2024-03-31-accounts

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CADFA Trustees’ Annual report April 2023-March 24 CADFA Charity 1112717 Linking Together for Human Rights

CADFA | Camden Abu Dis Friendship Association Charity 1112717 53 Fortess Road NW5 1AD

cadfa.org

Introduction to the year

The first six months

Work across the UK

Building Hope project Women’s visit from Palestine

Work in Camden and Islington Work in Palestine

Health visit to Palestine Beyond the Checkpoints

The second six

months

Campaigning against the genocide Twenty years of CADFA Youth visit from Palestine

Human rights year in Abu Dis

Financial report Objectives for next year Thank yous

: Appendices

CADFA’s o bjects CADFA in the press Evaluations from the youth visit

Introduction to the year 2023-24

A year of two halves

Ninth Dec 2003 was the date of a meeting at Torriano Meeting House called ‘Places in Palestine’ when we aimed to build a twinning link between Camden and somewhere in Palestine. Our link to Abu Dis started that day. In early 2023, CADFA was excited to be in its twentieth year, and looked forward to a great celebration in December. But by December, though we had an event to note the day, it was not the time for a party as the world has changed for us, our Palestinian friends and perhaps for everybody.

first part, we saw the Israeli violations on the Palestinians build and worsen as they had been doing for years, while in the UK, CADFA had a firm model of activities and strong plans for the second half of the year. But Hamas operations on 7th October were followed by Israel attacks on Gaza and escalation in the West Bank on a scale we could not have imagined. Writing in May 2024, anything before October 2023 seems to be years ago.

A need to review

The first part of the report describes our ‘normal’ activities up to 7th October, though we were working in a situation that could not at all be described as normal.

The second part describes the CADFA year from October as the wild Israeli onslaught on Gaza became on-going. We threw ourselves into demonstrations and at first worried about whether our usual activities were appropriate.

The third part of the report focuses on the human rights background in Abu Dis – behind the genocide in Gaza, the situation in the West Bank was also getting worse.

Our financial report and objectives for the next year follow, and then in the appendices some illustrations of the work we did this year.

This year divided into two clear halves. In some ways, it was consistent – through the

Our own work steadied with the excellent youth visit of Feb-March. In the face of current horror, nothing we can do is enough, but it was clear from the responses of the young people, our friends in Palestine and those hundreds who met them that these visits and the Building Hope project are a useful contribution: so we keep going.

The first six months – April to September 2023

Our work across the UK

Our regular work included

Education on Palestine - Let’s Talk About Palestine sessions, Palestine for Beginners and other Zoom events
Stalls and outreach – weekly Marchmont St stall/ other stalls and talks for local organisations

Building Hope | Voices from Palestine

This CADFA initiative launched in 2022 draws on our years of work with partners across both countries. The plan is to run even more frequent visits of Palestinians to the UK to take their voices across the country.

Public events in Cafe Palestina
Campaigning for human rights in Palestine through letters, articles and demonstrations
Co-operation with our Palestinian partners: Beyond the Checkpoints project
Volunteer conversation classes for students at Al Quds University
Co-operation with partners in the UK – this year with Peace groups, PSC groups, twinning groups, community groups across the country as well as many different organisations locally in Camden/ Islington
Communicating through regular email newsletters, social media, our website
Preparing for and following up the visits to and from Palestine that have been a major part of our programme for many years now

We started 2023-24 with a women’s visit to the UK, a conference in person at Cafe Palestina and online on 14[th] May 2023, a plan for a youth visit in October and a student visit in January. With our partners in Palestine, we organised the Beyond the Checkpoints project to help prepare two groups of young people to visit the UK, and with the help of volunteers ran weekly conversation classes for students from the Al Quds University to help them prepare to speak about their lives. Our plans were delayed and changed by the brutal events in Palestine from October onwards.

Women’s visits from

Palestine March & July

2023

Palestinian women’s voices to other areas of the country.

In July 2023, we brought three Palestinian women of different backgrounds and experience to Britain. They came from different parts of Palestine. One was from Jenin in the West Bank, one from Essawiya in Jerusalem and the third was from Nazareth, now living in Jerusalem.

This time, they went to areas that were largely new to our projects. They took part in a number of local activities and visited a school and a university; they met women in women’s centres and men and women in community organisations. These were

Together with partners in many places across the country from Cornwall to Cardiff and Newcastle to Diss, we ran two exciting Palestinian women's visits to the UK which reached very many places and people across the community.

The larger visit (with more women) was in March 2023, just before the beginning of the 2023-24 year, and discussed in last year’s annual report. Our March women’s visit took Palestinian women in four small groups to the places shown on the map with red, black, green and white stars. The visit was so successful that we decided to run a second part to it in July in order to take

interesting, strong women who gave wellreceived talks about their lives. under the title “Palestinian women’s voices.”.

Work in Camden & Islington

Events at Cafe Palestina

Work with partners

We were glad to be invited to do a number of talks and hold stalls at events in different places. As well as the work of the visits, notable this year was a partnership with Twin Jenin/East London PSC that led to exhibitions of Tim Sanders’ work at the Rich Mix and P21 galleries. Tim’s pictures of Palestine were based on his CADFA visit to Palestine with health professionals in April.

As the pandemic was officially over, we decided to hold fewer meetings on Zoom and more in-person meetings at Cafe Palestina. We took advantage of the café itself for a number of CADFA meals and used the event room for workshops including placard making (pictured) and meetings. We started to run ‘Let’s Talk About Palestine’ in person, though we took advantage of Zoom to enable our coordinator in Palestine and other Palestinian friends to participate from there.

We also had in-person talks by people from Palestine whenever we could: these included

Dr Mazen Qumsiyeh from the Museum of Natural History - May 23,
Layan, a volunteer from from Badil - May 23,
Nawal from Women in Hebron -June 23.
CADFA’s women visitors from Palestine - July 2023

Campaigning work

(Pic shows some CADFA demonstrators on their way to a national march stopping at the on-going CADFA stall in Marchmont Street)

Even before October, the situation in Palestine (that had been getting worse during the whole time we had known it) took a serious turn for the worse with a new government in Israel including radical settlers from the West Bank and their supporters. See information about Abu Dis in particular in the pages below.

We brought the issue to the local community and all places our visitors went, through talks, materials, regularly wrote to our local paper, organised petitions, held regular demonstrations both locally and with friends across the country. We made a tiny mark in a growing movement for human rights in Palestine -but nothing was enough. Fe ”

Camden Palestine

Festival

For the third year running, we were able to hold a Camden Palestine Festival at the lovely Calthorpe Community Garden in King’s Cross – friends of CADFA for many years now, host of many of our activities and also guardian of the Camden Abu Dis olive tree that is getting bigger at the back of the garden! It was a wonderful day, the result of great effort by many local CADFA members with the help of musicians, embroiderers, artists, yoga teacher, dabkeh dancers, Calthorpe staff, cook from Cafe Palestina and others and headlining Mo'min Swaitat playing music from Palestine as well as our Palestinian women visitors.

