Date/Time
Date(s) - 7 Mar 2018
7:00 PM - 9:30 PM
We’re very sorry to have to announce that this meeting has been cancelled. One of the two speakers from Hebron was stopped by the Israelis from crossing into Jordan, from where he was due to fly to the UK – this despite the fact that all necessary permissions from Israel, Jordan and the UK had been obtained many weeks ago. The other speaker has been denied a visa to travel to the UK. The UK authorities dragged their feet for weeks over this, and then refused to provide a reason for the decision.
This is a familiar (and infuriating) problem – just one of countless frustrations and humiliations faced by the Palestinians living under occupation.
Apologies from BHPSC
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Public meeting with Ahmad Azza and Akram Natsheh from ‘Youth Against Settlements’ in Hebron
Wednesday 7th March 2018 at 7pm
Black & Minority Ethnic Community Partnership
10 Fleet Street, Brighton BN1 4ZE
(Between the London Road and Brighton Station,
near to the Sainsburys superstore in New England St)
Free admission – donations welcome
Ahmad Azza, 18, lives in Hebron a few metres from an Israeli settlement in Hebron’s neighbourhood of Tel Rumeida. He volunteers for Youth Against Settlements. When he was 16 years old, he was arrested by Israeli soldiers, beaten and kept in jail for a week accused of having a knife. In late 2015, he was arrested by Israeli forces and accused of having wielded a knife against a soldier. After spending a week in military detention, a DNA test was conducted of the knife and he was found innocent and all charges against him dropped. The investigator told the family off-record that the knife belonged to a soldier.
Akram Natsheh, 38, is a Palestinian journalist. He has a Masters degree in Contemporary Arab Studies from Birzeit University, as well as a Bachelors degree in journalism and mass communication from Al Yarmouk University. Natsheh has been a volunteer for Youth Against Settlements in Hebron since 2008 working within the media field to defend human rights issues and support YAS in local and international media. Three months ago, his office was stormed and closed by the Israeli army in a wider shut down of satellite channels in the West Bank. He also received a call from Israeli intelligence and security warning him not to continue work as a journalist for al-Quds satellite channel – the officer threatened him that if he works, he will be arrested.
In Hebron, Youth Against Settlements mobilise young Palestinians to campaign against the Israeli occupation. Their annual Open Shuhada Street campaign highlights severe restrictions on freedom of movement that Palestinian’s face. PSC will be joined in conversation by YAS activists Ahmed Azza and Akram Natsheh, who will tell their stories of their own activism and we discuss the ways in which Palestinian’s resist Israel’s brutal and discriminatory occupation.
Join us for what promises to be a fascinating and inspiring evening.