March, earlier this year, we flew to Palestine to find a worthwhile cause to raise money for. Knowing on average that under 50% of donations actually go to charitable causes’, we wanted to make sure the highest possible percentage went straight into the right hands!
Hebron's Old Town residents are being slowly suffocated and the historic streets becoming a ghost town. With help from Izzat at YAS (Youth Against Settlements) your money will go towards helping the innocent students looking for a better future. Supporting school infrastructure, buying supplies, textbooks and stationery. All donors will be kept up to date of how their donations have helped!
You don’t have to be political to donate to this cause, only human.
Further Reading
On Nakba’s 70th anniversary Palestinians peacefully protest against the way of life that has been forced upon them by the Occupiers. This ended in crimes against humanity. Although most deaths and injuries happened in Gaza, all over Palestine people need your help!
Hebron’s Old City, once a thriving community, is now half bricked and welded up. In February 1994, a Jewish settler massacred Muslims in the ‘Cave of the Patriarchs’ Mosque. Imminently after, the main street Al-Shuhada, was closed to Palestinians. 500 shops were closed by military order and at least twice as many shut from curfews and constraints. Over the next 2 years the population dropped from 7,500 to 400.
Even though now the population is on the rise, local Palestinians seem exhausted by the ever present watchtowers, checkpoints and heavily armed soldiers that serve abuse - verbal and physical. Often soldier interaction leads to arrest and the Israeli Arm court has a 99.74% rate of conviction.
The settlers have built apartments on top of the 500 year old, golden stone houses. There is now around 800 settlers and 1,600 IDF soldiers in Old Town. Walking through the souks you see the cages above head, due to the settlers throwing stones from their windows, all being monitored and ignored from cctv and watchtowers. Jamal, a local selling handmade rugs, explains how he now keeps all his stock inside as the settlers have destroyed his goods before with urine and sewage. Izzat, our guide and volunteer at Youth Against Settlers, explains as a foreign citizens, we have more rights than he does.
Hebron Old Town has 18 permanently-staffed and 14 partial-staffed checkpoints, making freedom of movement difficult and dehumanising. Since November 2015 the Israeli authorities have further choked movement, they have hand written on citizens ID cards numbers informing other soldiers their accessibility. Resulting in situations where Palestinians are locked in their house on Jewish holidays. During our stay there was a large number of children not being able to reach their schools as one check point had lost their print out of numbers, it was the 5th day and they still haven’t gotten around to printing another.
Regardless of the occupation and blatant crimes against humanity, Palestinians are extremely welcoming and warm people. Listening to theirs stories is heartbreaking but they show brave faces and tell you of hope for a better future. Stopping the youth of Hebron growing up to the sound of grenades and gun shots is not yet in our power, so we should help where we can!
With the help of Youth Against Settlements, donated money will go directly towards books, stationary, meals, after school programs, support for poor students and the school’s infrastructure maintenance.
For generous donors we’ve embroidered hats and hand printed, as a badge of honour. Using Arabic, to challenge growing Islamophobia, we’ve written, the world renowned phrase ‘Free Palestine’. Inshallah!
*watch towers in the top left*last two photos are not ours
About the Project Creators
Simon Milner: I am a musician and artist that lives in London. I was fortunate enough to have toured many countries in the world with my band, which opened my eyes to the injustice that goes on. It's amazing what you and I can achieve to make peoples lives better!
Dominyka Josvilaitė: I'm a freelance stylist and trend researcher currently living in London. Born and raised in a small country up in the Baltics, I moved to UK to study publishing. Being from Lithuania, a country, that had been oppressed for such a long time and knowing how much struggle my and many other families had to go through, I feel It is my responsibility to put my greatest endeavours into helping the ones in need. Therefore, being a part of this project is my contribution to the world.