Student Seminar: Academy-Community Partnership for Social Change



On April 11, 2007, we took part in a seminar for student activists. The seminar took place in Nazareth and was organized by the Academy-Community Partnership for Social Change and Mahapach-Taghir. This is part of a joint project between Zochrot and Mahapach to bring the Nakba to disempowered communities and to Mahapach student activists across the country. (Mahapach is a community empowerment organization in which students live and work within communities with the aim of protecting their rights and promoting social change).

Zochrot led two sessions at the seminar. In the first session Amaya Galili gave a PowerPoint presentation on the Nakba prepared by Zochrot to a group of about 20 students. In the second session Zochrot organized a tour of the village Saffuriyya led by Ziyad Awaysseh of the village's association of displaced residents. About 40 people took part in the tour, Palestinians and Jews, students and members of the Mahapach steering committee from Sderot and Tamra.

The subject of the Nakba was a significant part the seminar and the two sessions by Zochrot were very successful and meaningful. There was a sense that Zochrot is reaching new audiences who don't typically participate in these kinds of activities. The students said they wished to continue to research and act on the subject of the Nakba. A group in Jerusalem is beginning to organize and others will be taking part in the street video screenings planned for this coming Nakba Day.

Here are some photos from the visit to Saffuriyya that was organized as part of the seminar: