Cancelled by Covid-19

We had arranged a two week long cultural festival to celebrate our links with Nablus. The Nablus Mayor and Municipality arranged for traditional dancers to travel while we arranged events and exhibitions. It became clear that coronavirus would prevent the dancers travelling here. Even local events had to be cancelled. So we were left with nothing but dreams... and appreciation of all the people and organisations who had helped us.

Dundee City Council were extremely helpful with funding, waiving charges and giving us essential advice. The Lord Provost formally invited the dancers and arranged a Civic Reception. Westfest and the Scottish Parliament were both ready to host our delegation.

Generous funding and support came from trades unions, DNTA members, Scottish Palestinian Forum and Scottish Friends of Palestine. Others offered services, participation and advice.

We are very grateful to all of them - everyone is disappointed but still keen to develop our links with Nablus and to find new ways to develop links with Nablus.

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Questions and discussion

A significant opportunity to hear leading speakers address how British history influences current challenges in Palestine.

In the 1917 the British Government's "Balfour Declaration" set in chain events which have resulted in what was then Palestine becoming today's State of Israel and Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Britain's role in the region still matters today. Our panel of speakers will sketch Britain's role and explore how Britain can take a responsible position in today's world.

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Palestinian Women and embroidery

In this film (directed by Carol Mansour) twelve Palestinian women talk of their life before the Diaspora, of their memories, of their lives and of their identity. Their narratives are connected by the enduring thread of the ancient art of embroidery. Drawn from disparate walks of life, they stitch together the story of their homeland, of their dispossession, and of their unwavering determination that justice will prevail.

After the film, Carol Morton led a discussion. She spoke about how and why she became a founder of Hadeel. Through the Hadeel shop and website, Carol offers support for Palestinian women through trade in UK sales of embroidery and crafts.

Friday 6^th March 2020 6:30pm-8:30pm
Lecture Theatre 2
Dalhousie Building
Old Hawkhill, Dundee DD1 5EN

Talk by Douglas Chalmers

Douglas is originally from Dundee and is President of the University and College Union (UCU). His visit to Palestine at the end of last year was with other trades unions with an interest in education. They visited a variety of schools including some in Nablus.

Douglas will report on his experiences and the difficulties of educating a growing population while living and teaching under military occupation.

We hope you can join us for this talk and our AGM on Tuesday 11th June at 6:30pm

Tuesday 11th June 6:30pm
Committee Room 1,
14 City Square (near Marryat Hall)
Meeting starts at 6:30pm and will finish by 8:30pm.

Free event, all welcome (only members may vote). Refreshments

David and Marilyn Woodhead

David and Marilyn Woodhead recently walked in Palestine to raise money for MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians).

Their talk explained how they came to be supporters of Palestinians and undertook this 100km trek through the West Bank.

They also spoke of George Abdo, a son of Nablus. He is a remarkable, humble man who despite overwhelming difficulties spent his life helping others and never looking for recognition.

Thursday, 20^th February 2020 at 5:30pm
Madigan’s Tea Room
25 Castle Street, DUNDEE

Young Palestinian Musicians

A group of young Palestinian musicians will give a concert in Dundee to raise money for Palmusic UK, the charity that is supporting Omar, Tibah and Lourdina with scholarships to study at top British conservatoires:
 Lourdina Baboun, violin
 Omar Saad, viola
 Tibah Saad, cello
 special guest pianist, Iyad Sughayer

Playing Mozart and Mahler piano quartets, and Arabic folk music arranged by the ensemble.

DNTA has sponsored this event organised by Palmusic UK. Please join us at 7.30pm on Sunday 7th July
St Paul's Episcopal Cathedral, 1 High Street, Dundee DD1 1TD

All welcome, free entry; donations welcome. All donations will go to Palmusic to support the education of young Palestinian musicians.

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7th March 2019

Julia Bacha’s documentary of Naila and the Uprising displays the central role Palestinian women played in the First Intifada of the late 1980s, when women stepped into the arena of political and social organising. The film depicts an iron-willed woman promoting the role of non-violent struggle for Palestinian self-determination.

Thursday 7th March at 6:30 for 7pm
Hannah Maclure Centre, Abertay University
Bell Street, Dundee DD1 1HG
Free event no need to book

Festival programme

Anniversary Lecture 2018

Wendy Alexander – Vice-Principal (International)
Sharon Sweeney – Student Funding Officer

Hear how the University of Dundee is bringing students from Nablus and Palestine to study for advanced degrees in Dundee. The students are supported by humanitarian scholarships and the British Council.

