Feature: Palestinian children festival highlights social values of 1987 uprising

The annual spring festival concluded on Friday with an end of two-day activities for children in the West Bank city of Ramallah, themed the 30th anniversary of the first popular uprising, the intifada of 1987.

The spring festival carried the symbolic name "Blossoms of April" and the logo "Children of Our Neighborhood" which was a famous song and a slogan during the first intifada, highlighting the collective social values people shared then.

Member of Ramallah municipal council Omar Assaf said "it is a song and a call, it is our idea to revive the memory of the first intifada because the alleys and the neighborhoods were the confrontation battlefields with Israeli soldiers, also with the principles of the intifada and its social concepts, where there was collaboration, protection, popular agriculture and independence used against the occupation."

The event was organized by the Ramallah municipality and several cultural and educational institutions in the West Bank, and hosted over 500 visitors over the two days in the center of Ramallah.

Director of Cultural Department at the Ramallah Municipality Saly Abu Baker explained that the slogan and the location selected for this year is meant to allow visitors, mainly children to relive the social atmosphere of the first intifada.

"This year marks the 30th anniversary of the first intifada, and that we chose the location of the old city for all activities is directly linked to the place and its history, which was one of the first intifada icons," she said.

She went on elaborating that "the festival offers a long program of two days and though being intense and tiring to us as organizers, it is nice that children see many different things in the same time."

As part of the activities, posters from the first intifada were used as puzzle games for children, most of which highlighted the importance of education and children rights, and talented story tellers spoke about the land and agriculture and social ties.

Collectively, the townships in the first intifada responded to calls from the Unified National Leadership to take on tasks that guaranteed self-sufficiency, besides the major political role they played in leading the course of the intifada until the peace process was announced in the Madrid Conference in 1991.

The first intifada broke out in December 1987, sparked by the death of four Palestinian workers who were run over by an Israeli military vehicle in Gaza.

Angered demonstrations led to wide spread popular protests that were met by excessive Israeli force. Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank were unarmed, but used stones and Molotov cocktails and other non violent forms of resistance.

The iconic images showing children and youth, men and women hurling stones at Israeli tanks gained worldwide solidarity.

Despite the pain inflicted by the loss of lives and tough economic conditions that lasted throughout the months of the uprising, people focused on social bonding, sharing what was available and protecting each other in order to protect the revolution.

Children who listened to stories about the first intifada showed signs of mixed joy and affection. They told Xinhua they enjoyed the different activities and tales.

Eleven-year-old elementary student Lama Khoury said sharing the real stories of people deeply affected her.

Walking out of a storytelling activity, she said the story is " very impressive and affected all of us."

Her classmate Ayman Abu Hmeid said that it was important to learn about the history of the occupation and how it dealt with the Palestinians over the years.

This festival first started in 1996, and has been focusing on youth and children featuring folkloric dance, storytelling, artistic practices and performances, scientific experiments and galleries. Endit