Juman Abu Arafa - Occupied Jerusalem

A global electronic campaign entitled "Jerusalem calls on you to win against Corona" was launched last Wednesday evening, aiming to contribute to reducing the effects of the spread of the Corona epidemic in occupied Jerusalem, through economic and social empowerment, the provision of medicine and food, and the support of hospitals and science students in the city.

The campaign adopts the electronic donation system to open the door for support for all the solidarity around the world, through an electronic platform of the campaign that enables its visitor to donate the amount he wants, as the amount is transferred to the emergency committee in the "Madad" platform, which its supervisors transfer to the needy, and the exchange The intended.

This campaign was preceded by a conference to be announced last Tuesday, which was held at Al-Quds University in the town of Abu Dis (east of occupied Jerusalem), and was attended by Islamic and Christian religious figures, and representatives of the authorities based on the "Jerusalem Calls You" campaign, namely: the Jerusalem Governorate, the Jerusalem Fund and Endowment, the University of Jerusalem, and the Syndicate Palestinian journalists, the Regional Social Responsibility Network, and the Jerusalem Academy for Scientific Research.

Abdullah Siam, Deputy Governor of Jerusalem (right) and Executive Director of the Jerusalem Fund and Endowment, Taher Disi, during the launch of the Madad platform (Al-Jazeera)

Epidemics .. occupation and corona

The Executive Director of the Jerusalem Endowment Fund, Taher Disi, told Al Jazeera Net that the "Jerusalem is calling you" campaign came as an extension of the efforts to rescue Jerusalem and its people from the clutches of the occupation epidemics and Corona, noting that the campaign was preceded by the launch of the social solidarity platform (Madad), which distributed about nine thousand food parcels since the beginning of the pandemic until Today, it works through an electronic portal to receive requests and consult with Jerusalemites, where requests are studied within a few hours and delivery of aid through field committees within 48 hours.

Taher Disi asserts that the campaign's donations will be transferred to the "Madad" platform to provide food and medicine, and in the event that the donations are high, they will be disbursed to support merchants and science students, projects and institutions in Jerusalem.

The website of the campaign “Jerusalem Calls You” was programmed into eight languages, and the campaign included Twitter on social media (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram), using the tag # Jerusalem_Calling You and # SaveJerusalemFromCorona, and the campaign coincided with the formation of a network of international ambassadors to support it, in addition to a youth team Volunteers electronically and in the field.

According to the report of the electronic campaign, a day after its launch, there are four million impressions on the announced tag, 25 thousand tweets, and two million arrivals. Disi also confirms that donations are starting to arrive from several countries around the world such as Sweden, Norway, Germany, Qatar, Jordan and Algeria.

President of Al-Quds University, Imad Abu Kishek, during the launching of the campaign “Jerusalem Calls You” (Al-Jazeera)

Global popular campaign

To encourage donation and electronic interaction, the campaign included visual clips, designs in different languages, and carrying quotes and pictures of religious and Arab personalities supporting the campaign, such as the Secretary-General of the World Federation of Muslim Scholars Ali Qarah Daghi, the preacher of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Ikrima Sabri, and Archbishop of Sebastia of the Sebastian Orthodox Archbishop Atallah Hanna, And Director of the Doha International Center for Special Needs Hala Al-Saeed.

The President of Al-Quds University in Palestine, Emad Abu Kishek, told Al-Jazeera Net that the "Jerusalem Calls You" campaign gathered Jerusalem institutions to find a way to help Jerusalemites in this exceptional circumstance, stressing that statistics before the pandemic arrived indicate that about 84% of Jerusalem's population lives below the poverty line It is expected that this percentage will increase after the economic conditions decline due to the virus and the advent of the month of Ramadan.

Abu Kishek concludes that this campaign aims to restore attention to Jerusalem and its people, and to link people and attract their attention to them, indicating that the field and electronic interaction with the campaign and its predecessors confirms the sympathy of many around the world of different nationalities with the Holy City.