We will hear the stories of these Palestinian students and how Dundee is forging closer links with An Najah National University in Nablus.

Thursday 22nd Nov 2018 at 17:45
Dalhousie Building, University of Dundee DD1 5EN
Refreshments

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Jane Macaskill

Madigan's Tea Room, 25 Castle Street Dundee DD1 3AA
Thursday 20th September 2018 5:30pm
Free event, open to all, food and refreshments on sale

A Consultant Breast Surgeon at Ninewells, Jane went to Nablus to exchange medical expertise with her equivalents there. She will tell us about her experiences of the Palestinian health service, the people she met and the city itself.

Gabriel Calvert

Madigan's Tea Room, 25 Castle Street Dundee DD1 3AA
Thursday 25th October 2018 5:30pm
Free event, open to all, food and refreshments on sale

Gabriel will talk about Amnesty International's new campaign focusing on the human rights violations that occur in Israel's illegal settlements. Amnesty is taking action in response to these violations.

Alison Waugh

Madigan's Tea Room, 25 Castle Street Dundee DD1 3AA
Thursday 8th November 2018 5:30pm
Free event, open to all, food and refreshments on sale

Alison is a volunteer in Yanoun and will tell us about her experiences. You might know about this village from previous speakers. It is very close to Nablus but surrounded by settlers who continue to steal land and make life difficult for the remaining families.

Strategic developments

Alister Rutherford, Convener of DNTA, records our activities over the last year and sets out plans for the coming year.

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New committee elected

DNTA members elected a new commitee and completed their formal business..

Tuesday 12th June 2018

Tales from the Nablus Festival 2018

Sandy Stuart and Mike Whitehead visited the 2018 Nablus Festival in our Twin City of Nablus. They described their delight at the range of performers and exhibitions. Their illustrated talk captured the music, the people they met and their experiences of Nablus.

The AGM is open to all but only DNTA members can vote. We welcome new members - you can join at the meeting.

Promoting the twinning

We had a productive meeting with the Lord Provost of Dundee, Ian Borthwick on Monday 12th Feb 2018. As an official twinning, it is the Lord Provost of Dundee and the Mayor of Nablus who are responsible for the formal links between our cities.

DNTA works to build friendship and understanding by engaging with the people of Dundee to encourage visits and relationships.

We look forward to continuing our programmes with the help of the Lord Provost and Dundee City Council. It will be our 40th Anniversary in 2020 when we will celebrate with events and activities.

San Ghanny Choir

We were very pleased to welcome this Edinburgh-based San Ghanny community choir to Dundee. We were entraced by their performance.

They included songs and experiences from their visit to Palestine in April. During this time they performed in Nablus at the Cultural Festival.

We were saddened by some of their stories, engrossed by their descriptions and uplifted by their songs and tales of joy and hope amongst the Palestinians.

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Fun for the family

Westfest is a glorious mixture of music, funfair, stalls, arts and craft. We will be there with information on Nablus and our twinning. Visit us for a chat or to find out more.

We will be offering mint tea - free. Experience a taste of our twin city.

Sunday 3rd June 2018 1pm-7pm
Westfest is on Magdalen Green DD2 1BA
Free entry, open to all

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Embroidery

Alister Rutherford is an experienced and creative embroiderer. Several of his designs include elements linking Palestine and Scotland. His talk will explain how embroidery plays its part in the Palestinian resistance to occupation.

Madigan's tearoom and bookshop,
25, Castle Street, Dundee DD1 3AF
Thursday 22^nd Feb 2018 at 5:30pm
Free event, all welcome

A future for DNTA

To set a programme for the coming year(s) we had a Saturday meeting in December to work out a plan. This was stimulating and generated many good ideas.

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50 years of occupation - 37 years of twinning

Our exhibition in the Dundee Central library explored Nablus - which is Dundee’s twin city in Palestine.

The images explained our 37 years of Twinning. Testimony from people in Nablus explained their memories from 50 years ago when the city was invaded during the 6 Day War of 1967.

