On December 5th students from a Polish high school in Tarnów held a meeting about current situation in Israel/Palestine. Originally the meeting was to take place in June this year, but event was cancelled due to the intervention of the Israeli embassy in Poland, who pressured the school’s administration to cancel it. The Embassy’s interference met with harsh criticism from the Polish media, as well as from the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who issued a statement about the impropriety of Israel intervening in internal Polish affairs.
Students and activists from Polish-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (Kampania Palestyna) informed Jeff Halper, the Director of ICAHD (The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions), about the cancellation of the meeting, and he agreed to come speak at the school in Tarnów the next time he was in Poland, which he did last week together with Omar Faris, a Palestinian activist who has lived in Poland for many years.
The meeting was attended by over 130 students and teachers. Oliwia and Adam, two students from the Tarnów school, reported: „We made an effort to organize the meeting for the second time to succinctly present to our fellow students and teachers the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In our opinion, the key to achieving understanding and empathy among people is to explain to them what the problem is. That’s why we decided to invite Jeff Halper and Omar Faris to present to us.”
The Polish-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (Kampania Palestyna) and The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions helped the two young activists prepare for the event.