Work in Palestine

Dar Assadaqa

people. Dar Assadaqa continues to work in partnership with many organisations in Palestine both for human rights reports and to build up activities like school and youth links and Beyond the Checkpoints.

We will not seek bigger premises again until our work with foreign volunteers and visitors is once again possible and needs this.

Health visit to Palestine

(Old photo from the days when Dar Assadaqa had an HQ)

Our work in Palestine is based at Dar Assadaqa in Abu Dis. During the Covid years, Dar Assadaqa has lost both its headquarters and a flat we rented for volunteers and visitors to the pressures of

development (with the growing pressure of population and lack of space in Palestine, landlords wanted us out in order to renovate and sell or rent at a higher price).

We were grateful to the Abu Dis Council for finding us a temporary flat to house Dar Assadaqa but it is once again in a small old house and borrowing space from local organisations for meetings with young

In early April, we ran a very special healthfocused visit to Palestine that had been in the planning since 2019, but had to be delayed from March 2020 because of the pandemic. This visit included thirteen visitors, mainly health workers, but it was also special as it had a particular link to the Tower Hamlets-Jenin twinning group and included an artist in residence (Tim Sanders) whose aim was to do some drawings and paintings of Palestine which would be used for publicity, education and fund-raising.

According to every visitor and the people who met them, this was an amazing visit. Based as usual in Abu Dis, the week included a wide variety of places and health-related contexts (clinics, hospitals and more) across the West Bank and Jerusalem. This included the north of West Bank – Jenin- because of the Tower Hamlets link. The visitors said how much they had learned and how shocked they were to see

the terrible situation. They did their best on return to feed back to organisations in Camden and Tower Hamlets and to help work for Palestinian human rights including CADFA and the Tower Hamlets group.

Beyond the Checkpoints

“We thank you all for giving us the opportunity to make the visit, see so much, meet and make friends and family, and learn through you about the reality of life in the West Bank and all Palestine then, even before the current war, and now .”

Young people in Palestine often do not go much beyond their own town because of the difficulties caused by the Israeli occupation and in particular the many military checkpoints. Through years of visits of foreigners to Palestine, we found that our visitors had more opportunities to see the country than young people who grew up there managed to have.

Very sadly, this has been the last CADFA visit to Palestine to date.

We ran our great project Beyond the Checkpoints for a second summer. Through it, ten small groups of young people from different villages, towns and refugee camps in the West Bank travelled to each other’s places. They learned how to show their own place to the others in the group, and learned about the human rights situation more widely than their own home town. They made short bits of video and collected photos as they went, finally working on presentations for a Zoom youth conference at which they told a UK

audience about the places that they lived in. Then they were invited to apply for a place on the Beyond the Checkpoints youth visit to the UK.

This year, the difficulties that the group suffered in those few weeks showed how the situation was getting worse and worse in the West Bank. It wasn’t possible for them to visit Jerusalem. On one day, one group was unable to travel out of their area due to an army checkpoint. On another, the army

entered the bus carrying one of the groups and arrested the group leader for a few hours. In another place, the group were shown the destruction from recent army incursions.

The project definitely raised the knowledge and confidence of the young people in it, which a group of them demonstrated at the Youth Conference on 13[th] August and some during the youth visit to the UK later in the year.

Second six months – 7[th] October 2023 to end March 2024

Campaigning against the genocide

The second half of the year was horrific. Everything changed suddenly in October 2023. News of atrocity after atrocity reached us. Following 7[th] October, Israel launched a brutally violent and ongoing attack on Gaza; the rest of the year became more and more terrifying with threats against the Palestinian people as a whole, a massive bombing campaign and then horrors of displacement, arrests, humiliations, depriving people of food and clean water: so much death, maiming and misery.

were leading to a huge number of killings and thousands of people were being taken into prison, experiencing a new level of cruel treatment. Our friends in Abu Dis, Jerusalem and the West Bank were suffering in many ways – work, schools, universities unable to function properly, many families with little money coming in, roads dangerous, and settler activity unleashed: many house demolitions, new settlements

With the huge heat on Gaza, it was important to remember the West Bank too where harsh actions by soldiers and settlers

started, pressure of all sorts on Palestinians near settlements.

Like people across the world, we first hoped that this horrific violence would last days only, then weeks, but it has drawn out into months. We were encouraged by moves by some countries, star among them South Africa, to challenge and stop the genocide, with a case in the International Court of

companies as a way to pressure for compliance with international law and human rights.

Justice, motions to the UN security council, appeals by people from Gaza and from international organisations. But it was clear that Israel would listen to no one, and the backing of the US and smaller countries like the UK provided both weapons and cover. In the first six months of this war on Gaza, tens of thousands of people were killed, many of them children, many, many more wounded,

Our monthly Let’s Talk About Palestine meetings at Cafe Palestina became weekly. Cafe Palestina was full of placard-painting and other workshops. We invited other organisations to join these meetings, joined with others in a kite workshop, demonstrations, a Camden Ceasefire Call directed at Camden Council. We visited councillors’ surgeries, asked for deputations and organised demonstrations at meetings.

Out of these meetings, Camden Friends of Palestine emerged as a separate organisation. We continue (in the new year 2024-25) to co-operate with them and others in local events and the Camden divestment campaign.

huge numbers seriously disabled and people were beginning to starve.

We wrote letters to our representatives, to the press, organised petitions, wrote and distributed leaflets, organised local demos, joined other people’s demos locally and nationally and called for an arms embargo on Israel and for divestment from Israeli

Twenty Years of CADFA

We would like to thank the following for their contributions to the evening: Raised Voices choir singing Solidarity Songs for Palestine, Nandita Dowson from CADFA on ‘Twenty years of linking together for human rights’, Tim Sanders (fine artist) and Sarah Saunders (photographer) on ‘Art for human rights’, a local human rights lawyer on ‘What

does the international legal framework offer

CADFA turned twenty in the terrible context of Israel's war on Gaza and pogroms and murders in the West Bank. Twenty years of building links between people and groups in the UK and Palestine - visits, projects and volunteer programmes contributed to the growing movement for human rights in i 4

the struggle for equality and human rights? Looking at human rights, international humanitarian law, the law on apartheid, the international criminal court’, Abdulwahab Sabbah from Palestine on ‘What we want from linking together for human rights’ and the Sagrada Famiglia trio (Phaxsi, Kanti and their son Raymi) for wonderful music from the Andes.

Palestine. However, our day to mark this was planned while Israel was bombarding Gaza with ferocity. Tens of thousands of people had been wounded and over ten thousand killed in a month, while Israeli settlers and the army were terrorising Jerusalem and the West Bank with around five people being killed every day. An event at Williamson Community Centre in Holloway was run in a spirit of solidarity and in order to explore the usefulness of linking work in the campaign against apartheid and for equality and human rights in Palestine.

We were all so sorry to hear of the terrible news of the death of young Raymi in the summer of 2024.

