Some background information / FAQs
What are these? CADFA is organising three youth visits from Palestine to the UK this year. Each one will bring around 8 young people (boys and girls) and 3 youth leaders from the West Bank and Jerusalem coming to England and Wales for just under two weeks.
When are they? The first one will be in September-October** and will focus on Wales and area. The second in October-November and will focus on Lancashire and Yorkshire. The third in February and will focus on London.
What is the link between these three visits? The young people coming have all taken part in the Beyond the Checkpoints project in Palestine during which they became one big group although they live in different places across the West Bank and Jerusalem. The visits will be organised to collect their work (crafts, photos, thoughts) for an exhibition at the end of each visit – the work from the first will contribute to the second and the work from the first two will contribute to the final Beyond the Checkpoints exhibition in London. Look out for it!
What are the visits for? To enable exchange between young people in Palestine and Britain and promote interest in human rights in Palestine.
What will the visitors do? They will meet young people in schools and youth clubs in several parts if the country and share a variety of activities – sports, arts, discussions, cooking and making, etc. They will visit tourist sites, have fun, learn a lot and enable others to learn too.
Have you done this before? Yes, very many times – our first Palestinian youth visit to the UK was in 2006 and we have organised an average of more than one a year ever since (as well as many other group visits). You can find some previous reports and photos from recent visits on our website CADFA.org
Why? Our Palestinian friends and the past visitors tell us what a wonderful opportunity it is for young people whose lives are constructed by walls, checkpoints and military raids to get out of their country and see the world. Here we see what it offers to people here and how much it pushes forward our aim of building interest in and care for human rights in Palestine.
What will the young people from the UK gain from this? This is an exceptional opportunity! Our experience of dozens of visits over the past 20 years shows how much young people from the UK will learn, some of them dramatically. It will broaden their experience, give new cultural experience and make another part of the world a bit more real to them. As well as language and culture which all international exchanges offer, meeting Palestinians challenges perceptions and encourages questions. We’re told by past participants and youth leaders that this work helps young people here to build resilience.
Why Palestinians? The people of Palestine have been ignored and abused for generations – have rarely been listened to properly – suffer huge human rights abuses. Yet in the visiting group you will find lovely, lively and enthusiastic young people who will share, surprise and teach our young people many things (while learning themselves) and by their very presence will encourage care for equality and human rights which both they and all of us need.
Do they come from Gaza? No, the young people in this group are from a village near Bethlehem, a village near Nablus, a town in the Jerusalem suburb and from Jerusalem itself. They are in many ways like young people from here and full of interest and fun but they carry with them the experience of living under a violent military occupation, a world full of checkpoints, military walls, child arrests, settlements and the threat of home demolition. In the West Bank and Jerusalem too, the last 18 months have been full of increasing army killings and other violence.
How were the young Palestinians chosen? They were all part of a summer project in Palestine last year called Beyond the Checkpoints. This annual project (run by CADFA) helps young Palestinians see beyond their own home town and used to allow them to travel to other places where they would be shown around also by children. Unfortunately last summer the roads were too dangerous to allow them to travel out of their own areas so this amazing project will be the first time they will all have met in person though they have worked together on Zoom.
Who is organising this visit? The visit is organised by CADFA (human rights charity 1112717).working with small groups across the country in the Building Hope| Voices from Palestine project. CADFA has been established for over 20 years, has run dozens of visits to and from Palestine, many of them funded (before Brexit) by Youth in Action and Erasmus Plus. CADFA has careful safeguarding and other relevant policies and prides itself in running safe and positive exchanges that benefit young people in Palestine and the UK enormously.
Specially for schools
What can young Palestinians do in schools? Many things! Some schools like talking-based interactions with classes or school councils or ask the Palestinian children to introduce themselves and where they come from. Some prefer more practical activities such as cooking (maybe swapping food) or sports. We love it when young people from the two countries make something together. They will be interested just to see a school that is so different from their own.
Is language an issue? No, not really. It is interesting to discuss the different languages and not all of the young people will find English easy though it is their second language at school, but their leaders are able to translate.
What will the young Palestinians have with them?.We will ask them to bring objects and pictures from their daily life to discuss with young people here. If there’s anything special your group would like to see, please tell us in good time before they leave home. In addition we understand that some of them are very good at dabkeh (national dance) and their leader is a dabkeh trainer who can help other people to learn how to do dabkeh together.
Will all the pictures be suitable to show in schools? This is a good question as the Palestinian reality is so cruel specially in Gaza. We will ask them to choose everyday pictures from their villages and to avoid graphic violence. We will check any pictures that they hope to show during the first induction days.
What sort of follow-up work do you suggest? So many possibilities from exploring cultural or historial/political issues to keeping in touch with these or other students. CADFA can often help with one-off meetings or longer projects. We can also provide or suggest speakers or further teaching material. Some of the schools that we have worked with have used these visits and links towards the International Schools or Rights-Respecting Schools Awards
Responding to worries some schools have expressed. Is this taking sides politically? CADFA has been in existence since 2003 and organised youth visits since way before the current wild genocide in Gaza. The situation in Palestine was already appalling when CADFA started and CADFA called for an end to apartheid long before the word was used by Amnesty, B’tselem, Human Rights Watch. We did not take the side of one group of people against each other on ethnic or religious lines and called for equality, human rights and respect for international humanitarian law – for everybody.
Since 2023, we’ve all been in a different world. Like other respected charities (Oxfam, Amnesty, Save the Children and many more) and like many governments and probably most people, CADFA is appalled by the genocide that is going on in Gaza, the cruelty and killing of people in tens of thousands and displacement and starvation of people in millions. We do not promote any particular shape to the solution in Israel/Palestine but certainly call for an immediate and lasting ceasefire, an end to the blockade and decent treatment of people: we take the side of human rights.
How do you talk about controversial issues that arise? Will this make some young people feel left out? CADFA is proud of inclusive, anti-racist and differentiated work with young people and we will certainly encourage respect, truthfulness and calm responses in a difficult context. We are happy to provide references and to talk through any lesson plan or school visit in detail.
For people outside schools
My school or youth club isn’t involved (or) I’m an adult Is there any way I can be involved in the project? There will be a number of public events during the visit invluding a public opening of an exhibition by young people at the end- You will usually need a ticket in advance for these events.
How can I or my school or my community organisation be involved in this work?
Help.with fundraising for this and other visits – Here is a link to Just Giving. Join CADFA (link). Volunteer…
How can I or my school or my community organisation be involved in this visit? Please write to contact@cadfa.org
Contact us via our local partner group or via contact@cadfa.org
CADFA April 2025 **Updated August 2025 to show that the July visit has been postponed to Sept-Oct.