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The views presented in the articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher.Maps herein have been prepared solely for the convenience of the reader; the designations and presentation of material do not imply any expression of opinion of This Week in Pale-stine, its publisher, editor, or its advisory board as to the legal status of any country, territory, city, or area, or the authorities thereof, or as to the delimitation of boundaries or national affiliation.

Rim Banna 1966-2018Cover photo by Barbro Steinde Barbro Steinde/KKV.

In this issuePreservation versus Appropriation

Publisher: Sani P. MeoArt Director: Taisir MasriehGraphic Designer: Tamer HasbunEditor: Tina Basem

Printed by: Studio Alpha,Al-Ram, Jerusalem.Maps: Courtesy of PalMap - GSE

Telefax: +970/2 2-295 1262info@turbo-design.comwww.thisweekinpalestine.comwww.facebook.com/ThisWeekInPalestine

April 2018Issue 240

Advisory Board

Forthcoming Issues

May 2018: Al-Nakba, Seventy Years On

June 2018: Design in Palestine

July 2018: Sustainable Gaza

Maha Abu Shusheh Businesswoman

Nur ArafehPhD Student at Oxford University

Majed BamyaDiplomat at the Mission of the State of Palestine to the UN

Majd BeltajiProgramme Specialist - Gender Equality, UNESCO

Issa KassissiehAmbassador to the Holy See

Najwa NajjarFilmmaker

Cultural heritage has become a valued asset, and its preservation is considered a main concern among most nations and governments worldwide. The preservation of ancient and not-so-ancient artefacts and the engagement in traditional crafts and practices foster social cohesion and strengthen a sense of identity, which is why they hold a special place in Palestine – understandably so, given its geopolitical context.This issue offers a look at the preservation of Palestinian heritage and the ways in which this heritage is being claimed. Thanks go to the institutions and individuals who have contributed to this issue, among them UNDP, whose ongoing support for the year 2018 is highly appreciated, and the Centre for Cultural Heritage Preservation, whom we would like to congratulate on winning first prize for cultural heritage preservation in the Arab region, awarded by ICCROM-ATHAR (Architectural-Archaeological Tangible Heritage in the Arab Region) Regional Conservation Centre in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.Contributing authors include artist and anthropologist Dr. Ali Qleibo; director of Friends Boys School Dr. Riyam Kafri; Salaam Bannoura, head of the research and training unit at the Centre for Cultural Heritage Preservation (CCHP); Ambassador to the Holy See and to the Sovereign Order of Malta, Issa Kassissieh; Junaid Sorosh-Wali, head of the culture unit at UNESCO, and Mohammad Abu Hammad, architect and urban planner; Shirabe Yamada, executive director of Sunbula Fair Trade Organization and Tania Tamari Nasir, classical soprano, preservation activist, and author; UNDP team leader Walid Hasna and program specialist Motaz Dawabsheh; Doa Wadi, executive director of Business Women Forum Palestine; writer and blogger Sabrin Hasbun; Mays Yatim-Salsa’, head of the awareness and public relations unit at CCHP; Huda Imam who has worked both in academia and culture; and comedian Amer Zahr. Our Personality of the Month is architect and preservation activist Issam Juha, our Book of the Month introduces Adnan Abdelrazek’s The Arab Architectural Renaissance, the Exhibition of the Month features Stone Stills by Johny Andonia, and Where to Go? takes you to Jenin and its environs. From the entire team at TWiP, we wish a Happy Easter to all who are celebrating.

Tina BasemSincerely,

Anthropologists, Settlers, and Squatters

The Status Quo and the Living Stones

The Splendid Palestinian Table

Revitalization of the Historic Center of Beit Sahour

Sixteen Stitching Techniques

Cities, People, and Identity

A Win-Win Model for Replication

A Modern Story of Embroidery

The Perfect Cut

Cultural Heritage and Tourism

My Father’s House

Preserving Palestinian Identity with Laughs

Personality of the Month

Book of the Month

Artist of the Month

Exhibition of the Month

Where to Go

TWiP Kitchen

Events

Accommodation

Restaurants

Attractions

Cultural Centers

Maps

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nthropologists, archaeologists, pilgrims, and travelers invariably arrive behind time onto the scene. In Jerusalem, a contested city, this is particularly true. Al-Quds has fallen on hard times. Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Israelis have violently reshaped the Arab character and demographic makeup of Al-Quds, undermining historical sites, expelling the local Palestinian population, and building settlements that encircle and strangulate the city. Israeli settlers have escalated their takeover of Ayyubid, Mamluk, and Ottoman monuments, defaced the façades, tampered with the structures, and altered the interiors. These measures aim to pave the way for the Judaization of the city. What had survived the wear and tear of the ages is now deteriorating at an accelerated speed. Historical foundations are fast disappearing.