Beyond the Checkpoints Palestinian Youth Visit Feb-March 2024

This youth visit was one of dozens that CADFA has organised between the UK and Palestine since 2005 and was planned with our partners as part of the Building Hope |Voices from Palestine project. Work for it started months before but the visit was

planned for October 2023. That month, the world changed and Israel's war on Gaza got under way. We worried about the visit, postponed it twice but when it took place, the background was still the appalling genocide in Gaza and related tensions in the UK. This caused us to make some adjustments to our plan.

tennis, craft activities - pom poms, kites, screen-printing, making video), meetings with local people often through welcome meals. The group was evidently happy and this was shown in their evaluations. They even enjoyed the long hours of travel as the visit moved from Malvern to Wales to Lancashire, filling the time with much singing and joking.

The young people were interested and communicative and have gathered together photos and video showing great times in schools, youth clubs and the wide variety of activities they experienced. This was put together in two short films, one by the Palestinian team and one by a group in the UK. Despite the very grim background, the interactions with Palestinian people created a feeling of possibility that encouraged many people to work for (or work harder for)

In the end, the visit ran in Feb-March 2024 and was an astonishing achievement. We brought a great group of ten young Palestinians aged 13 to 16 with four leaders, coming from several places in the West Bank, and took them to meet young people and community groups in several places in the UK. The partners across the country worked well as a co-operative team. The young people were secure, safe and happy. The visit achieved its aims and was full of positive activities and exchanges. People who came into contact with the group gave enthusiastic feedback and many new ideas for links and joint activities emerged.

Activities included meetings with young people including in schools and youth clubs, sightseeing, fun activities (included a boat trip, bowling, football, pool, table

human rights in Palestine – the Building Hope project clearly lived up to its name.

This visit broadened people's knowledge of Palestine and their will to work for Palestinian rights. We were worried about running it in the present horrible context, but we discovered that the visit truly built hope and everyone needs that at the moment to keep going.

twinnings, new school activities, etc...It built respect for the Building Hope project and CADFA's work, and we hope to continue to broaden our membership, strengthen our work with our partners and look carefully at positive next steps, we hope, including the second youth visit that had been planned.

The young Palestinians were really heartened by the love and solidarity they found around them. Some of their top memories included the huge applause they got as they arrived to their first meeting at Newport: the enthusiasm and interest all the way through and the huge love they felt in the final event.

Please note there is a full report of the visit on our website CADFA.org and available in hard copy from Café Palestina.

For people in the UK, it seems to have been a massive relief. In quite a different position from the young Palestinians, they were also under huge stress from the horrors of Palestine now compounded by the horror of a world that cannot stop it. The visit built ideas of possibility - strengthening the small groups across the country, bringing them new members, ideas of new visits, new

The human rights year in Abu Dis

The texture of daily life

The list of events that is written below – and the selection of comments from our reports during the year, in italics - includes more dramatic and public violations against the Palestinians in Abu Dis.

It is important to note that this is a partial picture of the human rights situation.

Palestinians suffer under a severe apartheid that affects every part of life, and the following important aspects (again only a selection) cannot be dated and described as events as they happen every month and every day.

Restrictions on travel (the huge number of checkpoints, the Separation Wall, the ID (pass) system and the frequent Israeli ‘closures’
Disruptions to family life (with most families suffering divisions of some sort - people with different coloured IDs in/ out of the centre of Jerusalem, people whose families left in the 1967 war and have not been allowed back, etc)
Educational, economic, medical disruption all arising from the

military control of the country and the severe racism of the treatment of the Palestinians

(There is more information and examples of how this affects people’s lives in our books, on the website, and from the descriptions of their lives that Palestinians bring with them on every visit to the UK.)

Worse and worse in the

West Bank and Jerusalem

The situation was already terrible for Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem; as the gleaming new Israeli settlements and settler highways spread across the hills, the Palestinians were increasingly confined into small areas, poor roads and the increasing threat of military and settler violence. In 2020, struck by the repeated killings at checkpoints, we sought records and found that 10,000 Palestinians had been killed from 2000 to 2020 (including so many from Abu Dis alone). This terrible situation certainly didn’t start in October 2023.

However, the situation got more raw with this radical settler government and the violence was increasing rapidly.

The West Bank was badly affected by what happened in Gaza – as well as the grief and worry from the continual appalling news, schools closed, roads

became dangerous, there were more and more army invasions and killings. Over four hundred Palestinians were killed in the West Bank between October 2023 and March 2024.

In the report below, italic sections are from CADFA reports during the year.

April 2023

Ramadan started at the beginning of April and at the same time the Israelis had Passover. They imposed a closure on the area round East Jerusalem from 5[th] to 12[th] April for patients, schoolchildren and workers.

There were extra checkpoints put in near the University on the road from Sawahreh and the army stopped the traffic to check IDs.

On the night of 14[th] April, there was an army ¥ “eke rs raid into Abu Dis. There was tear gas and shooting and the army invaded three houses in the middle of the night. One exprisoner was re-arrested and two others ¥i. were given orders to go to the terminal and meet with the intelligence officer.

But in the shadow of Gaza, the Israeli settler project was moving ahead fast in the West Bank too, with increasing land expropriation, house demolition and a feeling that the impunity that Israel had had for years had deepened to the point that what was going on in the West Bank was internationally almost invisible.

On the night of 17[th] April, the army invaded the Al Quds University and University Street. The army painted car oil on the Separation Wall, presumably to stop people from climbing the Wall to go to the Al Aqsa Mosque on Fridays.

On 20[th] April, the army invaded the area of University Street and entered a building of student accommodation. They arrested five students from the house. They threw tear gas canisters and shot in the streets.

Between 21[st] and 25[th] , the Israelis imposed another complete closure on the area around East Jerusalem and down to Jericho (which divides the West Bank into two parts). This included Az Zaitouneh terminal. There was very slow movement for traffic going north-south in the West Bank for five days.

May 2023

On 2[nd] May, Khader Adnan died in prison, imprisoned on administrative detention. He was very famous for a lengthy hunger strike roughly ten years before when he had held out for 65 days before his release was agreed. He had been arrested twelve times in his life and each time he had no trial. He had regularly gone on hunger strike to protest against his imprisonment. This time, the Israeli government included all the radical right who used to call for letting the prisoners die. He was arrested this time on 5[th] February 2023 and he died after 87 days of hunger strike.

the closing of local schools and stopping teaching in the University.

There were two days of air strikes on Gaza, leading to the killing of 37 people. Demos continued in Abu Dis, and on 13[th] May, the Israeli army invaded the town in the early evening. There was shooting of tear gas and

live ammunition up to midnight.

In the middle of May, an Israeli military court gave sentences for seven young people who had been in jail for some months. They gave sentences of up to six years each and fines of between six and ten thousand shekels. In the same week, three administrative detainees had their periods of detention renewed for the third time: another six months each.

