By Marcelle Mansour
On Friday, June 3, 2016, Gaza Orthodox Christians Association of Australia has held a cultural seminar which hosted Dr. Farah Fayyad, who has obtained a scholarship to undertake her doctoral thesis at the Faculty of Business and Economics, Macquarie University. Fayyad’ topic revolves around the understanding of the influence of the Palestinian Diaspora and the Israeli Occupation on the identity, spirituality and works ethic of Palestinians in Australia to This kind of studies will investigate the manifestation of the occupation on the work-life of Palestinians worldwide that has not been done before.
The Editor of Australian Affairs of El-Telegraph newspaper, Mr. Hani Elturk has MC’d the event on behalf of the President of the Association Mr. Khader Dabeet. The seminar was attended by , Secretary-General of Fatah in Australia Abdul Kader Karanouh, head of the Australian Palestinian Club Jamil Batshoun, Public Relations Officer of the Club Mr Tawfiq Awad, the active member of Australian Palestinian Professionals Association Mr Issa Shaweesh, the expert on Palestinian Affairs in Australia Mr Eddie Zananiri, the Active member of Australian Palestinian community Samira Ghabar, the Campaigner for (APAN) – Australia Palestine Advocacy Network Paul Duffill, and Visual Artist Marcelle Mansour (Writer of this article).
Batshoun delivered a brief speech in English which he spoke about the importance of belonging to the land of Palestine that suffered multiple invasions throughout history, and urged to build bridges between the people of the two generations to defend the Palestinian rights.
Followed by Eddie Zananiri’s word, in which he announced the upcoming event of hosting three candidates of Liberal, Labour, and Greens to talk with the community members about their party’s policy towards the Palestinian issues in the next election. The meeting will be held on Saturday, June 18 at the Palestinian Club, 387 Guilford Road Guilford.
Then, Paul Duffill introduced to the audience the website link of APAN to vote for the election in order to support the Palestinian cause, that is: www.ivotepalestine.org.au
The attendees had barbecue meals, that was prepared by the members of the Association, Mousa & Maha Abunuceah and Bertha Dabeet. The seminar concluded with entertainment program, which lives by talented singer Jabra Tarazi where the meeting was characterized by an intense presence of the families of the community in an atmosphere of love and friendship.