“The settlers have built a bathroom on top, and the sewage pipes that leak over the dome are destroying the stones,” lamented Walid, a young attendant at a spectacularly restored Sufi sanctuary in the Old City of Jerusalem. He helped me move a broken desk that was blocking the steps that lead to the mausoleum of Mamluk Wali (a holy man in Sufi tradition), which, as usual, is attached to al-madrasa (literally, the school, a medieval Islamic college), named after the holy man, as was the custom. Dusty cartons, boxes, and debris were piled on top of the saint’s tomb. To take a decent photograph of the fourteenth-century ashlari mihrab (the niche that

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Anthropologists, Settlers, and SquattersRestoration and Appropriation of Jerusalem’s Endowments

indicates the direction of Mecca), I shoved aside the broken vacuum cleaner and extra trash. I looked at the splendid dome hanging above and the classical double windows overlooking the street. I cannot believe the abject state into which the recently restored madrasa has fallen.

My inquiry as to how the settlers gain access to the top of a fourteenth-century Muslim endowment precipitated a cryptic answer. The Israelis have stormed Jerusalem like an insurmountable act of nature, an earthquake, a volcanic eruption, or a hurricane in full force.

The Western Gallery was built by the Mamluks in a number of stages. The decorative honeycomb vault (muqarnas) adorns the sides of the magnificent Cotton Market entrance built by Qalawun in the fourteenth century.

By Ali Qleibo

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Walid lamented: “Consequent to the fall of Jerusalem, since al-Naksa, the onslaught of Jewish settlers in Jerusalem has not stopped.”

I had just finished explaining the history of Al-Madrasa al-Arghuniyya to a group of expatriates when a ten-year-old boy who was watching asked me, “Why do you bring people here all the time?”

“This was once the palace of Prince Argon Al-Kamilly,” I answered.

He giggled disbelievingly, “My mother lives in a palace!”

Jerusalem is a treasure house of Mamluk and Ottoman architecture monuments that are haunted by wealthy dowagers, Mamluk emirs, and sultans. The illustrious pious philanthropists who bequeathed Jerusalem its majestic edifices and grandiose façades include Sitt Tanshiq, Tankiz, Qalawoon, Qaytbay, Barquq, Barka Khan, Baybars, and Arghun El-Kamilly Baybars. A motley of personages that include slave traders, palace tutors, royal princesses from East and Central Asia seeking a safe haven distant from Mongol invasion, penitent sisters

from Mardin, Sufi friends in personal quest for inner peace, and deposed princes sought redemption in Al-Quds al-Sharif. Each endowment has its story of love and hate, loyalty and treachery, fear and faith. Behind these exquisitely designed picturesque façades they sought redemption. The palatial portals were doorways to personal redemption and paradise; the sumptuously decorated first-floor windows with iron grid bars were windows of grace. Their splendor, the constant Qur’anic recitation, and their sheer glorious disposition compelled the passerby to stop and read al-basmalah, the first chapter of the Qur’an (usually recited for the dead). Mamluk architectural heritage imparts Al-Quds al-Sharif, namely Al-Haram al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary), both the lower and upper courtyards, and all the access streets and alleys that lead to the gates of Al-Aqsa Mosque with its sublime noble serenity and inalienable Muslim Arab identity.