When the news came, there was a general strike across Palestine. In Abu Dis, there was a protest march. This was met by the Israeli army with tear gas and rubber bullets. Five people were wounded with rubber bullets and treated by the Red Crescent.

On the same day, a young man from Abu Dis was arrested in Jerusalem and beaten so badly he was hospitalised – and then sent to jail for being in Jerusalem with no permission.

On the morning of 9[th] May, the Israeli army started a military occupation against Gaza. There was again a general strike across the West Bank including Abu Dis. The next morning the army put up a checkpoint by the university which stopped the students. They shot tear gas in the area which led to

On 22[nd] May there was an army raid on a house in Ar Ras neighbourhood. The army beat a young man and his father in front of the family in sight of all the neighbours. The army shot tear gas and rubber bullets. Three young people were wounded with rubber bullets and one sixteen-year-old was arrested.

June

On Friday 2[nd] June there was a demo from the University area. When it passed the military camp, the army came down and started shooting. One young man was injured and taken to hospital in Bethlehem. The army chased the young people up to the Ar Ras area and entered and searched two houses.

On 5[th] June there was another demo. The army threw tear gas towards the demonstrators and this set fire to the garden of a house in Kubsa.

On 6[th] June, the army invaded several houses in the middle of the night in different areas of Abu Dis. They arrested three young people and during this time they beat their fathers in front of their families.

The same thing happened on 13[th] June. The army arrested two young people from their houses on the east of Abu Dis in the middle of the night and shot tear gas around in the area.

On 20[th] June, there was a general strike in protest against killings in Nablus (6 people) and Jenin (6 people) when refugee camps in the two towns were invaded by the Israeli army the day before (20 young people were

killed). At the end of the day, there was a march from the Youth Club in Abu Dis towards the military camp – The army attacked the march with tear

July

On 1[st] July the army closed the roads near the University and also at the main entrance to Maale Adumim. Near the settlement, settlers took charge of blocking the roads that lead people in the area to the north, Jericho and Jerusalem. Settlers stayed till late in the night on that day.

gas and rubber bullets. Seven young people were wounded by rubber bullets – one hit directly in his head. Three of them were taken to hospitals in Bethlehem.

In June on several occasions the settlers from Maale Adumim settlement threw stones at Palestinian cars on the road close to the settlement. On 21[st] June, settlers blocked the road completely (blocking the traffic between north and south of the West Bank) for the whole day.

On 2[nd] July in the middle of the night, some Israeli special forces invaded Abu Dis in a Palestinian car and invaded a house. More soldiers joined them and they arrested a young man after beating his father (again).

On 3[rd] July, the Israeli army invaded Jenin Refugee Camp and seven young people were killed. In Abu Dis, there was a demo marching towards the military camp. The army started to shoot and wounded three young people with live ammunition who were taken to hospital in Bethlehem and Ramallah.

On 5[th] July there were army invasions to houses and two people were arrested.

Beyond the Checkpoints

On 7[th] July there was a demo – the army shot into the crowd.

On 8[th] July, there were Israeli army on the streets near the Star Academy nursery.

On 12[th] July, the Israeli army made flying checkpoints in different places in Abu Dis. They took Jerusalem-plate cars and destroyed them (Israelis sell old cars to Abu Dis and the West Bank which people have to use unlicensed, but later the owners are punished for having these cars because of the colour of their IDs.)

On the same day a young boy who worked on delivery was shot by soldiers as he cycled through Abu Dis – He had to be taken to hospital with shrapnel in his knee.

On 16th July, the whole of the south of the West Bank was closed. For CADFA, this was the beginning of our Beyond the Checkpoints project. The arrest of the leader of one of the groups coming from Hebron is described in this CADFA report

16 Jul 23 GOOD and BAD news. GOOD first - the young people joining the Beyond the Checkpoints project from the north of the West Bank and from Jerusalem met for the first day induction to the project. It went well - for them the project got off to a good start.

BAD: the southern bus didn't get there because of troubles round Bethlehem and as we write the young people from there are (with their leaders) in a mosque near Bethlehem to keep safe with Israeli soldiers shooting outside, and the young people from the north now on their way home but with trepidation as there is news of settlers on the road.

18 July 23 Beyond the Checkpoints Day

Day 1- both good and bad

The Beyond the Checkpoints project got under way today in Palestine – a good day for some and a very bad day for others.

The plan for today was to bring together groups of young people from the north and south of the West Bank and also from Jerusalem, meeting in Abu Dis for induction to the project and a visit to some parts of Abu Dis. The young people from the north and from Jerusalem made it, and by all reports the day went very well for them.

The young people from the south didn’t make it however. They were collected from

their towns and set off north via Bethlehem 26 July 23 Another death at the checkpoint and the Container Checkpoint towards Abu caused by the Israeli occupation . Dis. But there was a long queue at the Container checkpoint and after their bus had We are extremely sad to hear from Dr been held up for two hours (they sent us video of the queue), the driver turned the bus around and headed for home. It got worse. Word came that the city of Hebron was closed in front of them and Bethlehem was in turmoil. The Israeli army was shooting. To look after the children, the driver stopped near a mosque and all of them went inside. It did not occur to them that a mosque was anything other than a Abdullah from Abu Dis of the death of safe place to be. They stayed there about an Monadil Jabareen from Aizarieh hour. But then the Israeli army came in, told (neighbouring Abu Dis in the Jerusalem everyone to leave the mosque – and suburb). arrested two people. One of them they didn’t know and the other was the group Yesterday, Monadil had a stroke and the leader of the youth group from Hebron. emergency services decided he needed a This left his group sitting outside the mosque hospital. But the Israelis have built the huge in a town that was not their own with the Separation Wall and military checkpoints driver (who was a stranger) and worrying between Abu Dis/Aizariyeh and the nearby about their leader, for hours. Eventually the Mount of Olives where the local hospitals driver was able to return the children to their are. You can see the hospitals from Abu Dis homes in Hebron, but without the leader. and Aizarieyeh, but they have become very From Abu Dis, the northern groups went difficult to get to in emergency. Israel has home full of trepidation as word was that created a massive division at the point of the there were angry Israeli settlers on every Wall – they don’t allow Palestinian main road. But they got home OK. ambulances to go through but require Palestinian patients to be transferred into an By the time of writing and after several Israeli ambulance at the checkpoint, after a hours, the youth leader has finally been whole process of co-ordination. released. What a difficult reminder of the context of This is another clear example of apartheid. the project and the dangerous reality beyond The Israelis force Palestinians to live in the checkpoints in Palestine. enclosed areas with real restrictions on their movement. At the same time (against the We hope that, next time, the kids are Geneva Conventions which forbid the actually all able to get beyond the movement of an occupier’s civilians on to checkpoints and to meet. ~~:~~ occupied land), they have moved hundreds of thousands of Israeli civilians into 21

settlements on Palestinian land – those living in the huge settlements on Abu Dis/ Aizariyeh land (Maale Adumim, Qidar) can rush in minutes into Jerusalem on fast main roads.

