Sunday 22 December 2013

Suzan's meeting with Roger Williams MP

Tuesday December 17th, Suzan met MP Roger Williams, who braved it through the snow to Knighton Library.
Suzan told him a bit about life for young people in Palestine today.
There is high unemployment: 2 out of 10 Palestinian graduates succeed in getting jobs after they leave university.
Because of this, some people leave Palestine to look for work in other countries. This is a risk, as the Israeli authorities may not let them back in.
Some, in desperation, go to look for work in Israel, like Suzan's brother. This is also risky. Suzan's brother was working in an Israeli restaurant, and someone discovered that he had no Israeli papers. He was arrested and sentenced to two years in prison.After one year, his father succeeded in finding a lawyer to help, and after paying a lot of money in fees and fines, her brother was finally released, but is forbidden from returning to Israel for 2 years. He is now back in Ramallah studying to be a chef.
This means that he can never visit one of his other sisters who lives in Jaffa, now in Israel. After nine years, she still has the green ID of a West Bank resident. This means she can not work in Israel; her only option is to commute to and from Palestine, negotiating military checkpoints and roadblocks. The birth of her three children is registered only in her husband's ID; she can never have this put on to her own ID.
After hearing these stories from Suzan, Roger said he would set up a meeting in Parliament with Suzan and other MPs. He also intends to meet Ibrahim who will be in the UK in March for 5 months, hopefully spending a good part of that time with us in Knighton.

No comments:

Post a Comment