Please help support the young people of the West Bank and Jerusalem who are under such pressure and at such risk.

The picture above is of Amir, a fourteen year old from New Askar Camp in Nablus,He was shot in the knee by the Israeli army last week (writing on 20th January 2025) and is shown with Amjad, the head of a youth club in the camp.

Amir

Many of CADFA's friends have been in touch, very shocked by what happened to Amir, specially remembering his brilliant dabkeh dancing when he was here in the UK and asking what they can do to help.

No (in case you ask), there is little point in following this up with the IDF, because nothing will come of it - this happens to young Palestinians all the time.

We are passing your love and concern on to Amir and asking you to help us with this appeal.

New Askar refugee camp

The shooting of Amir is appalling but it isn’t alone. Two other friends were shot at the same time on the same day – one seriously injured in his back - and his friend Moataz was shot and killed around two weeks ago.

Young people in New Askar camp have extremely little space as the camp is very crowded and built up all but a small hill where they therefore meet. This particular hill has become very dangerous as it is above a road where the Israeli army pass and the IDF are now making a habit of shooting young people who gather there. There are very few other places the youth can go except for the youth centre which needs all the support it can get to keep up its variety of activities..

Beyond the Checkpoints

Many of our friends also got in touch earlier when a young boy from New Askar camp was imprisoned following a night raid by the IDF. Just as with Amir, the reason that so many people knew was because the New Askar Centre had joined the Beyond the Checkpoints (BTC) project - and the boy's sister had made many friends in the UK.

The BTC project has been an amazing project in the past three years. In the summer, there are several weeks of youth activities - visits to other parts of the West Bank, giving young people the chance to learn more about their own country. Then later in the year, some of these children have the opportunity to join a Beyond the Checkpoints visit to the UK (You may remember that we ran two visits like this last year - see reports on CADFA.org)

These visits are a real eye-opener both for the young visitors and the thousands of people who meet them. For young Palestinians, the BTC project offers an exceptional opportunity to see the world. Meanwhile in the UK, people learn about the human rights situation in Palestine, so this helps build the movement of people against the oppression and apartheid.

The Beyond the Checkpoints project is part of CADFA's Building Hope | Voices from Palestine - and seriously (like the name of our project!) it builds hope.

How can you help?

Let’s build the network of awareness, caring and support for young Palestinians wider all the time.

Please join us in donating to this appeal.

*Half of the money will go to the New Askar Youth Centre* which is now providing a wheelchair and crutches for Amir and will continue to run a varied programme of activities for the young people of New Askar Camp.

*Half of the money will support the Beyond the Checkpoints projec*t so we have a new group of young people on a visit to the UK this summer, another summer project for young people in Palestine and another youth visit after that…

(Even better, we wonder if you are able to run a fundraiser of some sort near you or make your own fundraiser page attached to this and ncourage others to donate to this?)

In any case - Thank you very much!