Yesterday Monadil was driven to the checkpoints and the request for him to be transferred to an Israeli ambulance was sent to what is known as ‘the Co-ordination.’ He waited at the checkpoint while the medics tried to look after him for half an hour. The ‘permission’ for him to go through came too late. Sadly he died at the checkpoint – a direct result of the Occupation. We sent our deep condolences to his family, friends and colleagues.

In the middle of the day, there was a demo in Abu Dis and the army wounded three people with rubber bullets – they were treated by the Red Crescent.

On 5[th] August, till late in the night, the Israeli army enforced a complete closure on the area, closing the Container checkpoint and preventing thousands of cars travelling and did the same near Maale Adumim settlement.

On 8[th] August, two houses were invaded in the middle of the night by the Israeli army. Again, houses were searched and members of the families were attacked by the army. Two young people were arrested.

On 28[th] August, the army invaded a house and beat a father and two brothers as a way to make a third brother give himself up to the army. Again there was tear gas and shooting in the middle of the night.

August

On 1[st] August, Mohannad Mazaara (a youth of sixteen) was killed in front of Maale Adumim settlement. He was shot by the army who allowed him to lie on the ground

September

bleeding and did not allow an ambulance to reach him. The army invaded Jabl al Baba and arrested members of his family. Settlers gathered near the place and blocked Palestinian cars from travelling and attacked cars.

On 2[nd] September the Israeli army invaded ten houses in Abu Dis in the night as they like to do. They searched the houses, attacked the people in the houses and gave ten young people military orders to visit the intelligence officer at the military camp.

On 5[th] September, the army invaded the house that had been invaded on 28[th] August

night time invasions by the Israeli army, shooting in the streets, checkpoints in front of the Al Quds University right at the beginning of term - arrests and heavy beatings and a threatening letter from the army asking people to give up a young man wanted by the Israeli army.

and again attacked the owner of the house and his sons, again pressuring for the third son to give himself up.

This was repeated two weeks later. The father, his brother and their sons (thirteen people altogether) were arrested and detained for two days, told that they must give up the son that the army was looking for.

In September, the schools and the university lost seven education days when the Israeli army put checkpoints in the street and prevented young people from reaching their classes.

On 20[th] September, the army came again and invaded the houses of three uncles of the wanted man and arrested them together with four of their sons.

15 Sep 23 The peaceful Friday morning in Abu Dis is filled today with the Israeli army who apparently have been everywhere since the early hours (Friday in Palestine is like Sunday in UK)

25 Sep 23 Collective punishment is prohibited by the Geneva Conventions. But Abu Dis has been suffering under collective punishment for a couple of weeks - major

It turns out that the young man in question was called for questioning by the Israeli army and was allowed back home. A couple of days later he was hunted again by the army but they didn't find him. The wildness of the occupation has increased - the army are punishing people as they chase him - many have been affected, physically hurt, prevented from getting to work etc - Some days ago the army set fire to a car scrapyard just out of the middle of town - dense, black smoke billowed across the town. - apparently they thought the youth was hiding in there. This is continuing.

October

Following the activities of 7[th] October (which are discussed elsewhere), there was immediately an emergency situation in the West Bank. In many areas (Hebron, Jerusalem etc) the Israeli Army imposed a curfew. In Abu Dis, the Palestinian Authority told all government buildings, the schools and the university to close.

The Israeli army declared a complete closure on the whole of the West Bank which prevented people from moving between areas or going in or out of the country, cancelling all military permissions to go to Jerusalem, which stopped people from going to work, hospital or other parts of their daily lives. Thousands of students were stranded in Abu Dis, unable to continue their study or to return home

safely – which they did gradually over the next few weeks.

Israel threw thousands of people from Gaza out of Jerusalem. This included people who were working in the city, and hospital patients and their families who were now not allowed to stay in the city. Hundreds of them came to Abu Dis where they lived in such places as a wedding hall in Kubsa.

terrorising the West Bank including shelling refugee camps from above. Dozens of people have been killed in the West Bank in the past two weeks (last night in Jenin, Qalandia, Askar camp in Nablus, Qalqilya), many wounded, hundreds arrested. At checkpoints Israeli soldiers are asking for people's phones and beating or arresting people who have shared info on what is going on

November

Three young people were killed. Please see this CADFA report from the time.

6 Nov Stop the killing

We call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza to end the appalling killing, maiming and destruction there. We also cannot forget the West Bank where things have been extremely bad since 7th October (while not good, before).

It was a terrifying night in Abu Dis on 8[th] October. Twenty houses were invaded by the Israeli military. Fifteen people were arrested: old and young, fathers and their sons. People could hear the screams of the prisoners who were dragged along the streets and beaten severely.

25 Oct A real genocide is taking place in Gaza - another 700 people were killed last night - three HUNDRED of these were children (way over 2000 children killed in the past two weeks, five or six THOUSAND people altogether). Real horror is unfolding on the people of Gaza and we must urgently keep up the campaign for a ceasefire! * Twelve thousand tons of explosives have been dropped on Gaza since the beginning of the war, apparently like a nuclear bomb.*

But at the same time the Israelis are

The war in Gaza has given Israel cover to impose a siege and a war of a different kind on Palestinians in the West Bank. Roads closed with checkpoints and with concrete blocks, house demolitions, villagers being pushed out of their homes, the menace of heavily-armed settlers making it dangerous to bring in the olive harvest, the violent presence of Israeli soldiers preventing the opening of schools and universities, and all the killings and woundings.

This is all linked to the same effort by an increasingly extremist Israeli government to secure control over Palestinian land. While reputable human rights organisations have in the last few years (and Palestinians for the last few decades) pointed to the system of

apartheid that has imposed human rights violations on Palestinians while supporting the building of new colonial settlements for Israelis – Black South Africans who lived through apartheid there have no doubt that the term is apt – the current Israeli government is even more extreme. A few months ago we were warning it could become even more terrible. Well, we have got there.

Our friends in Abu Dis are still reeling from a night of particular violence by the Israeli army on early morning of 5th November. The Israeli army killed three young men and seriously wounded another nine. We have been sent appalling bits of video from Abu Dis: wild shooting by the army in a residential area, the demolition of a house and carrying of a body in a bulldozer, even video of soldiers taking selfies with the body.

“It was like a bloody war for six hours in Abu Dis,” we were told, “though completely one-sided, there were no weapons on the other side. The Israeli army appeared at two in the morning with drones, a helicopter and an estimated 100 soldiers. Some of them surrounded one house and began shooting into it. Others seem to have shot widely across the middle of the town, where people had come out, alarmed at what they could hear – some were shot and some were shot running to rescue the people who had been hurt.”

The Abu Dis community are at once mourning for three young men and deeply worried about the future of the other young men who remain critically ill. They are aware that these are three of the 155 so far killed in the West Bank since the 7th October, and believe that their town and the West Bank as a whole are being used as a training ground for Israeli sharp

shooters headed for Gaza.

