NEVER GIVE UP! 0 Reply
“WE BELIEVE IN PALESTINE!” said a choir of voices of students and teachers from Birzeit University of Ramallah, Palestine. Today they met students and teachers from Universidade Católica de Lisboa, Portugal, to exchange experiences and share testimonies during a couple of hours. The human framework in Ramallah Dialogue Cafe was quite impressive.
In Lisbon we started with students and a very special teacher: Ines d’Orey, in wheelchair since she had an accident, 20 years ago. Her story and her strong will inspired the Ramallah group and some of the palestinian students asked her to give some details about the way she resists to adversity. RESILIENCE is the key word for Palestinians.
In Ramallah the diversity of areas of expertise was fabulous: from computer engineers to educational field and traditional folclore dancers; from agricultural organizations to human resources and advertising agency; from UN Programs of Development collaborators to visual arts and a supermarket chain experience, almost all areas were debated.
Palestinian people shared their hard political and social reality, and all the participants spoke and added some details about their daily hard life and difficult challenges. Unfortunately while this DC session was in progress, West Bank clashes and riots in the streets of Gaza never stoped.
” WHILE WE ARE HERE TALKING TO EACH OTHERS, TRYING TO FIND WAYS TO HELP PALESTINIAN PEOPLE, OUR CHILDREN AND CIVILIANS ARE BEING SHOT” said a girl, one of the students in DC room.
“WE HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO EFFECTIVELY HELP!” Here lies the worst frustration of these group of palestinians who cross checkpoints on a daily basis and who have to wait long hours to have some food and water supplies.
When portuguese students and teachers asked them if they are afraid they said YES and when someone asked about their dreams, they answered:
“OUR DREAMS ARE VERY SIMPLE: SEE THE SEA WITHOUT SOLDIERS AND BARRIERS TO CROSS; FEELING SAFE IN THE STREETS, HAVING A HOME.”
In the next future new DC sessions will take place to discuss RESILIENCE and to let europeans know more about real life in real Palestine, under israeli occupation. The good news today? Amira’s 26th birthday! Portuguese and Palestinian celebrated together her life and joy despite all the bad memories and circumstances. Tomorrow we’ll post here the video where all sing to Amira.
