An evening on occupation

Last Thursday evening we got the opportunity to learn more about the issues of occupation in Palestine and Western Sahara. We are very glad that we got the chance to invite Zeinab El-saneh and Maria Padrón from Emmaus Björkå to our event at Frilagret and hear them talk about their experiences in Israel/Palestine and Western Sahara. Later on we screened the very inspiring and engaging documentary "Life is Waiting: Referendum and Resistance in Western Sahara".

In front of the "stage" we put out couches and comfy chairs and offered coffee and our usual words of wisdom from all over the world to guests as they arrived. The atmosphere quickly became quite intimate and cozy with candles on the tables, which was quite nice since the topic of the evening is a very serious one that easily leaves you a little uneasy. The current situation in the two areas has a tendency to make you feel a bit helpless, desolate or even angry or sad, but in order to turn these feelings into productive action and engagement Maria gave us some constructive and useful tips on what we could and should do here in Sweden:

- Read up on the issue, educate yourself!

- Tell your friends, spread the word!

- Boycott Morocco, especially the goods that are produced in occupied areas ( look out for cherry tomatoes, citrus and peppers).

- Advocacy! let politicians, companies, banks etc know that you care about this issue!

- Keep your eyes open for campaigns from the organization WRSW (Western Sahara Resource Watch).

- Get in contact with organizations working with this! Emmaus Björkå is a great example of this, you can either donate clothes which they sell in their second hand stores, check out the fair Palestine-produced olive oil which is sold in the stores or why not get active by joining their information-network which is in the start-up process?

Hopefully that gave you some inspiration on how to act in order to stop occupation as a means of oppression!

Sofia serving coffee and tea

Zeinab talking about and showing pictures of her experiences in Palestine

Maria talking about the current situation and the work that Emmaus Björkå does in Palestine and Western Sahara

Some Fika from Café Frilagret during the break before the movie!

Scenes from the documentary "Life is Waiting: Referendum and Resistance in Western Sahara"

After the film there were a few of us that stayed to hang out and talk about and discuss the issue.

Thanks to all of you who came and made the evening so great. All of us in GloSS are always excited to see old friends and members but also to meet new people who find out about our events one way or another, hope to see you again soon!

//Global Students for Sustainability