The young men killed were Mohannad Afaneh aged 19, Mousa Zarour aged 22 and Nabeel Johar aged 20. We send our sorrow and solidarity to the families of all the young people and to the community that is suffering so much. (Allah yerhamhum)

December

The closure continued this month with extra military checkpoints on the roads. It was very hard for people to leave or enter the area.

On 9[th] December there was a night of army shooting and teargas when four people (brothers) were arrested from their homes in the old side of Abu Dis. As they were arrested, the four brothers and also their old father were beaten by the army. Another young man was arrested in the same way on 11[th] December.

On 29[th] December a young person from Aizariyeh (next to Abu Dis) was killed by the Israeli army.

The Israeli army demanded that the Abu Dis Council would destroy the road itself – they refused. The Israeli military told the electricity company and the local water society to move their cables and pipes that were close to the road in question.

11 Dec Complete quiet in Abu Dis this morning as part of the 'total strike' for a ceasefire.

29 Dec Another funeral, another outrage, another loss in the horror of this time. So sad to hear that a lad from Aizariyeh next to Abu Dis has been killed by the Israeli army today. Mahmoud... another promising young life taken. Our sorrow and condolences go out to his family and all his friends and community.

18 Jan 24 Things are terrible in the West Bank too. Killings in double figures yesterday. Roads dangerous, education at risk (55 schools can’t open properly for the new semester because of the army), economic activity slowed right down, army invasions, woundings, killings. Out of nothing here is what happened this morning when the Israeli army broke down the door of a family in Abu Dis, ransacked the house and stole gold jewellery and money.

January

The closure continued with a heavy presence of Israeli military across the area. Across the West Bank, huge numbers of people were being arrested and some of them were released, bearing terrible signs of mistreatment. Most of them had lost a lot of weight as they had not been given enough food, and they told terrible stories of bad treatment inside.

In January, the Israeli military gave notice that they were going to close part of the main road south from Abu Dis that went close between the Separation Wall and the University. They had already made the road more difficult some years before by building the Separation Wall.

February

5[th] Feb – a young Palestinian from Jabal alBaba next to Aizariyeh (next to Abu Dis) was shot next to Maaleh Adumim settlement.

On 12[th] February, a boy from Aizariyeh was also killed next to Maale Adumim settlement.

On 27[th] February, the Israeli military declared a curfew, moved its bulldozers in

and destroyed half of the road next to the university, making it wide enough only for one line of traffic for a length of 150 metres. The University remained closed which (fortunately) for the time being reduced the traffic but still it caused a lot of problems for cars going from Abu Dis to Sawahreh or to the south of the West Bank.

is happening. We hope it can be stopped very, very soon.

March

On 1[st] March, the Israeli authorities closed the alternative road going south through

5 Feb 24 Yet again yet again . A young Palestinian lying wounded or worse near to Maale Adumim settlement outside Abu Dis. No one knows who it is yet. Such a horrible reality full of oppression and death all round. Strength to all good people

13 Feb 24 …. Mohammed Tariq Abusneineh from Aizariyeh, aged 15. … was shot and killed by an Israeli soldier [yesterday]. هللا يرحمك محمد

We send our deep condolences to his family and community.

This complete tragedy and crime is hard to write about. At the same time, the Israelis started bombing Rafah- having moved over a million people there from other parts of Gaza, they bombed it! Between 50 and 100 people were killed yesterday, many more injured if course and many more affected.

There are great fears for the next few days as the Israelis are listening to no one but themselves - the world is either mesmerised, impotent or turning very, very slowly to a realisation that genocide is real.

And there are now daily killings by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank, around 350 in the last 4 months. In the villages, the towns, the old city of Jerusalem. Words aren’t enough to describe the horror that

Wad alLibban. People had started to use it a lot after 7[th] October as

Container Checkpoint had been closed – and it had become very important for example if people needed to take people to Bethlehem hospitals in an emergency, as now the Jerusalem hospitals had become completely out of reach.

At the same time, they shut another road that went through Wad Jabal al-Baba which people had used – though long and winding – in emergency.

So people from Abu Dis have to struggle through the half-blocked road to go to Container checkpoint and on to Bethlehem.

On 7[th] March, the Israeli Civil Department put a confiscation order on the walls of the area of east Abu Dis called Abu Nuwar. They also put a military order relating to 2,600 donums of Abu Dis land in the same area, declaring it a closed military zone. This area was inhabited by Bedouin families, and these orders began the pressure on them to leave.

Financial report

During 2023/4 our finances in CADFA turned around. Having started with a deficit of £3.4k, we finished with a surplus of £17.2k. Our income increased from £115.6k the previous year to £145.4k (+26%). Our costs also increased but not by nearly as much; from £119.1k to £124.8k

There are a number of reasons for the increased income:

(1) The movement of solidarity with Palestine owing to the events in Gaza brought more people to our stall, events and to Café Palestina.

(2) Continued recovery from Covid meant that we could once again run events and activities that had been on hold.

(3) Increased activities at Café Palestina, which sold our books and goods, ran collections, gave us the surplus from its Arabic classes and gave donations.

(4) The continued efforts of CADFA members, including the Marchmont Stall team and others who ran stalls for CADFA and others who ran events at the Café and elsewhere. Sales of mugs etc produced after Tim Sanders visit with the health workers brought in about £2.4k, a good £1.0k more than the cost (with more to come in 2024 with the 2025 calendar).

(5) The work of our visit partners in the Building Hope project who raised money for the youth visit in various ways.

(6) Three grants totalling £9k, all for the youth visit, from MSN Trust, Birchwood Hall in Malvern and Taith (Welsh government funding).

(7) Membership income was up £5.3k reflecting a steady increase in membership; up about 15% following a similar increase the previous year.

Donations were up from £2.5k to £14.1k. £3.3k of this was collected for MAP (for health support for Gaza).

The biggest increase in our income (£27.7k) was through “income generation”; £8.0k from sales at our stall doubling and the rest from sales and events at the Café. Note however the costs of income generation went up by £15.3k, so the contribution to our surplus was about £12.4k.

When looking at the income and expenditure for visits (both to Palestine and from Palestine), it should be noted that the major cost of these not shown here as part of visit costs, is our core cost (salaries etc). This year, we ran only one visit to Palestine: the health workers’ visit at the beginning of the year; most of the income and costs (ignoring core costs) appeared in the previous year’s accounts. The situation in Palestine stopped us running visits later in the year.

We raised enough money during the youth visit in Feb-March through the efforts of our members and partners in collections, events and small grants for us to be able to cover the immediate costs, the core costs that enabled it and to be confident enough to plan two more visits in 2024/5.

The relatively small increase in costs mainly reflected the increased income generation costs, reduced costs for visits to Palestine and the money collected for MAP mentioned above. Staff costs were virtually identical as there were not any changes in staffing or salaries (as there haven’t been for many years).

Our accounts (see below) show us ending the financial year in credit by £17,216 (after starting the year with a deficit of £3,386).

