From: Wellington Palestine
Link: https://wellingtonpalestine.nz/2020/01/17/student-life-in-occupied-palestine/
Date: JANUARY 17, 2020
On Tuesday 11th of February Wellington Palestine hosted a free public talk by Brother Peter Bray, Vice Chancellor of Bethlehem University in Palestine. Peter is a New Zealander and a De La Salle brother who has been at Bethlehem University since 2008. He talked to an audience of 80 Wellingtonians offering illuminating insights into the challenges of student life in occupied Palestine, peppered with short video testimonials of students.
At the end of the talk we collected donations of almost $1,200 for the work of Bethlehem University.
“There are many challenges facing us as we seek to provide quality higher education for our students The most obvious are the restrictions on movement. At present, 46 percent of our students come from East Jerusalem. To attend class they must pass through a military checkpoint at the wall each day — an unpredictable and humiliating experience. What these students face on their way to and from the university is the possibility that their bus may be stopped once or twice or even three times by different groups of Israeli soldiers. They can be questioned, interrogated, arrested; they could have a gun held to their face without any warning. You can imagine how they might feel by the time they arrive at school.”
– Brother Peter Bray
You can listen to a Radio NZ interview with Brother Peter here.
And a Wellington WEA podcast is available below