International Women's Day Interview by Linda and Vita
When visiting
London Dalia Abu Fannouneh said that she enjoyed the freedom that was offered
to her, the ability to travel without being stopped at check points, the
freedom to express herself and “push the Israeli occupation to the back of her
mind.” There are many similarities between the two countries, and there as
still many problems that we both face, young unemployment for example. However
much she enjoyed visiting the western world, she still felt like an outsider as
it was not her country or her home. The rights that she was granted in this
country are the rights that she wishes were granted as freely in Palestine. “I
still feel that Palestine is my home, however much I love London”.
One difference
that Palestinian children face, is the lack of government financial support.
Many schools in Palestine are expensive and cost the families money that they
find hard to find. Dalia talked about families’ that the older siblings would
have to sacrifice their later education, to get a job to pay for their younger
sibling’s education. This is not always the case; there are free schools,
however in the minority run by various charities and the United Nations. This
is in great contrast to the hundreds of state run schools in the United Kingdom
that children attend for free because we pay taxes.
One of the things
that Dalia pointed out was that when she was in London there was a great amount
of unawareness in the younger generations about the situation throughout
Palestine. One of the things that she felt British children could do to help
that would be by setting up committees within schools, trying to raise awareness in
the younger generations. Getting the children more involved to take part in
twinnings between London and Palestine.
Dalia studied
English literature and after reading many classic novels she loved the
experience of coming to London and finally seeing the different places she’d
read about and that had inspired famous authors such as Jane Austen and Charles
Dickens; she mentioned that her favourite novel was Pride and Prejudice. This
highlights that although both our countries have many differences the people in
Palestine and England can be very similar. Dalia said that it is unusual for a
Palestinian person to be given the amount of great opportunities to travel the
world as she has because many people are denied such basic rights.
After Dalia spoke
to us she mentioned that after everything she’d said she still loves her
country and she’d rather live there than in London purely because Palestine will
always be her home and although she
loves London she will always feel like a tourist because it is not her home
country. She agrees that Palestine has a long way to go, however with enough
international support she hopes that one day Palestinians will be granted the
freedom that they are currently being denied.
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