CADFA ACCOUNTS - 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024 202213 2023/4 CADFA Charity Opening Balance 192 -3,386 Income Project grants Other project Income Membership Donations Vistts to Palestine Income generation (events, stalls etc} GiftAid Total Income 8,950 38,693 38,354 14,140 50,905 33,073 2,479 15,855 13,015 228 40,739 4,097 115,555 145,356 Expenditure Abu Dis running costs Camden running costs staff costs Project expenditure Small project Costs Vistts to Palestine cost Income generation costs Total Expenditure 2.168 19,987 53,771 24,442 2,613 10,236 5,916 5,959 20,679 51,985 19,170 3,497 2,233 21,232 119,132 124,755 CADFA Outturn -3,386 17,216 Opening Balance Total Income Total Expenditure Surplus (Deficit) Carried Forward 192 -3,386 145.356 124,755 17,216 115,555 119,132 -3,386 Surplus (Deficit) for the Year -3,578 20.601 Reconciliation Account Balance at 31 March 2024 Pension Pot Loans Outstanding Late Transfers In Late Transfers Out 3,814 -7,200 30,416 -13.200 Total -3,386 17,216 29

BALANCE SHEET Asat 315t March 2023 Asat 31st March 2024 UK Bank B81gnce5 5,174.88 30,378.31 Cash in hand or in transit -1.360 51 39.53 Net A55etS £3 814.37 £30 415.84 Surplus at 1 April Surplu5 1 (Oefi¢it) for the Year Added to Pension Pot 6.192.11 3.814.37 -3,577.75 20,801.49 1.21)J 8.000. Surplus at 31 March £3.814.37 £30 415.86 Represented by: UK Bank Accounts 5.174 88 30.378.31 NIS held in Abu Di5 -311 57 -145.88 Jordanian Oinafs held in Abu Dis US Dollars held in Abu Dis 1.881 44 1.706 17 B818nce on Camden C85h account -2.520 03 65.65 -103.34 B818nce on Stsl Cash Accovnt -122.72 B818nc* on Cafe Account -1.110 98 -1.911.13 B8lance on Just Giving ChecktyJt 8818nce on P8yP818ccount Balance on Sumup account 224.26 415.22 172.79 502.38 3 814.37 30 415.84 30

Our objectives for 2024-25

How did we do this year?

We met or made progress against the objectives we set ourselves for 2022-23.

We said… The main areas we want to work on to strengthen and sustain this work are

1. Extending our membership, involving new people across the country, encouraging our members to be active YES

2. Working with existing partner organisations and with new organisations both in Camden and across the country YES

3. Developing and extending the Building Hope| Voices from Palestine project YES

Finding new sponsors and/or ways to make this work sustainable . We made good progress this year.

We planned to work specifically work on

Regular human rights reports on Zoom and in person YES
Public events focusing on human rights in Palestine YES
Publications on social media and in print on human rights in Palestine
Visits to Palestine (aim to have three or four this year) Only one because of the changed situation after October
Visits to the UK (aim to have three or four this year subject to funding) We had two visits from Palestine this year and postponed two because of the changed situation after October
School links and school materials on Palestine and human rights We stay

in touch with schools and made new links through the youth visit; we have materials that we would like to use more

Advocacy work (including Beyond the Checkpoints) YES & related campaigning
In December 2023, celebration of 20 years of Camden Abu Dis links . YES

Our objectives for 2024-

25

Many of our objectives for this year are the same as last year – Ones that are different from last year are in red

The main areas we want to work on to strengthen and sustain this work are still

1. Extending our membership, involving new people across the country, encouraging our members to be active

2. Working with existing partner organisations and with new organisations both in Camden and across the country

3. Developing and extending the Building Hope| Voices from Palestine project

4. Building our sustainability both financial and through training more CADFA leaders for different aspects of the work

We will specifically work on

Regular human rights reports on Zoom and in person
Public events focusing on human rights in Palestine
Publications on social media and in print on human rights in Palestine
Visits to Palestine only if the situation allows it
Visits from Palestine to the UK: a second youth visit as part of

Beyond the Checkpoints and (subject to funding) another, possibly including students and women to keep those links alive.

School links and school materials on Palestine and human rights
Advocacy work a nd human rights campaigning
Working for a ceasefire and an end to the genocide.

Thank yous

CADFA is a small organisation, but we have so many people and other organisations to thank for their help and support this year. In both the UK and Palestine, there are our employees, our long-standing volunteers, helpers in particular projects and partner organisations. Our employees Nandita Dowson (Director) who kept the whole thing going in the UK and Abdulwahab Sabbah (Co-ordinator in Abu Dis) who kept it going in Palestine, and Meg Gent based in London for her support. Our group of trustees for the hours that they have put in. Our hard-working volunteers in many fields including Annika, Stuart and their stall team. Paul and Hugh for their help with the website, Kathy and the other English-group volunteers. So many volunteers in

particular in relation to the visits that it is scary to try to list them – we don’t want to miss anyone! You know who you are! Your help was invaluable.

We want to thank all our members, everyone who fundraised for us, those who contributed, organisations that gave us small grants – and also people outside CADFA who helped in particular with our visits.

Particular thanks to some individuals for help with fundraising on a one-off or regular basis. A big thank you for your help to

MSN Fund
Taith & the Welsh Committee for International Affairs
Palestinian Higher Council for Youth and Sports
Cafe Palestina CIC

Appendices

Appendix 1 - CADFA’s charitable objects

From the CADFA constitution as amended November 2013

The Charity’s object is to promote human rights (as set out in the International Declaration of Human Rights and subsequent United Nations conventions and declarations) and respect for international humanitarian law in Palestine by all or any of the following means:

raising awareness of human rights and humanitarian issues relevant to the
Israeli—Palestinian conflict in general and to the situation of Abu Dis in particular;
researching and monitoring abuses of human rights and infringements of
humanitarian law in Abu Dis in particular and Palestine more widely;
educating the public about human rights and humanitarian law;
promoting public support for human rights and the observance of humanitarian
law;
working to eliminate abuses of human rights and infringements of humanitarian
law in Abu Dis in particular and Palestine more widely;

• working to obtain and promote redress for the victims of human rights abuses and infringements of humanitarian law and their families in Abu Dis in particular and Palestine more widely;

• providing support to and relieving need among the victims of human rights abuses and infringements of humanitarian law and their families, in Abu Dis in particular and Palestine more widely.

