FREE GAZA MOVEMENT

June 9, 2009

For Immediate Release

(…)

READING AS RESISTANCE

Free Gaza Movement launches its “Right to Read” Campaign

[Larnaca, Cyprus]  In partnership with Al-Aqsa University, the Free Gaza Movement (FG) is launching its “Right to Read” campaign which will use the FG fleet to deliver textbooks and other educational supplies to universities throughout the occupied Gaza Strip.

“This is not a charitable endeavor,” notes FG Chair Huwaida Arraf.  “Rather it is an act of solidarity and resistance to Israel’s chokehold on Gaza and attempt to deny Palestinians education.  Dr. Haidar Eid, a professor at Al-Aqsa University and coordinator in Gaza for the campaign adds, “Education is a right. Yet throughout history, societies have used access to education as a weapon of oppression. We refuse to let Israel blockade our students’ thirst for knowledge. We welcome working with Free Gaza and others to break this siege against our people’s greatest resource.”

According to UNWRA, Israel’s blockade restricts paper, ink, and other learning materials from entering into Gaza. As a result of Israel’s hermetic closure of and repeated military attacks on the Gaza Strip, an entire generation of students in Gaza is growing up stunted intellectually and academically; they are trying to learn in circumstances that no student should have to endure.  More than one-third of Gaza’s children and university students started the school year missing necessary textbooks and vital school supplies.

Al Aqsa University serves nearly 14,000 students, both male and female.  During the assault, it sustained nearly $1.4-million worth of damage including significant damage to its library. Fourteen students and one professor were killed during the assault.  This effort allows individuals as well as institutions around the world to support Palestinians’ rights to education by donating new and used copies of textbooks to be delivered by the FG fleet.

The first “Right to Read” shipment will be sent on FG’s Summer of Hope July voyage to Gaza To learn more about the program and to send books, please visit the FG campaign web page at http://freegaza.org/right-to-read?lang=en.

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Da: ramzi

Oggetto: [GazaFriends] SEND A BOOK TO GAZA – Free Gaza Movement launches

Right to Read” Campaign

Data: 09 giugno 2009 17:45:55 GMT+02:00

A: gazafriends

SEND A BOOK TO GAZA

Free Gaza Movement launches its “Right to Read” Campaign

Dear Friend,

In partnership with Al-Aqsa University in Gaza, the Free Gaza Movement

(FG) is launching its “Right to Read” campaign which will use the FG boats

to deliver textbooks and other educational supplies to universities

throughout the occupied Gaza Strip.

This is not a charitable endeavor. Rather it is an act of solidarity and

resistance to Israel’s choke-hold on Gaza and attempt to deny Palestinians

education.  According to UNWRA, Israel’s blockade restricts ink, paper and

other learning materials from entering into Gaza.

Our campaign invites individuals to join us at a person-to-person level by

contributing one or more books to our shipment as an expression of

resistance to the blockade.  This effort also allows institutions around

the world to support Palestinians’ right to education by donating new and

used copies of textbooks to be delivered by the Free Gaza Movement to

universities in the Gaza Strip.

We invite you to participate in this expression of resistance to the

blockade.  Specifically, you can donate funds to purchase books (and/or

help offset shipping costs to Cyprus) or you can send new and used books

directly for inclusion on an upcoming voyage.  While all books are

welcomed, we have already received a wish list from the universities in

Gaza of books that are most in need.

To review the wish list and get more details on how to contribute to the

“Right to Read” campaign, please visit

http://freegaza.org/right-to-read?lang=en. Our first shipment will be sent

on FG’s Summer of Hope July voyage to Gaza.

Education is a right; A right that has been denied to Gaza’s most precious

resource, its young people.  Free Gaza is committed to breaking this

siege.  We welcome people of goodwill, such as yourself, to join us in

this campaign.

For more information:

Dina Kennedy:

Darlene Wallach:

http://www.freegaza.org