{"id":1461,"date":"2018-03-17T19:02:35","date_gmt":"2018-03-17T19:02:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheffieldpsc.org.uk\/?page_id=1461"},"modified":"2018-03-22T21:25:07","modified_gmt":"2018-03-22T21:25:07","slug":"women-of-the-nakba-marking-70-years","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.sheffieldpsc.org.uk\/?page_id=1461","title":{"rendered":"Women of the Nakba – marking 70 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

On March 9th<\/sup>, Sheffield Palestine Women\u2019s Scholarship Fund<\/a> and Northern Women for Palestine<\/a> (NWfP) jointly staged an event called \u201cWomen of Palestine: the ongoing Nakba\u201d at the Central United Reform Church. The event was also staged in 7 other northern towns by NWfP.<\/p>\n

The central idea was to demonstrate that the Nakba of 1948, is still happening today, as Palestinians are ethnically cleansed from their land and more and more of historic Palestine is colonised by Israel. The organisers wanted to celebrate the importance of women within the Palestinian cause, highlighting their resistance and resilience and connecting their experiences with those of women everywhere and with refugees and asylum seekers today.<\/p>\n

So, we took our exhibition of UNRWA archive photos, accompanied by modern images into the Conversation Club for refugees which takes place every Friday afternoon in CURC. As well as photos we showed an art installation, called \u201cBelonging\u201d, a luminous tent created by Hilly Fletcher of the Northern Women group.<\/p>\n

\"Kholoud
Kholoud and Sara from SPWSF in front of the tent<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We also showed other of her pieces on the theme of loss of home and longing for return. These beautifully symbolic works were originally part of Hilly\u2019s final submission for her art degree but became an important part of the events for International Women\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n

An Open House followed on from the Conversation Club where anyone could drop in to view the work and chat with organisers and guest speaker, Kholoud Al Ajarma of Aida Refugee Camp, Bethlehem.<\/p>\n

This was followed by an evening event attended by over 130 women where a presentation on the Nakba and Naksa explained the history and current experience of loss and dispossession. Women\u2019s voices were central: we heard testimony from 1948; the story of Nora Sub Laban, resisting the Judaization of East Jerusalem today; Sahar Awadallah spoke of her family\u2019s experiences and Kholoud presented her transgenerational film featuring Fatima, her grandmother, Ayesha, her mother, herself and sisters, plus the new generation of child refugees.<\/p>\n

\"Kholoud
Kholoud Al Ajarma<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kholoud\u2019s film charts life in the camp and the experiences of the women in her family and highlights their determination to Return, as is their right, to their original home of Ajjur. In the final part of the week\u2019s events, we also showed images of the devastation left behind in her home when it was invaded by the Israeli army in the middle of the night \u2013 a common occurrence on the West Bank.<\/p>\n

\"Body
Body of Sound perform<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Body of Sound<\/a> opened the event with two songs about women\u2019s solidarity and resistance and the Top Shellalahs closed the event with a song written by Kate Thomas, after a visit to Palestine, called \u201cTwo Weeks\u201d. This wonderful lyric was played in every event and exactly mirrors the narrative of the women of the Nakba.<\/p>\n

All participants received a leaflet called \u201c10 Things We Can Do\u201d, a commemorative brochure on \u201cWomen of the ongoing Nakba\u201d and a symbolic key, with a fob commemorating the Nakba. Everyone was encouraged to pledge solidarity with sisters in Palestine, especially by joining the boycott movement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On March 9th, Sheffield Palestine Women\u2019s Scholarship Fund and Northern Women for Palestine (NWfP) jointly staged an event called \u201cWomen of Palestine: the ongoing Nakba\u201d at the Central United Reform Church. The event was also staged in 7 other northern towns by NWfP. The central idea was to demonstrate that the Nakba of 1948, is … Continue reading Women of the Nakba – marking 70 years<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":157,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1461","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheffieldpsc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheffieldpsc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheffieldpsc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheffieldpsc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheffieldpsc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1461"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheffieldpsc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1503,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheffieldpsc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1461\/revisions\/1503"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheffieldpsc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheffieldpsc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}