As one walks the streets of the Old City, one cannot help but

realize that the development of Jerusalem’s architectural heritage is a long historical process – a complex integration and redesign of constructions from preceding eras incorporated into various Mamluk and Ottoman edifices. The architecture is an infill. These magnificent monuments were not constructed in freestanding spatial setting, but they were designed within already densely built-up residential neighborhoods. Periodization – isolating a specific period of history to which the Mamluk buildings belong – is a purely academic perspective. It refers to a process of categorizing the past into discrete, quantified, named blocks of time in order to facilitate the study and analysis of history. This results in descriptive abstractions that provide convenient terms for periods of time with relatively stable characteristics. Complex integration and redesign of constructions from preceding eras form the fabric of Jerusalem’s landscape. Ottoman additions and more recent buildings inter-braid to

produce Jerusalem’s architectural discourse. In fact, elements from the Ayyubids, the Crusaders, and even the Romans interweave under a veneer of more recent Ottoman additions to shape the current status of the extant Mamluk buildings.

These architectural gems confirm the elevated religious status of the city in Muslim theology and practice. The Mamluk massive building campaign was first and foremost an act of religious tribute to the third-most-holy city in Islam. Al-Quds al-Sharif, whence Prophet Mohammad connected with Allah during the miraculous Night Journey, represents the holy, par excellence. As Islam’s first qibla, the direction of prayers, and the place where the Day of Judgment would take place, Al-Quds al-Sharif that houses the Sacred Rock (Al-Sakhrah al-Musharaffah), exuded an aura of sanctity. Among other complex factors, these theological links underlie the Mamluk endeavor to reproduce Jerusalem as a Muslim religious center of pilgrimage, comparable

Doorways to Paradise and Windows of Grace (neaz) are typical features of Jerusalem palatial monuments and mausoleums adjacent to Al-Haram al-Sharif, where the deposed Mamluk princes and dowagers sought redemption and spent their last years.

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in importance to that of Mecca and Medina. Hence, the plethora of magnificent endowments, including ribat (hospices), zawiyat (Islamic religious schools or monasteries), madaress, mausoleums, caravanserai, hammamat (public baths), and palaces. These monuments exemplify and illustrate various overall structural cum decorative details and styles such as ablaq masonry,ii interlocked stones, stalactite formations in vaults (muqarnas), shell or conch motifs and patterns, calligraphic and ornate inscriptions, and arabesque patterns.

Michael Hamilton Burgoyne in the 1980s, Aref al-’Aref between 1950 and 1964, and Max van Berchem in 1922–1923 saw, identified, and

documented over 64 major surviving monuments previously described by the Palestinian medieval scholar Mujiral-Din al-Ulaymi. Their scholarly contributions provide the general guidelines for the present exploration. Sadly, only a reduced number exist or are available for our inspection since the number of Mamluk buildings listed by these scholars has decreased, and some monuments have been altered beyond recognition. Fortunately, there are still a few surviving clusters of Mamluk buildings, laced with dangling electric wires, modern piping, and satellite dishes, along the three western and two northern access roads to Al-Haram al-Sharif and within the Masjid al-Aqsa complex. The proper

care and conservation of Ayyubid, Mamluk, and Ottoman buildings needs serious consideration. Despite well-intentioned efforts at restoration, the results are often unfortunate; the exceptionally fine quality of the masonry has in some places been sadly damaged by careless removal of sound original mortar to be replaced by ugly smears of cement. Insensitive, uninformed, reckless restoration strips the buildings of the patina of time, and the commercial methods of restoration strips these heritage sites of their identity and reduces them to skeletal forms that reflect contemporary concepts of development. The problem of conservation is complex and controversial, and is a subject that warrants multidisciplinary coordination of efforts instead of tenders to local building contractors.

Though the buildings have withstood the ravages of time, their days of glory are gone. These foundations, endowments for public use, had devolved by the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries into private family holdings and were subleased. The devolution continues. Less than a century ago, these opulent madaress cum emirs’ living quarters, private mosques, and lavish mausoleums were reduced from patrician family luxury residences to become tenements for impoverished migrant workers. Shacks, cement and stone rooms, electrical wires, plastic pipes,

and a forest of TV antennas and satellite dishes have encroached on and deformed the buildings. In many cases internal courtyards have become cluttered with shanties, providing little extra living space.