Appendix 2 – CADFA trustees

Elected at AGM 2023 (1) inquorate meeting on 19th November 2023

and (2) reconvened meeting on 19th April 2024

Chair Peter Ashan Treasurer Hugh Wallis Secretary Cris Piccoli Minutes secretary Fiona Millar Trustee Rumana Choudhary

Appendix 3 - Some press cuttings from this year

74 -AdJrk clay for the Coutic yoLll$zk pU4r>o rMAilTf AcJll to Sir Keir.%t2riner churcbrE. a thqeon lusl fBER5ol t44. thccanjdcn ry&LWy rorihc h11 fr th¢lorKIyhQ Fl CADFAty1 TAE Ti w{YthihattknuczcJ ng$auLi Il]IDn(vIron KILLINC- Pid bothai the wtrAI s¢emsa nc%rT-c¥wJmg ltstoft Sir KclrskuukT( ot'sir K¢ tN4¢rL%rfiie A5akaikrofthe WI15 for rth4' MOZART FOR THE HOMELESS Abu inttrrt Wrst Bank. vknttht5ffli bKLthcl (<K fd5¢fIrtwjth0 ekrng lTrLfA Wear¢tYWktr1 .baky• .e1th for Sunday16th Nfjvembw,7.9pm live Concert in NW3 Requiem &Oarinet(onc¥to ¢knldr<Din Uir .it]no_cent tsh unit2.1(aMdxqh$1. WP Q74751YB83 C•FI kn Gaza = ceasefl bohaviour 35

St David's Day hospitality for Palestinian youngsters re A GROUP of Pale•tlnl& yowigsteEs were treated to somo ¥ld old f&shi¢)ned Welsh b05Pital?tY OTt St Dai'ld's Day as they vTrsited I'oVI)'5_ On Frida>. March l. Radnor pestine Lirtks htssted Z4 of PalestiniaD youn¥sierJ who Arr tourtng England atta Ilaies as part f A trip organised by the Camden Abts Dis Fr&endsbi The%" b4ve beenfedwlth Asso¢iAtion ICADFA). Welsh cake¥ and 18Yo bread awl For 10 dass. ihest fourbDyS rtclprrtated with hwDmU8. pIttA 5ii giyls. agod t3 to 16. bread Jukd dates. and thelr four aduli leaders, Everyontloined In theLr ar? enioiiDg & rEspile fro Pajesiinian dobke d8nee alld th• violen¢¥ th41 the5. ar• some singin8. ezperiencRng thefr home Tbe) were relleved to know that lo'ns in the West Bank so man) ls)cal people havt been ltrcluding Assawiye, Abu Dis. rote$tlng on their behalf to try JeDitt tamp and Belt Leeed ad •RathrPstm PiQ RPL to Eel a perTrLanent ¢easere i Al Wl4leb. Gaza and an end to the vloleDee the time they rea¢hed al John BeddoE5 SchDDI 4thd then in their home country. h%Ott they b&d alre•dy spent $n hour wlth the For more IDformatjOD about bEEn Treted bi Ilark in l(nigbton. sharing snack RadDor Palesline Links. email Draktford. First MinLsrer of the Sened had Ylslted ylayln¥ ¥ames and ex¢b&nKln8 rudnorpalestlnelink601wwll. thTrrles. eoTll or alterjkqiively vjjlt the Newp(bri. The) onjoyod a bupp¢r IladDor Falo51the Lluk$ Far¢book rTlvln&ln PEutE1v they . ryearby house. wlth lo¢•J nt childrtp of ibt sawe wbobrouxht fo(Ml to •bw. On SAIWd 2. they met tomnjunity WIUPS in Crffttt Arm4. f(¢ going on to Chester. Despiio rhe diffictslt 51tuatl wllh Ibt DnKoin% WaT In GaT armed 5¢ttler vIDnte In thEir Yil]Ages in tILe West Ba)Jk. thege ctLlldren •r@ 8ettJn¥ breath of trestt air aJ)d rEcetved woDderful Po'yH welcome trollL the peDple they met durinE thetr Palestinian teens visiting Camden talk about West Bank life CAhltN p#tESTIXE Send feedback Sorne DftheglT15whovF5tEod thE UK **ththeCarrthn Frknthh Assortèt (bage..3theRayj Shai 00 No Comments Palestlfilan thlldrÈn on an èMchan9etrlp to the Uxspokeof ¢Irgra¢1¢Ude forthe support ihry re(eNwJ during iheir SIL Get involved with the news Carnden Abu Dis Fnendship AssocK•tion (Cattfal has been bnn9in9 Palestinian teenager5 tothe UKfor 20years in an exihange pro9ratThmeto promote awareness of the human rlghts si(LW¥)n in Paksvne. Send your neyés & photos 36

Appendix 4 –

Some placards and banners

Our twenty-year old embroidered banner was taken

on many marches. Countless new ones were made in Friday placard workshops or by Fiona with her great lettering. Many walked off into the crowds in the national demos–we are still searching for our favourite ones above. yore Wy

Appendix 5 – petitions for ceasefire on change.org

Appendix 6 - Evaluations of the youth visit

Things that really struck the young Palestinians (they talked again and again about people’s support):

British people’s great care for Palestine and its people, the love and kindness of the people, the beauty and nature of the country
The last event in the church, how the people taking part were full of love and loyalty (caring about Palestine?)
The great treatment we had from people and the great way the group worked together
When we went to the church and we danced
Really beautiful memories in Wales and the nice people there
The places we visited and how the people treated us
There were many people who supported our cause
How many people care about Palestine
Co-operation between each other
People’s kindness

with each other is a cherished moment of relief amidst an unfortunate situation.

From one of the supporting organisations

“We discovered so much support locally. I don’t know how much people learnt about Palestine from our event - it depended on who they spoke to - some of them may have learnt much more than others but they will all have seen young Palestinians as real people- and very lovely real people in their case- and not just as statistics on the news. Hope it spurs us all on to do more by way of support.”

From a young person who met the young people in a youth activity in Wales.

“Meeting the young people had a profound impact on my perspective of the current conflict, as it was the first time I'd been exposed to the voices of Palestinians, voices I believe are too often

disregarded. Not only did I learn about Israel's violent retaliation after October 7th on a personal level, but also the context of everyday life before this escalation, and how oppressive this occupation has been on Palestinians for decades, a reality largely overlooked until now.

“One individual was incredibly remarkable in retelling his personal experience as a Palestinian under oppressive Israeli rule, being incredibly informative of their current reality.

“I'd be honoured to keep in touch with these brave young people who have made their voices heard around the UK. I'm committed to supporting young people like themselves, from the basics such as informing family and friends on the current conflict, as they've not had the privilege of listening to first-hand experiences. And even introducing the topic to the school curriculum; educating other young people who may be exposed to misinformation from biased news outlets and our biased government.”

From the vicar of the church that hosted the final event

“Last night was one of the most spiritual and moving of my entire seventeen years at Holy Cross and it was a privilege to host our young Palestinians to hear their testimonies, as well as to enjoy their dancing and positivity.

Thank you for all your own hard work in making it possible and my abiding respect and admiration for CADFA…. and the team for all you manage to achieve in what is certainly a cold geopolitical climate.”

And from one of the helpers at that event…

“Before I left the church yesterday evening I’ve told (the vicar) that I hoped everything was in the same place as before we arrived and his answer was: this will be difficult, after all the happiness and joy he had seen during the evening the place wouldn’t be the same anymore

“However what I value the most is our positive discussions with each other, the cultural exchange, and interest in language and traditions. Even playing video games

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Useful links

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