Greenbelt 2010 Report

Jennifer Oldershaw

This was the best Greenbelt yet for Rediscovering Palestine! Looking back over the five years in which I've been actively involved, we have gone from strength to strength, starting from one table and two chairs in 2001, RP's first year at the festival, to the splendid stand we mounted this year

This year there was a tremendous buzz among our teams of helpers, as we engaged with the people who kept coming to the stand to find out more. We were always busy, and were often unable to attend talks and other events ourselves because we were so involved in conversations and discussions. One particularly encouraging feature was the number of young people who came wanting to know more, some of whom were already quite well informed

The panel of speakers on Palestinian issues included Abe Hayeem, Ilan Pappe, Jonathan Kuttab, Clare Short, Swee Ang and Nigel Varndell. They provided a powerful impetus to the message we are trying to promote, reinforced by such events as the showing of the film Little Town of Bethlehem and Palestinian Monologues . From our own resources we mounted each day several checkpoint stunts, a realistic and very visual demonstration of the realities of life for Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem . We are immensely grateful to the Greenbelt Trustees for their support and for focussing so effectively on Palestine for the last two years, and look forward to next year

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