Postcards to London

English club at the Arab Institute - W/C 12.02.2012

We started with a warm activity. We played a word game where you have to get to 25 words, in English, with each consecutive word beginning with the last letter of the previous word. It was a game that worked well because it made the kids think about words they knew but encouraged them to concentrate on spelling. The competition aspect of the game by started with a shared starter word ensured it kept the students' attention and focused them.

After this we asked them to write some postcards for the students of Acland Burghley school. They have written draft paragraphs and we corrected the English and then got them to copy it onto the postcard template. They also drew a picture for the stamp as well as designing an image or a landscape for the front of the postcard.

Al Aqsa mosque and the wall features prominently as the pictures on the front of the postcards! For many of the students here in Palestine this is the what they think about the most. I will scan in some of the postcards very soon.

The following shows an insight into what many of the students would like to communicate to London about Palestine. This is from Tareq's postcard who asked if his could be used as an example (he is very committed to improving his English and particularly enthusiastic about :

"My name is Tareq Siag, I am a Palestinian from Jerusalem. I am 14 years old, and I have one brother and two sisters. I am in the 9th grade at the Arab Institute High School. My favourite subjects are math and science. I have heard a lot about England and that interests me to know about the Royal Family and the historical places in London especially Big Ben Clock. 

Part of Palestine was occupied by the Israelis before 1948 when Palestine was under British rule, and the West Bank and Jerusalem were occupied in 1967 after the six day war between the Israelis and the Jordanians. 

This occupation is making the Palestinians life so difficult. We cannot move freely within Palestine. In order to travel from place to place Palestinians have to cross many solider checkpoints. And some areas you cannot pass without special permission by the Israeli government, on the other hand Israelis can move freely without any permission. Imagine that for me to come to school I have to pass the checkpoint and that takes so much time, we have to be under the mercy of the soldiers in order to pass. 

Many other difficulties face the Palestinians, particularly Palestinians that live in Jerusalem. Palestinians are not allowed to build houses within the city without the permission by the Israelis, and if they allow, the procedure to issue the permission takes many years. And the number of permissions issued is not sufficient for the natural population increase which forces the Palestinians in the city to live outside the city zone. When Palestinians leave Jerusalem, the Israelis consider these Palestinians not residents and take away their residency benefits like health insurance and other benefits."