Hundreds protest Israeli action Yemenis in the UK [Archives:2002/18/Reportage]

BY NADIA AL-SAQQAF
YEMEN TIMES STAFF
LONDON
Once again Yemenis have proved their loyalty and passion towards the Middle East crises, as hundreds of Yemeni protesters flooded the streets of London on Saturday the 13th of this month.
Joining with more than 20,000 people coming from different parts of the UK, they participated in the Anti-Israel rally from the free corner of Hyde park to Trafalgar Square protesting against Israeli military action in the West Bank.
The rally came after the Israels ambassador in London was summoned to the Foreign Office to explain his countrys actions in the West Bank.
Michel Massih, chairman of the Palestinian community in the UK, said Christians, Muslims and a small number of Jews were among the protesters.
From various places
Demonstrators were of different organizations, nationalities and religions. Needless to say, the Yemeni community had hundreds in the rally. Yemenis came in buses from all around UK especially from Sheffield, headed by Dr. Abul Galleel Shaif, Birmingham, headed by Mr. Mansoor Abdul Fattah Ghalib and Liverpool. They also came from London.
That was the biggest appearance for them in any occasion. said Hamdan Dammag, a PhD student in London. Mr. Dammag also took advantage of the gathering to form a network of Yemeni students in the UK in preparation for establishing the Yemeni Students Union in the UK (http://www.yemenistudents.org.uk).
There are many Yemeni Students in the UK, either as a part of the permanent Yemeni Community or as Yemeni Students coming from Yemen just for education, he said. The interaction between the two groups is very weak and almost non-existent. This is due to the absence of any representative organizations, which take care of such issues.
Mr. Hamdan Zaid Muttee Dammag is a Ph.D. student researching Safety Critical Systems, Formal Methods and Software Engineering at School of Computing, Information System and Mathematics (SCISM), South Bank University. He is a member of the Center for Applied Formal Methods at the university.
After completing a First Class – Science Section Foundation Course at University of Reading, he obtained a B.Sc.- High 2 with honors in Computer Science from the University in 1997.
Other than excelling in his education the multi talented Dammag has also worked in teaching, web design and media. Dammag is an active member of the Yemeni and Arab Union of Writers.
He has been working in the field of journalism since 1990. He writes articles and reports, sketches caricatures and participates in publishing newspapers and literature books. Producing a wide range of Poetry, Short stories and articles.
He has published his first short stories collection titled The Fly which has received a great attention from critics. Some of his literature had been translated from Arabic to English and published in both languages.
He also published several scientific papers relating to his research. (See www.sbu.ac.uk/~dammagh/index.htm)
Hoping to organize
With the help of the Yemeni communities in UK and a few active Yemenis such as Fadhl Almagahfi, Osama Alshibami, Naseeb Al-qirbi and many others, .Dammag is hoping to organize the Yemeni Students Union soon. His close interaction with most of the Yemeni and Arab students in the UK while being president of Arab Society from 1998 2001, enabled him to understand the problems Yemeni students are facing, hence the idea of the union.
Until now, any activity was pursued by personal initiatives. Yemeni Students did participate actively in Arabic and Islamic Students Societies and unions at their universities. However now, we are trying to build an association for all Yemeni Students in the UK. We aim to build a unified voice for all Yemeni Students, utilizing the potential abilities and qualifications of its members for the benefit of Yemen and its related issues, as well as contributing actively with all Arabic and Islamic communities in the UK.
We also aim at enhancing the interaction between the British and Yemeni Society as well as between all Yemenis in UK. The association is to be funded by British government, organizations, trusties and charities that are interested in such things. We intend to have an office in London to organize all the activities of the association as well as other representatives in the major cities where there exists large Yemeni communities, he said.
New web site
The Yemeni embassy also in the first initiative of its kind started a scheme to embrace the Yemeni students in the UK last year. The newly launched web site of the embassy (www.yemenembassy.org.uk) has a particular page with the names and contact details of the students who have registered in the home page so far.
The embassy invited students from all around UK for a gathering and lunch last year, in an attempt to interact with them and hear their problems. The embassy regularly sends notice and compliment letters to the students in order to make them feel looked after.
On another front, it is quite sad how, in spite of the fact that most of the Yemenis here are pioneers in their field and quite active, those people do not receive adequate recognition back home.
Misses home
We prefer to live abroad, although we miss home because we feel there is no future for us if we go back, one Yemeni Student in Scotland (who preferred to remain anonymous) said.
Some local Yemeni students groups do some limited activities here and there, both in extra curricular activities or in the academic front. One of those people is Nadia Alkaf who is doing her second 3 year post doctoral research titled Investigating Transgene Instability Induced by Pathogen Infection at Department of Crop Genetics in the Norwich Research Park. Alkaf had worked as an entomologist for 5 years on virus transmission at the El-Kod Research Station after she finished her first degree at the Agriculture College, University of Aden in the Yemen.
In 1990 she availed a British Council MSc scholarship in Plant Protection at University of Bath, after which she began a Ph.D. research in Biological and Molecular Diversity of the Cauliflower Mosaic Virus (CaMV) at the John Innes Center (JIC), funded by the John Innes Foundation. After graduating from University of East Anglia (UEA) in 1995, she accepted a post-doctoral position at (JIC) working with Prof. Phil Dale on the effect of genetic background on transgene expression. This project was funded by MAFF (now DEFRA).
Published
During her academic life Mrs. Alkaf has 18 publications, including one book in partnership with Simon N. Covey, Noad R. David turner In: Protocols: from virus isolation to transgenic resistant plant. She has also also participated in more than 40 talks.
On asked what she is interested in working on next she said:
I am looking forward to develop an independent research group working on plant host-pathogen interactions with particular emphasis on the transfer of knowledge to important crop plants. My experience and expertise in CaMV host plant gene interactions will, I believe, lea to important novel findings in our understanding of pathogen defense mechanisms and gene expression.
For more references on Mrs. Nadia Alkaf work, see (www.jic.bbsrc.ac.uk/STAFF/nadia-alkaff/index.htm)


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