See more photos of the visit
A program in Palestine was organized by the JAI for 35 students + 4 teachers from our the YMCA-YWCA Norwya related Nord-Norge FolkHighSchool, which lasted from the 17th to the 26th of February 2020.
Their program included sessions, chats and tours with Palestinian youth, at the YMCA Beit Sahour, Bethlehem University and Lajee center. They also visited some YMCA and YWCA programs in Jericho, including the Vocational Training Center, Kindergarten, and food production center.
It also included guided tours where they witnessed the Israeli measures of the wall, colonies (settlements), checkpoints, displacement of Palestinians, land confiscation, bypass roads, closed streets, in various areas including Bethlehem, Hebron, and Jerusalem.
Presentations and introductions were given to the students on the main issues related to the Palestinian cause, and main local and international campaigns to counter occupation, including the ongoing displacement of Palestinians, life inside refugee camps, popular resistance, JAI's Olive Tree Campaigns, the Kairos Palestine, and the Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions (BDS) Campaign.
Two planting activities were also organize for the Norwegian students and teachers, were they planted around 200 internationally-sponsored olive trees, through the Olive Tree Campaign, on each day, at threatened Palestinian fields in Rashaydeh and Wad Fukin areas.
Main sites in Palestine were also visited including the Church of Nativity, Ibrahimi Mosque (Tombs of the Patriarchs), Dome of the Rock, Baptism Site (Jordan River), Mount of Temptation, and others.