Palestine

2 weeks ago,Fatin Al Tamimi ,who is part of the Palestinian community living in Ireland,came to speak to our class about Palestine and the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis.

Fatin told us that the European Jewish colonization of Palestine began about a century ago and in 1948,the state of Israel was formed. That year,750,000 Palestinian refugees were removed from former Palestinian territories. 

As of 2010,there were 7.1 million Palestinian refugees. 6.6 million of whom are living outside of the occupied Palestinian territories. Often, 3 generations of Palestinian families are refugees. An area in the occupied territories called the West Bank has some refugees camps. Fatin told us about her own family, her parents live in Jordan and she holds a Jordanian passport. However,her sister lives in the Gaza Strip with her Palestinian husband. Fatin has never met her nieces and nephews who cannot get a passport because they are Palestinian and it is extremely difficult for her sister,who also holds a Jordanian passport, to travel to and from the Gaza Strip.

We also spoke to Akef, who was born in Ireland to Palestinian parents. He spoke about what it was like for Palestinian children and teenagers growing up in the occupied Palestinian territories.

This is a video that Akef,shared with us:
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js-m5DdG1kA

It shows the difficult journey that Palestinian children have to do to go to school


We all found Fatin's visit very interesting