and treated Palestinians who resist the occupation and how their whole families and communities are punished with them.

Another of the students has made a film about the pressure on his ancient village, Battir, as the Israelis have taken away land for settlements and constructed the Separation Wall.

British students are looking forward to meeting the Palestinians , learning about their lives and discussing human rights and anti-discrimination in both countries. 'This is an amazing opportunity, I am really looking forward to it' said Stephanie Gervais from Goldsmith's University.

Henry de Thierry, a student at Leeds University expects that the opportunity for Palestinian and UK students to meet will be “great for both sides. For Palestinians learning about British life and culture will be a different perspective than to American lifestyle - which they probably see more on TV in Palestine. And for English students,seeing a perspective from someone who actually lives in Palestine rather than hearing it from the. BBC or Sky news.”

Students from the north and from London will join the Palestinians in the Yorkshire Dales and then in London. They will show them their universities and take part in film workshops and end the project with a conference on Britain-Palestine student twinning.

The students will show film and talk to the public at events in Blackburn, Yorkshire Dales, Leeds, Manchester, Lincoln and London, with the final event on Saturday 7^th February in Camden. More information from contact@camdenabudis.net and the project blog twinninginaction.blogspot.co.uk