From November 21st to 24th, three French classes from the English department and from the Institute of Hotel Management were fortunate to be part of the second edition of the Human Rights week through theater.

Following a week of practice and awareness of human rights with the teachers Anne Debeuckelaere and Virginie Lucas, the students warmly welcomed the two French speakers Miss Sandrine Lucas, lawyer at the bar of Pau and Miss Marjorie Neau, professional comedian in Lille.

From Monday to Wednesday, the speakers trained the students in theatre as well as introducing the issue of family rights, labor rights and freedom of speech.

On November 24th, the classes FREN 240 and FREN 331 acted some parts of their “everyday life.” The class FREN 240 worked with the difficulties that are linked with family life, whereas the class FREN 331 acted on several cases of labor discrimination. The third class FREN 343 acted on some important news that occurred in the world over the past year. Thus, from press articles, they played on several themes: death penalty, freedom of press, and the European movement of the “Indignés” (The Indigenous).

Each scene was followed by a discussion with the audience, who offered feedback and discussed the issues, which helped them to think about possible reactions in case of a violation of their own rights, in real life. Everything was in French, of course!

We warmly thank the support of the French Consulate in Jerusalem, represented by Miss Radhia Oujdani, in charge of humanitarian cooperation, and Aymeric Cattenoz, in charge of the French teaching development in Palestine. We also thank the administration, which is always amazingly supportive, especially Br. Robert, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dr. Hazem Najjar, Chairperson of the English Department.

We ended this event with a delicious American-style Thanksgiving lunch, generously offered by Dr. Nabil Mufdi and the Hotel Management Institute.

This week was so successful and the students so enthusiastic that we are looking forward to another such project in 2012!