I fell over the issue of Palestine aged 22 when I went to teach at the University of Jordan. All but two of my students were refugees from the West Bank following the 1967 Six-Day War. Instead of writing essays on My Home Town or What I did in the Holidays every single one wrote about what had happened to their lives when Israel was created.

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So they were always on my mind during the next decades when I trained as a nurse, became a camp follower, a mother and finally a journalist. Since retirement, I have served two terms as an Ecumenical Accompanier (i.e. a human rights monitor) in the West Bank. Something that fascinated me is how consecutive Israeli regimes have used – and still use – Ottoman, British Mandate and even Jordanian law to justify their land thefts. The laws of long-dead empires are sacrosanct (when it suits) but International Law? Nah!

Sharen is also a member of CAMPAIN's executive committee and coordinates its Lambeth Witness Group (LWG)”.