The JAI hosts a program in Palestine for 41 Danish students with their teachers

Category: Students Exchange Programs Created: 09 March 2017

See more photos of the program/visit and watch short video

From the 2nd to the 9th of March 2017, the JAI has organized and hosted a program in Palestine for 41 students and 7 teacher/board members from two partner Danish schools, namely Dronninglund Efterskole (DE) and Midtsjællands Efterskole (MSE), as part of an ongoing students exchange program since several years.

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mse de march2017 2tTheir program included meetings, sessions and interaction with Palestinian JAI-trained students, from various communities in the Bethlehem area, namely Beit Sahour town, Dhaisha Refugee Camp, and Dar-Salah village. The sessions included ice-breaking activities and games, walking around in the town, meals and reflections together, besides other workshops and discussion groups.

In one day morning, the DE students and teachers visited the Shepherds High School in Beit Sahour from which two students made a week visit to DE in November-December 2016, while the MSE students and teachers visited Dar-Salah Girls Public School, from which two girls made a week visit to MSE in November-December 2016. The visits to the schools included meeting the rest of the classmates, sub-groups chatting with them, getting to know more about the school and education system, visit the facilities of the school with the Palestinian students and play sports/games together at the schools. On the same day later in the afternoon and evening the Danish students were distributed to the Palestinian students homes, and visited and met their families, chat with them, witness their daily lives and had dinner with them.

mse de march2017 3tAn Olive Planting activity for 3 hours was organized, where all Danish and Palestinian students planted the Danish schools last year' sponsored olive trees in mixed sub-groups at a threatened field at Nahhalin village, west of the Bethlehem area.

The Danish students and teachers had guided tours with the JAI to witness the wall-settlement-bypass road and demolished house in the Bethlehem area, Church of Nativity, and the Bethlehem-Jerusalem checkpoint. At Dhaisha Refugee camp, they had guided tours inside it with the Palestinian students from the camp, while in Jerusalem, an Israeli activist guided tour and speech was also arranged for the Danish schools. mse de march2017 4tAnother day was also organized in Hebron, started with a presentation at the Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH), followed by guided tours in two groups to witness the old city life, with its Israeli settlements, checkpoints, closed streets and divided areas.

A session on Boycott-Divestment-Sanction (BDS) Campaign was organized in the form of discussion groups, mixed of Palestinian and Danish students, with some questions, then two shorts movies were screened to help further get briefed an understand the influence of the campaign on the international level and how it is putting pressure on Israel towards ending it occupation and injustice.