YMCA-YWCA Haugaland - Norway - program in Palestine with the JAI

Category: Advocacy Programs in Palestine Created: 28 February 2014

Haug Feb2014 1tSee more photos of their program in Palestine

11 youth and 2 leaders from the YMCA-YWCA Haugaland in Norway were hosted and had a program in Palestine organized by the JAI, from the 22nd of February to the 2nd of March 2014. The program aimed at witnessing and experiencing life under occupation, through various guided visits and tours, presentations and interactions with Palestinian students and youth.

Haug Feb2014 2tThe program included guided visiting main religious and historic sites, old cities and markets; visiting some YMCA and YWCA programs and centres in Beit Sahourand Jericho; guided tour with the EAPPI at and through the Bethlehem-Jerusalem checkpoint; guided tour in Hebron where they witnessed settlements, closures and checkpoints inside the old city; presentation on the Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions (BDS) campaign and visit the Bili'n village in Ramallah where they met and toured with the head of the popular resistance committee. It also included visits to witness the Israeli wall, settlements and checkpoints within the Bethlehem area, presentation on the ongoing displacement of Palestinian refugees and the right of return; meeting refugees' youth and touring inside a refugee camp.

Haug Feb2014 3tPalestinian students were arranged to be partially in the program and had almost daily interaction with the Norwegian youth, where they visited their school for half a day, got to see their daily school life, school facilities, and played sports together at the school. They both went planting olive trees together for half a day at a threatened field in Teqou' village in the Bethlehem area, part of the JAI' Olive Tree Campaign. And on another evening the Norwegian students spend overnight with the Palestinian students' families.