CADFA Virtual Visit to Palestine summer 2020

MAKLOUBEH Ingredients Lamb or chicken pieces- or chickpeas/ soya protein/ other vegetarian ingredient Onion Garlic Tomatoes Water Spices- whole or ground (cumin, black pepper, turmeric, cinnamon, a little nutmeg (or allspice), fried cardamom Vegetables- cauliflower, carrots, aubergine, potatoes (or whatever you have/prefer) Rice  Vermicelli, a smallish amount Salt Preparation *Boil meat (lamb or chicken) in water with chopped onion, cumin, black pepper, turmeric, cinnamon, a little nutmeg (or allspice), fried cardamom, for 15-20 minutes. *Cut the vegetables into chunks and slice potatoes into rounds (4mm) and fry in batches in 2cm oil, or deep fry, till slightly browned all over. *Put the rice in warm water to soak for 15 minutes ( not necessary if using basmati ) *Fry the rice vermicelli, broken into short strands (uncooked) in a little oil, until browned *Mix together the drained rice and vermicelli Assembling the Makloubeh *Put a few sliced tomatoes and garlic in the bottom of a suf

The question was asked, "why is Jerusalem so important?" These two maps help explain my answer. One map is from Anglo-Saxon England, in 1040 AD, before William the Conqueror arrived, and the Mappa Mundi from Hereford is a map from 1300. Both maps show the point of view of the first 1300 years AD, with Jerusalem as the centre of the known world. Jerusalem is central to three religions, and as such holds a deeply spiritual and almost mythical quality for people of faith and non faith alike. Sadly the three Abrahamic faiths have shed rivers of each others'  blood over the white stones of Jerusalem, just when a sense of brotherhood should have been paramount. Using faith as an excuse for extreme violence to others is not celebrated in any faith. The Qu'ran advises not to harm the Jews or the Christian as they are brothers; Jesus gives a clear message when he gives the Samaritan (non Jew) as the example of the good neighbour; as did the example of Ruth in Jewish scripture,

In one of the earlier sessions we touched briefly on Israeli attitudes to the range of human rights abuses and war crimes perpetrated in the West Bank and why they didn’t voice objections. One argument advanced was that because Haaretz regularly publishes articles accurately describing the situation in the West Bank that Israelis know about this. However, the circulation of Haaretz is 75, 000 per day whereas the two largest right-wing papers have combined weekday sales of 550,000 and 850,000 at the weekend. Little or nothing of the Israeli human right abuses will be published there. As one commentator said, “A settler dog being killed will get more attention than the murder of 20 Palestinians.” Further, there is no TV equivalent of Haaretz, so the Israeli public is generally ill-informed of what happens in The West Bank and too many simply dismiss Palestinians as terrorists as a result of the right-wing propaganda. One tour guide with a group of US youth was filmed saying that it

Since it was started, Israel has continually pushed Palestinians from the city, often changing the goalposts, making it hard for many to stay in the city: it has revoked the residency of *15,000* Palestinian Jerusalemites including very many children, not allowing them to have any services or protection and making them stateless in their own city and country. (Talk today during the CADFA virtual visit to Palestine)

 Visit Gaza

 Enjoy it before it gets settled!

 Wall 4

 Wall 3

 Wall 3

 Wall 1

 Hebron: glass-blowing 2

 Hebron: glass-blowing 1

 Young settler couple

 At school

 Ramallah

 Hebron

Bethlehem Day   

On our way to Hebron today. It is shocking to see how Google labels the Palestinian lands by the names of the Israeli settlements. It reflects the reality of the takeover of course but these are still Palestinian lands. Now going past checkpoints, refugee camps, Israeli settlements, Palestinian towns shut in with gates, again and again soldiers and finally... Hebron.  # LinkingTogether4HumanRights

