Student - January 15, 2009

PARTIES FOR PALESTINE – AND DEBATES

The violence in the Gaza strip has prompted some Wageningen students to collect money for Palestinian children, while others are setting up an action platform.

Five hundred Euros were collected during a benefit night at Droevendaal on Sunday 11 January. There were four bands, a poet and three DJs to entertain the partygoers. Food Not Bombs provided free organic snacks, and outside in the snow people could warm themselves at a fire. The party was organized by MSc students Harmen Riphagen and Erik Koenen, together with the Nijmegen Party for Peace.

A friend of the students, Trude den Burger, is working in Palestine in the project Let the Children Play. Half way through the party they managed to contact her on the internet. ‘She told us what she’s experiencing there and how she tries to support the children by playing with them. She also tries to inspire people to opt for peaceful means’, Harmen says.

Twelve other students, among them Anne Doeksen, want to do more than party for Palestine. They have set up a platform to organize lectures, debates and other events. ‘What unites us is a great sense of injustice, and of dissatisfaction about the way we are represented in this conflict, both by the Dutch government and by the EU’, says Anne Doeksen. She calls on students and staff of Wageningen UR to support the initiative.

If you are interested, get in touch with email('student.in.actie','gmail.com'); .