A GROUP of teenage Palestinians have concluded a visit to Wales after a programme of cultural exchanges and events covering almost two weeks. They practised football skills with Cardiff City star Yousef Salech, sang with Côr Meibion Morlais male choir accompanied by the Lewis Merthyr Band, did quilt making and visited the Lewis Merthyr Colliery at Rhondda Heritage Park in Porth.
Eight of them came from towns in the West Bank and Jerusalem to Wales as part of the ‘Beyond The Checkpoints’ Palestinian youth project. It enables youth from different areas in Palestine to meet each other – they are normally kept apart by separation walls, military checkpoints, settlements and military areas established by the Israeli state. The youngsters only met for the first time in Wales.
The project is managed by Camden Abu-Dis Friendship Association (CADFA), a charity which promotes awareness of the human rights situation in Palestine. Part of its work is organising regular trips which promote meaningful, long-lasting cultural exchanges between Palestinian and British young people, while raising awareness of the ongoing human rights crisis in Palestine.
The youngsters started the visit in north Wales on September 22 before moving from Chester to Machynlleth, Knighton, Crafen Arms, Ludlow and on to Rhondda Cynon Taf and Newport in the south, before heading to London for the journey home. They covered 13 towns in all. They enjoyed the sharing of a cultural evening in Machynlleth with Welsh and Palestinian music, dance and stories. The Newport visit brought together local young people to meet the visitors.
At the cultural event at Cardiff’s iconic Temple of Peace last Tuesday (September 30), the youngsters all shared stories about their lives. Speaking partly in English and partly through their interpreter, they told of life under Israeli occupation and Jewish settler violence against their families.
Liz Holyoak, lead organiser for Rhondda Cynon Taf Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which organised the RCT leg of the tour with CADFA, said the visit had been “one of the greatest pleasures of my life.”
Highlights in RCT:
- The Falastin Football Fest at Treforest Football Club, attended by Yousef Salech, a Cardiff City player with Palestinian heritage, and lots of local children who made button badges, tried new foods and played football.
- Tour of Rhondda Heritage Park, a great opportunity for the children to learn about mining and the long history of solidarity and trade unionism in the south Wales valleys.
- A quilting and museum curation session led by Hannah Saunders and the radical arts SPAF Collective at Pontypridd Museum. The Palestinians created a quilt documenting their journey across Wales: landscapes, football, trees and smiling faces.
- A big ‘hwyl fawr (goodbye)’ with a cultural evening at the Temple of Peace, Cardiff, sponsored by TUC Cymru, with a Palestinian first half and Welsh second half. We heard TUC Cymru General Secretary Shav Taj talk about the importance of trade union solidarity with Palestine, heard incredible Oud music, brass band and choral music and finished off with singing Yma O Hyd together and a huge traditional Palestinian dabke dance.
Cardiff-based Salih Hassan, the Oud player, told the audience: “Yesterday I was reunited with my country, people and community.
“When they started singing Yam ma Mwail Elhawa I struggled to stop the drop of tear which was going to pour. You brought Palestine to me.”
“CADFA said the Beyond the Checkpoints was an aspirational name as “checkpoints clamp down everywhere and the nightmares continue.”
