Some of the Palestinian youth who participated in the 2008 AIC Summer Camp.
On Saturday 9 August, 100 youth participants of the summer
camp organized by the Alternative Information Center (AIC) and the Union of
Health Work Committees (UHWC), took part in an intense day, beginning with an
early morning walk along the Green Line which surrounds a large portion of the Bethlehem
region.
In the afternoon, camp participants relaxed in a
swimming pool, then ended the day with one of the most important elements of
Palestinian culture: music. Everyone enjoyed the folkloristic mix presented by
youth from the al-Azza Refugee Camp along with a southern Italian musician, who
visited especially for the occasion. At the beginning of the event he
exclaimed, “Music has no borders!”
All was not celebration, however. During this event, we
received the tragic news that one of the most important Palestinian poets,
Mahmoud Darwish, had passed away. The youth suddenly became silent. Their
silence finally broken by the music of the national anthem after which they
collectively declared that Mahmoud Darwish would keep living amongst them.
The week-long summer camp focused on several topics in
order to enrich the participant’s understanding of the Palestinian Naqba and
the history of Israel’s occupation, as well as Palestinian identity and
culture. Socio-political workshops, theatre and music, films, cultural evenings
and other special activities were conducted and camp participants visited the
Nativity Church, Bethlehem University, refugee camps around Bethlehem and the
hilltop at Oush Grab, a recently decommissioned Israeli military base where
settlers are presently attempting to construct a new settlement.
On Tuesday, 12 August, in commemoration of International Youth Day, the youth
planted 150 trees in a schoolyard near Beit Sahour, helped by international
volunteers. The final night of the camp featured musicians from Ramallah, a theatre group from
France, and dabka dancing.
“Organizing such a camp is a huge challenge, both
logistically and conceptually,” said Nassar Ibrahim, AIC Policies Director and an
active member of the camp’s steering committee. “Bringing together Palestinian
youth, girls and boys, from such varied political, social, economic and
geographical realities is no simple task. Palestinian youth from marginalized
refugee camps throughout the West Bank, kids from Jerusalem, and the
Palestinian cities and villages in Israel, the towns and villages of the West
Bank—we bring all of them together and work to show how their different
experiences and understandings all form today’s Palestinian reality.”
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