W e e k 9

UCL’s Student (and staff) action for palestine: 

This week, I finally made it to the heart of the student movement. After meeting members of Student Action For Palestine UCL, the process had begun to speed up exponentially. By now, I had 8 or 9 interviews lined up just for the upcoming week, and no idea as to where to begin with the questions. This student movement focuses on planning disruptive actions on campus and outside in order to advocate for a ceasefire now. Through them, I spoke to more interesting people in the past week than I have throughout almost my whole time here at this university. It was deeply inspiring. Soon after, I became involved with their activism, and they decided to consider my documentary an action that is a part of their movement. The outcome potentially won’t be just for this term’s assignment.

At a student walkout protest (10 Downing Street), I met some of their allies from other universities, and they agreed to let me film their speeches, but some had conditions of remaining physically anonymous.

Participant Consent

James	Filmed interview	Done+signed a form
Wafa	Recorded interview	Done+verbal consent
Carlos	Filmed interview	Done+got consent
Angela	Filmed interview	Done+got consent
Fadwa	Filmed interview	Done+got consent
Dr. Etienne	Filmed interview	Done+got consent
Heng	Recorded interview	Done+got consent
Amna	Filmed interview	Done+got consent
Alex from soas	Filmed interview	Done+got consent

AFP hosted a film screening of Naila & the uprising, a documentary by Julia Bacha. This film covers the often forgotten story of the women’s committees which sprung up during the first Palestinian intifada (revolution). While the zionists tend to cite lack of feminism as a reason to not defend Palestinian self-determination, this story proves how pinkwashing is harmful. The women in Palestine have a voice, and they have agency.

To further immerse myself within the movement, and to learn more about student activism here at UCL, I wrote an article with the Cheese Grater society at UCL about the student body opinions on how UCL handled the ongoing situation in Gaza.