 Many thanks to our friends in Palestine for sharing with us a recipe for the famous Palestinian upside-down dish, MAKLUBEH.  We think it goes like this: PREPARATION (1) Boil the meat. This can be lamb or chicken. If it is chicken, some people fry it first and boil it for a shorter time. Other people just boil it. Include salt and spices with the meat as it boils. The spices are nutmeg, turmeric, black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon though in Palestine it is possible to get ready-mixed spices for maklubeh. Also include onion. When the meat is boiling, go on to the other stages. When the meat is ready, separate it from the liquids but *keep this stock, it is what gives the taste to the whole dish.* (2) Cut and fry the vegetables. These can be cauliflower and potato that Fathiyeh uses, or aubergines and carrots that Im Shadi uses. (3) Wash and soak the rice for twenty minutes or half an hour. Drain it. (4) If you like to you can fry vermicelli and stir it in to the rice when it has been soak

On day 3 we learnt about women in Palestine.  We were told among many other things that although women achieve better results in education than men, unemployment among women is higher than among men. We heard from a woman whose son has been jailed for an unknown reason and he is yet to be charged.  Visiting is allowed infrequently and no physical contact is permitted.  For this lady, it was the 4th time her son now 35, had been in jail since he was 15 and it was obviously very distressing for her and her family. We were told the very distressing news of a young 23 year old mother who was recently shot and killed as she stood up to close the window to shield her young son from a tear gas bomb explosion.   We heard from another woman who was delighted to have a hospital visit in Jerusalem (on the other side is the wall) so that she could visit her parents as the hospital visit was a permitted reason for visiting Jerusalem.  If any family members were in jail a visit to Jerusalem, on the

 Our second day on the virtual trip to Palestine was to Bethlehem – a town well known and with places that are Holy to Muslims, Christians and Jews. I am grateful to have been shown around by local people and to see the different approaches to help the local children manages their situation. With Dr Abedfettah, the Director of Aruwad, the Cultural and arts society in Aida refugee camp we visited the large refugee camp of Aida, where many, many thousands of people are squeezed on to land of 0.007 square km. The original wooden structures from people escaping the 1948 Nakba  were replaced with brick structures and due to the lack of land families would build upwards. With a very young population, 45% being under 18, and very restricted space with land given for recreation commandeered and walled off by the Israelis, the Aruwad arts centre has become key to providing as wide a range of activities as possible to not only keep the youth busy, but try to give them an important sense of sel

Thanks to everyone involved in the first evening of our Virtual Visit to Palestine- the presentations gave a good overview and insights into aspects of life in Abu Dis and the locality. One thing which struck me in particular- as I was one of the 11 Camden teachers to visit Abu Dis schools in 2007- was the ongoing, and possibly worsening, difficulty in instituting and maintaining an appropriate curriculum for Palestinian schools. When we visited we were accompanied by a high up Ministry of Education official (sorry I cannot recall his name or position)on some school visits. He was very happy to tell us about the new Palestinian curriculum developments, schools having been using the Jordanian/ Egyptian curriculum in the past. This new curriculum, some years in development, was tailored to Palestinian pupils to inform them of their own history and culture in context and to be ‘theirs’, not that of another country. This was a very exciting development. I read an article recently which men

A few technical difficulties made for a slightly delayed and slightly rocky start that I found a bit frustrating, and not easy to manage. However, once we'd actually got going, things were very different. It was great having the different people speaking to us and each giving their own perspective of life in Abu Dis - it meant we had actual living detail of lived experience - so different from a generalised, 'tourist' perspective. And it made it possible to really get a picture of what day to day life is like there - for  a doctor, for a student, for Abed as the CADFA person 'on the ground'. So it seems we are gradually building up a real picture of living in this town, Abu Dis, which was once so much larger and a part of Jerusalem, under Israeli occupation.  The reality of seeing the level of control the population is under, and the deliberate cruelty and deprivation that is foisted upon them, even if only on one's computer screen, makes a very powerful impact.