Immediate Release
Sana Javed
sanajaved7@gmail.com
www.gazafreedommarch.org
UMD Students to Participate in International Delegation
Gaza Freedom March, December 31
1,000 Delegates from 42 Countries
Over one hundred students from around the world will be traveling to Gaza this winter to participate in the Gaza Freedom March, among them Sana Javed a senior Government and Politics and Spanish major at UMD and Matt Johnson who graduated from UMD in May 2008. On December 31, over 1,000 international delegates will join Palestinians in a non-violent march from Northern Gaza to the Israeli border calling for an end to the siege. The march is an historic initiative to break the ongoing US-backed Israeli blockade against Gaza.
Javed and Johnson will be part of a group of over 100 students that plans to meet with their peers at Gazan universities who will have a chance to share their experiences as youth in the war-torn territory. Earlier this year, Javed helped organize the first annual Palestinian Solidarity Week, during which thirteen different social and cultural groups on campus aimed to raise awareness about the suffering of the Palestinian people, especially after the War on Gaza in January 2009. Javed was also one of the founding members for the new campus organization, UMD Students for Justice in Palestine, which recently organized a show featuring local spoken word and hip-hop artists called, "We Will Not Be Silent: Voices for Justice".
Javed hopes that with this trip, she will be able to bring back a firsthand account of life under the Israeli occupation, "While there are many things about this conflict that can be debated, the one thing that cannot be is the overwhelming suffering of the Palestinian people. It is hard for us Americans, and as students, to imagine what life under occupation must be like so I hope to bring back the stories and photos we rarely hear or see. One of the biggest obstacles in this conflict is the demonization of Arabs and Muslims and I hope that this trip will bring back the human element that is missing from our dialogue and discussion on campus". Johnson, who currently works as an assistant teacher in a juvenile detention center, says marching in solidarity with the Palestinians is the "least I can do to oppose the U.S. government's funding of the illegal occupation of Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem with my tax dollars and the collusion of the United States and Israel in violating international law and the basic human rights of Arabs in the Middle East."
For more information see www.gazafreedommarch.org
Sana Javed sanajaved7@gmail.com
Matt Johnson mattjohnsonlove@gmail.com
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