Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2024 Volume 42, Issue 14 @theconcordianmtl @theconcordian @theconcordian theconcordian.com
CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER
TOP STORIES NEWS
Boycott Divestment Sanctions petition calls for special general meeting to force Concordia to divest pg. 3
SPORTS
Stingers men’s hockey splits weekend games as second half of season begins pg. 6
LES PAGES FRANCOS S ept Stingers représenteront le Canada aux Jeux mondiaux universitaires d’hiver de la FISU 2025 pg. 9
ARTS & CULTURE New Year highlights!
PHOTO COLLAGE BY HANNAH BELL AND STEFANO REBULI // PHOTO EDITOR
A GAZAN’S DREAM BEYOND BORDERS
To Joudi Alafranji, an end to the war means fulfilling her dream of studying abroad and being an artist without limitations. BY EMILY PASQUARELLI // VIDEO EDITOR
“I didn’t like watercolours. I hate them. I will hate them forever,” Joudi Alafranji said, giggling. But she still uses them because right now, they’re the only art she has access to. Alafranji is a 24-year-old visual artist from Gaza City who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in dentistry at AlAzhar University in the spring of 2023. Alafranji was accepted into Concordia University last fall. But, instead of starting her
graduate diploma in community economic development, she has been trapped behind closed borders. When Alafranji isn’t painting or taking photos, she’s assisting with dental work in a tent in the Middle Area of Gaza. She hopes to work in humanitarian aid. The Israel-Palestine war has been ongoing for over 15 months. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitar-
ian Affairs, more than 45,000 Palestinians and 1,500 Israelis have been killed in the conflict. Last spring, Alafranji interned in facial reconstructive surgeries at the Al-Aqsa Hospital. “I had to see injured people, to see people pulled out from the bombings, I had to see people living in the hospital,” Alafranji said. Just finding a medical scrub was a struggle.
“Get me out of here,” she said in between laughs on a call interview, which would cut mid-sentence as she lost her Wi-Fi connection. This is the seventh war she lives through.
ARTICLE CONTINUED ON PG. 2
pg. 11
MUSIC
QUICKSPINS: DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS — Bad Bunny pg. 13