Under the patronage of his Excellency President Mahmoud Abbas, An-Najah National University along with the Student Union has launched “The First National Shopping Festival 2014”, which opened on Sunday 13 April in the Turki Bin Abdelaziz Auditorium. The festival’s revenues will be used to support the Needy Student’s Fund.

The opening ceremony was moderated by Mr. Tayseer Nasrallah, a member of the organisational committee, and commenced with a recital of the Palestinian National anthem played by the military forces band. This was followed by a recital of verses from the holy Qur’an by Nafez Kilani, and a speech by Mr. Nasrallah.

Prof. Maher Natsheh, Acting President of An-Najah, welcomed the attendees and applauded the efforts of the organisational committee in “bringing the festival to life in such a brilliant fashion”, adding that “the University is doing its best to support the community by providing all manner of services through its different faculties and scientific centres, the Centre for Industrial Creativity and Partnership being an example of this.

Prof. Natsheh also stressed the importance of encouraging and supporting national industries and raising awareness amongst consumers, ensuring that An-Najah maintains communication with all the sectors to back Palestinian products through scientific research and infrastructure.

Dr. Hussein A’raj, from President Abbas’s office, on behalf of the President, passed on his greetings and pride at An-Najah, it being a scientific institution that produces leaders and entrepreneurs in the scientific, cultural and economic fields. Dr. A’raj also stated that it is the young generation that will be building tomorrow’s State and requested support for the Palestinian leadership and President Abbas.

In the course of the opening ceremony, Dr. Jawwad Naji, Minister of the Economy, also made a speech stating that this shopping festival is one form of supporting national products in a time when Israel is threatening to impose sanctions, mostly economic, on the Palestinian people for their support of going to the UN and signing 15 International treaties and agreements. He added that a recent World Bank report states that the Palestinian economy lost $3.5 billion through Israeli restrictions on Palestinians access to their natural resources in areas Area C.

Mr. Ali Barham, Organisational Committee coordinator, said that the First National Shopping Festival 2014 coming to life in such an impressive way is  due to the efforts of the Student Union‘s, and that the festival will help build up the national economy and liberate it from  dependency on the Occupation.

Student Ala’a Salous delivered a speech on behalf of the Student Union in which he stated that the Union, in cooperation with the University and the community, worked very hard to organise the festival believing that it would contribute to the revitalisation of trade in Nablus and Palestine in general. He also thanked President Abbas for supporting the event and called for the participating companies to provide their best services and prices to the students and visitors.

At the end of the ceremony, all the attending officials cut the opening ribbon.

The Festival will be open every day this week until 10:00 pm Friday 18 April.

Notes:

1-      The opening ceremony was also attended by Lt. Gibreel Bakri, Governor of Nablus, Saad Judeh, Student Union Coordinator, a number of members of the National and Revolutionary Council, Nablus politicians and Security Officials and representatives from the participating companies.

2-      The festival’s sponsors are:

-          Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa.

-          Islamic Bank for Development

-          Al-Quds Bank , Watanya Moblie, (Golden Sponsors)

-          Aziza Poultry ,Hawwash and Brothers Trade co. ,and Eco (Silver sponsors)

-          Palestine TV in cooperation with Ma’an News Agency  (media sponsor)

-          Global United Insurance

-          Call You (internet services)