Guest Lecture by Fatma Al Gussain

People with disabilities (PwDs) and special needs have been disproportionately affected by the deterioration in living conditions in the Gaza Strip since March 2017. This situation is driven by a worsening energy crisis, which has resulted in outages of 18-20 hours a day, and an exacerbation of the salary crisis in the public sector, both of which are linked to an escalation in internal Palestinian divisions. The Palestinian Ministry of Social Development estimates that over 49,000 individuals in the Gaza Strip (or 2.4 per cent of the population) suffer from some type of disability, a third of them children. More than 1,100 of these people, including about 300 children, became disabled as a result of injuries incurred during the 2014 hostilities, including approximately 100 amputees.

Responding to that issue, on Wednesday, 22nd of May 2019, Faculty of Law, Universitas Islam Indonesia collaborated with National Center of Community Rehabilitation (NCCR) Palestine conducting guest lecture concerning the “Diplomatic Relations between Republic of Indonesia and Palestine”. The event which was held in the multipurpose room invited Fatma A. Al Ghussain as the NCCR director as a speaker in this occasion. As a moderator, Dodik Setiawan Nur Heriyanto S.H., M.H., LL.M., Ph.D, gave an introduction regarding the brief profile of the NCCR and the current situation in Gaza. In this guest lecture, Fatma explained that there were many victims who suffered from disability because of the attacks carried out by the Israeli government against the Palestinian people, “we need to know that all of these victims are not only Muslims but Christians, Catholics and Jews” she said.

During the event, the participants seemed enthusiastic and gave their attention to the latest issues that occurred in Palestine. Many of the participants asked questions regarding the efforts made by the NCCR and also related to the Palestinian situation, especially the latest gaza. The event was closed with the hand-over of souvenirs from the moderator to the speaker.