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A year of action

At our AGM, our Convener, Mike Whitehead, explained our profound disappointment with the refusal of visas for four young visitors from Nablus. But we continue to build friendship and understanding between people in Dundee and Nablus with high expectations for the future.

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Thursday 18th May 2017

Madigan's Food Emporium

Alex Holmes is a stonemason who spent three months in the Nablus village of Yanoun. He uses his interest in the stone industry to explain the impact of occupation on the people of Nablus.

Event starts 6pm but doors open at 5:30pm so that you can buy tea, coffee and cake.

The event is open to all and free admission.

Soup and Dessert lunch

We had a very successful event on Thursday 16th March 2017 at Dundee West Church (opposite Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art). There was food, information and a chance to meet other members.

We raised money for our project to give effective help to children in Nablus who suffer from the after-effects of trauma and grief.

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5 framed pieces

Alister Rutherford has kindly donated five framed origanal hand-embroidered studies. They will raise money for DNTA.

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Sir Vincent Fean

Sir Vincent Fean was British Consul General in Jerusalem for three years. His talk (24th November 2016) on "A Just Peace for Palestinians and Israelis?" explained how we could work for a fair future for all.

Dalhousie Building (University of Dundee).

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Mohamad Issa

We had an interesting discussion with Mohamad Issa in Madigan's Food Emporium on Thursday 27th October. He spoke about Being Palestinian but living abroad.

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and a Silver Medal

Wonderful to have six visitors to the Lord Provost's Twinning Weekend. They enjoyed a visit to our stand at the Dundee Flower and Food Festival.

Like all visitors to the Festival we encouraged them to see our displays, sample mint tea and taste delicious and genuine Palestinian olive oil and Za'atar. Our stand won a Silver Medal.

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Photos and description

Mary McGregor and Nick Steff spoke at a DNTA meeting about their experience of Nablus as part of a DNTA visit.

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FBU film

Dundee Fire Brigade Union has taken an appliance and equipment to their colleagues in Nablus. Now they have made a film showing what it means to be a firefighter in Palestine.

Documentary Premiere
DCA cinema, Dundee
Saturday 16th July 2016 at 3pm. Free - donations at door

Details and tickets

A year of action

At our AGM, our Convener, Mike Whitehead, reported on a successful year and prospects for the future.

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DNTA Exhibition

Many people were surprised to learn that there are over 50,000 refugees in Nablus. They have been there since the creation of Israel in 1948 when they fled their homes, expecting to go back within a couple of weeks...

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Key Embroidery

Most Palestinian refugee families keep as a treasured possession the key to their family home which they left in 1948. Alister Rutherford used this as the main element in an embroidery illustrating some traditional designs from Nablus and Dundee...

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Helping the children of Nablus

Overcoming trauma and grief

Children in Nablus have suffered from years of military occupation. Many of them are traumatised but we can help.

DNTA funded £2,200 to enable Dr Ian Barron (of the University of Dundee) to train schools counsellors in Nablus. They will use these effective techniques to provide practical assistance to the children who are suffering.

On 21st April 2016 we raised money by offering a lunch at the Bridge in Dundee West Church. Dr Barron described the problems faced by the children in Nablus and explained the techniques that can help them.

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Dundee Courier covers our Trauma project

January 2016

The Courier has published an article about our project to help children in Nablus who are suffering from trauma and complex grief.

Read the article  

Winter 2015

In this edition we thank people who came to our 35th Anniversary celebration, described our project to help children of Nablus to recover from trauma, published a report from Nick Steff who was one of four DNTA members to visit Nablus recently. We have a report on our Words:Walls film event and a description of recent changes to this DNTA Website.

Celebrating 35 years of twinning

We showed this film at DCA to celebrate 35 years of twinning between Dundee and Nablus.

It shows a trip through the West Bank with artists including two of Scottish poetry's leading lights: Liz Lochhead (the Makar) and William Letford.

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Architect and ambassador

We were pleased to welcome to Dundee Naseer Arafat - an internationally respected architect, development and planning specialist.

He delivered a lecture at the University of Dundee. In Dundee City Chambers Naseer met members of DNTA and described life in Nablus under occupation.

We presented a copy of Naseer's impressive book Nablus - City of Civilisations (2012) to the Lord Provost of Dundee, Bob Duncan.

