I come from an activist family. My mum and sisters were members of the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees. We did activities to support refugees. I also helped women get jobs and gain the right to divorce and take care of their kids. If the man is the main breadwinner, even if the woman is working, when they divorce, the man will get the kids.
In Ramallah, I was involved in organisations to help farmers obtain the right to retain their land. I was also involved in taking Israel to the International Court of Justice, when they were building the West Bank barrier. We won the case, but Israel has always had immunity, and they carried on and took more land.
When I came to Sheffield in 2008, I started organising fundraising events with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign to support women’s education in Gaza. I became active in the Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement, going to Sainsbury’s and Waitrose to educate people not to buy Israeli products, because they are buying a bullet to kill our kids.
For 30 years Palestine has been trying to enter into peace negotiations. International and Israeli organisations – B’Tselem, Breaking the Silence – have been reporting regularly on the number of children imprisoned, the age, the conviction, and nobody is listening. Now people are more aware of why this is going on. Al Jazeera has been reporting continually in Gaza.
Maybe you don’t see the impact of BDS straight away, but the end result is huge
We witnessed the silence of the world. The UK voted against or abstained from several votes on UN resolutions demanding a ceasefire before finally voting for one in March. Our people are being killed and nobody is doing anything. I come from a refugee family who were forcibly displaced in 1948 to Gaza, and again from the north of Gaza to Khan Younis. Some of my family have been in tents.
The attention had died down over Christmas. We wanted to keep it in everyone’s mind, the memory of over 14,000 children killed so far and thousands more under the rubble. It makes you angry that the world is just turning a blind eye.
Women are looking after everyone before themselves. They share the same toilets. I worry about their sexual health because they don’t have time for hygiene care. Nobody thinks about this.
Our camp had three demands. The first was to make Sheffield an Israeli apartheid-free zone – to encourage the BDS movement. Sheffield was the first city to be a South African apartheid-free zone. We hoped this would happen for Palestine. The second was national: anyone who went to Israel and joined the IDF to be investigated. The third was a wish more than a demand: a just solution for the Palestinians. Without a ceasefire, the destruction of Gaza will go on.
We must keep talking about Palestine. We could camp in different cities, we should keep marching, rallying and doing BDS. Maybe you don’t see the impact of BDS straight away, but the end result is huge.
If anybody told me beforehand I would be sleeping outside in a protest camp, I would have said no way. But I think people are capable. We have the abilities and strength, and a purpose – we wanted people to listen.
Sahar Awadallah was speaking to Ananya Wilson-Bhattacharya
