Students for Palestine

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A West Bank woman has developed special socks to help Palestinians suffering from swollen feet as they wait at Israeli military checkpoints.

Maram Abdel Latif, from Jenin, spent three years on the design and produced her first prototype in February.

The socks are made from nylon and gel that moulds around wearers’ feet to prevent discomfort, even if they stand for hours, as they sometimes have to.

Ms Latif, 22, says the socks are ideal for pregnant women and the elderly.

The carer at an elderly home says she got the idea after facing long waits at Israeli checkpoints in the occupied West Bank.

The Israel army has erected dozens of permanent checkpoints and roadblocks, severely restricting Palestinian movement in the West Bank and their access to services and employment.

Israel says the travel restrictions are necessary to protect Israeli citizens from militant attacks.

‘Waterbed’

The garment is bulky and wearers must wear bigger shoes than normal to accommodate the sock.

Ms Latif says the socks are “like sleeping on a waterbed, which is far more comfortable than a regular mattress”.

Ms Latif believes there is market for the socks which she calls “watersocks”.

She says she is looking for company to invest in the self-funded project.

“My dream came true by designing the socks, but I need to work more on it,” she says.

Ms Latif says that if her idea takes off than she would use the profits to support her parents and family.

Anna Baltzer writing from Nablus, occupied Palestine, Live from Palestine, 14 March 2007

6 March 2007

I don’t know where to begin. It would make sense to start at the beginning, but the beginning was ages ago, long before I arrived. Nor is there any end in sight. I was plopped into life in Nablus for one short week and I’m not sure if I’ll ever recover. And as I write from a place of safety, the people of Nablus continue to struggle, not just with the nightly incursions, bombings, and assassinations, but also simply to remember their own humanity in spite of the most inhumane treatment. I’m trying to rediscover my own, to revive the parts of me now polluted with anger, or worse — shut off, as if a part of me is dead. And I was there for just one week.

We arrived on Sunday to help volunteers from the UPMRC (Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees) deliver food and medical services. Dozens of jeeps and hundreds of soldiers had surrounded the Old City and declared curfew on all of Nablus. Their stated mission was to capture or assassinate eight fighters from Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the armed wing of the Fatah movement. Meanwhile, the 40,000 residents of Nablus Old City were trapped in their homes, inside a war zone, unable to go to work or school, or even to buy food for their families.

According to many families, this invasion posed a greater threat than those of the past because it was coming on top of an already desperate economic situation caused by the US-led embargo after the Hamas elections. Whereas in the past residents would stock up on food and supplies in case of an invasion, these days people hardly have enough to meet their current needs. People are working to buy bread for that very day, so the invasion was not only leaving them out of food, but preventing them from going out to make the money they needed to buy more.

The Medical Relief volunteers led us into the Old City. Families called to us from windows above the twisted cobbled streets: “We have no more food!”; “My baby needs milk!”; “My mother has diabetes and is out of insulin!” As we rounded each corner, we would call, “Internationals! Medical Relief!” knowing soldiers were less likely to shoot foreigners breaking curfew than others. Sometimes around the corner we came face to face with soldiers, their guns pointed at us, jumpy and angry: “GO BACK!” “PUT AWAY YOUR CAMERA!” Often they were holding back large muzzled dogs. My heart was beating and knees shaking so fast I was sure I would collapse, but we followed the Medical Relief volunteers’ lead. They were not interested in challenging the soldiers’ actions and authority, just in getting treatment and food to people who needed it. I recognized that this is one major difference between direct action solidarity work and humanitarian aid.

Sometimes the soldiers allowed the doctor and medical volunteers through. Often they didn’t. As night fell and soldiers refused our passage to the hospital, we decided to call it a day and hoped we’d have more luck in the morning. As we were making our last bread delivery, eight soldiers walked by our group with one Palestinian. The man spoke quietly as he passed us, and the medical volunteers immediately relayed to us the message he had given them: “I am being used as a human shield.”

for the rest of the story and part 2 and three
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6672.shtml

University of Manchester Students Union twins with An Najah university Nablus Palestine University of Manchester Students Union passed a motion to twin their Students Union with An Najah University in Nablus Palestine.

The Student Union General Meeting on Wednesday 7th March 2007 was attended by over 600 students and the motion which acknowledged the detrimental effect of the Israeli occupation on the right to education of Palestinian students was passed by a majority of over 50 votes.

The motion stated that students in Palestine have had their right to education consistently denied by the Israeli Occupation: checkpoints, attacks on Universities and limitations on movement which seriously hinder the ability of students in Palestine to learn and that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares that everyone has the ‘right to education’.

The union will now lobby Manchester University to provide at least 3 scholarships to Palestinian students who wish to study at the university of Manchester as well as to support the Palestinian students in their “Right to Education” campaign and for their basic Human Rights within the territories of mandate Palestine and refugees.

For more information contact:
Action Palestine
info@actionplestine.org
www.actionpalestine.org

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=20305

Nablus - Ma’an - An-Najah National University in the northern West Bank city of Nablus is preparing to twin with the universities of Manchester and London through cooperation between the student unions in these universities.

The University of Manchester Student Union passed a motion in its entirety on 7 March to go ahead with a twinning agreement with their counterparts at An-Najah University.

The agreement aims to support the Palestinian right to education, particularly in reference to the obstacles that face Palestinian university students such as curfews, checkpoints, barriers and the separation wall. The future of Palestinian universities is under threat in this way, and, besides, these measures are violations of international law which maintains the right to education and to live in dignity.

The articles of the motion include the suggestion to provide at least three scholarships for Palestinian students who wish to study at the University of Manchester. They will also try to persuade the administration to drop the international tuition fees for Palestinian students, so that they pay the same as local students.

In a different regard, the Palestinian student association in the University of London has launched a campaign to teach people about the Palestinian crisis and the obstacles facing Palestinian students. The agreement to be signed with the University of London aims to strengthen cooperation between the student unions of both universities through exchanging visits and pointing out the impact of the Israeli occupation on the daily life of Palestinian students.

The twinning between the universities will also include the establishment of an exhibition of photographs in addition to field trips aimed at achieving joint cultural education.