February 2015

We welcome Dundee City Council's decision to name a street in recognition of the historic links between Dundee and Nablus.
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Our embroidery course attracted 12 keen stitchers. We explored Palestinian designs and created some ourselves.
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Hilda Reilly & our AGM

Hilda Reilly spoke on her time in Nablus and Palestine which she covered in her book "The Prickly Pears of Palestine".

This was followed by our AGM including our Convener's Report 2015.

Our celebration of Palestinian Literature drew interested audiences who heard illuminating and thought-provoking poems and ideas.
Read more or see our Facebook page

Mike Whitehead, Convener of DNTA, presents his report for our AGM on our activities of the past year including a film, embroidery workshops and presentations to Dundee councillors about our work.

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We screened two of our new films at a packed event in the Hannah Maclure Centre, Dundee on 19th November 2013. This celebrated 33 years of twinning between Dundee and Nablus.

Read more about our films

Fraser Patrick, our Convener, presents his report for our AGM on our activities of the past year and thanks those who are retiring from the committee (himself included).

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Many of our members and others saw the film "5 Broken Cameras" at the DCA on 19th June 2013. We had a discussion about this film before we started our AGM.

It raises some controversial issues and there was a strong hope that others in Dundee could see it and consider the ways in which occupation shapes the lives of those in Bil'in and in Nablus.

Wedad picking olives, 2012

Wedad sent us description of her recent experiences of picking olives with friends near to Nablus. Even this peaceful activity turns out to be fraught with danger from illegal Israeli settlers.

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The Lord Provost, Bob Duncan, opened DNTA's exhibition in the Central Library, 27th Nov 2012. It features embroidery, drawings by school pupils, photographs and ceramics.

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Fraser Patrick, our Convenor, presents his report for our AGM on our activities of the past year and our plans for the future

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Fire engine for Nablus in Dundee City Square

Update Dec 2011 The Nablus Fire Department have told us that all the equipment and the fire engine has been released by the Israelis and is now in Nablus. Hurrah!

The Fire Brigades Union, with support from Dundee-Nablus Twinning Association, set off from Dundee to take two fire appliances and lots of equipment to Nablus. All went well until one machine developed serious mechanical problems in Greece and had to be abandoned.

Fortunately all equipment (and drivers) could be accommodated on the remaining machine which completed its journey. At least it got to the Israeli port of Haifa where the appliance and equipment were impounded by the Israeli authorities. This is very disappointing and we hope that the delivery can soon be completed.

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Rafiq at the olive harvest in his home village of Majdal Bani Fadil

Rafiq spent 4 months in Dundee recently. On return to Nablus he helped his family with their annual olive harvest and sent us this report.

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The University of Abertay Dundee has signed a co-operation agreement with An Najah National University in Nablus. Students in a wide range of disciplines will be able to do part of their studies in the other university

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Fraser Patrick, our Convenor, looks back at some of the challenges of the past year.

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Julia Droeber writes from Nablus about the unusual excuses she hears from students there.

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Nablus musicians being thanked for their performance

DNTA were proud to host four musicians from Nablus who played traditional Palestinan and Arabic music.

They also visited Craigie High School and the University of Abertay.

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Lord Provost John Letford exchanges
gifts with Councillor Rula Canaan from Nablus

The Lord Provost of Dundee invited delegates from all Dundee's twin cities of Nablus (Palestine), Orleans (France), Wurzburg (Germany) and Alexandria (USA). We were pleased to welcome six delegates from Nablus.

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Over 66 people came to the DCA to see the film "Budrus" which was screened at the request of DNTA. A discussion afterwards was very lively as the film provoked many thoughts and issues. This was followed by our AGM and election of committee members for the coming year.
Freddy the fireman - won!
At the AGM, Mary Henderson our Treasurer sold many raffle tickets for Freedy the firefighter" (knitted by Dorothy Smith). This was to raise money for the fire engine which has been bought to send to Nablus. The winner was Sue McAllion (ticket no. 50). Thanks to all subscribers.

Rami Issa and Rafiq Zein Eddin

Two volunteers from Nablus worked with us between October 2010 and January 2011. They hosted an exhition in the Wellgate Library and met people throughout Dundee. We are very grateful to them for their work and hope they have a fruitful life in Nablus.

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One of the artworks

Nablus was under siege so the only way we could see these artworks was for them to be sent via email.

Children witnessed many traumas and some of the artworks reflect this but some children drew portraits and football matches.

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