Protected tenants with long-term leases have turned into owners who appropriate the monuments, adding their shacks, extending their authority, and screening the visitors. Ironically, though these Ayyubid, Mamluk, and Ottoman monuments, as infills on Crusader,

In Jerusalem, Mamluks found redemption. In a society where every slave could become a Sultan and where every female slave could become a wife of the Sultan, life was rife with strife. Many chose to spend their last days in peace in Jerusalem where Muslims believe the day of judgment will take place. A plethora of mausoleums dot the main access roads to Al-Haram al-Sharif encased within the innumerable Sufi educational, spiritual, and lodging institutions that are sumptuously decorated façades and palatial portals. In time, the penitent mystics developed into holy men of God, Awliya’. Their mausoleums became holy shrines. Up to the nineteenth century, the passerby would stop and listen to the Qur’an being recited by the Sheikh inside, and then recite the basmalah (the first verses of the Qur’an) and move on.

Aqabet al-Sitt, named after Sitt Tansheq, a Sufi benefactress (thirteenth century) who bequeathed Jerusalem the spectacular palace complex, including private mosques, Sufi hostel, public kitchen, and her own mausoleum. The complex is known today as Khasqi Sultan, after the wife of Solomon the Magnificent, who had restored the complex in the sixteenth century.

The last original Mamluk doorknob and door survive at Al-Madrasa al-Salamiyyah in Bab al-Malek Faisal.

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Umayyad, and Byzantine structures, are a testimonial to the glorious Muslim Arab heritage in Jerusalem, the significance of these monuments, though recently restored, and their narratives remain in the dark.

Yet in modern times, ignorance of history mitigated by political stress and exacerbated by the distance of Ammaniii from direct jurisdiction over these classical monuments that are endowments give free reign to the tenants. The process of restoration required a certain official cooperation

that empowered the tenants legally and allowed them to appropriate the heritage sites.

“Christian money is good enough to defray the costs of restoration, but we are not good enough!” muttered a high official from a Western European country when denied entry to a famous foundation. The statement was the answer to an abrasive tenant who denied access to a group of expatriates in an organized tour, stating outright that only Muslims are allowed to enter this Islamic heritage site.

During the European “Dark Ages” it was not totally dark. Knowledge had simply not filtered down to the people. The massive interior of the Diocletian Bath and the remains of the Marcello Theatre in Rome were not recognized as such but were viewed as natural landscape of caves and mountains. Only after the Renaissance was the significance of Roman history and heritage grasped. Similar developments are required to ensure the conservation of Mamluk heritage in the Old City; we have not yet had our renaissance.

Dr. Ali Qleibo is an artist, author, and anthropologist. He has lectured at Al-Quds University and held a fellowship at Shalom Hartman Institute. He was visiting professor at Tokyo University for Foreign Studies, Japan. As a specialist in Palestinian social history and through his work at the Jerusalem Research Center, he has developed the Palestinian Social and Muslim Tourism Itinerary. Dr. Qleibo has

authored various books, including Surviving the Wall, Before the Mountains Disappear, and Jerusalem in the Heart. A renowned oil painter, he has held numerous art shows. He may be reached at aqleibo@yahoo.com.

i Finely worked masonry.ii Architectural style that involves rows that alternate with different colored stones.iii Amman still holds sovereignty over Al-Quds al-Sharif and plays the role of custodian for both Christian and Muslim endowments.

Though the Palestinian discourse on the Arab identity of Jerusalem is quite explicit, Jerusalem’s Muslim heritage outside Al-Aqsa Mosque is grossly neglected. The magnificent endowments remain sequestered. Without the opening of this historic evidence for local and international tourism and without active appropriation of our past, we forsake our heritage and forfeit our rights as legitimate heirs to these preceding historical eras. Without strict intervention by the Awqaf (Ministry of Muslim Religious Affairs), the Palestinian discourse about Jerusalem remains pure rhetoric.

Red, white, and black masonry that courses the façade of Al-Madrasa al-Mazhariyyah, together with the ensemble of decorative muqarnas (beehive pendentives) and joggled interlocking stones, gives Mamluk Jerusalem its distinctive identity.

Muqarnas is the Arabic word for stalactite vault, often used to make a smooth transition from the rectangular base of the building to the vaulted ceiling.

Various decorative patterns stud the vaults and frames of Mamluk portals using precious lapis lazuli stones in floral or geometric shapes.

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he recent closure of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher made headlines worldwide. This measure was considered an extreme action by the heads of churches in Jerusalem in response to the escalation made by Israeli settlers and officials against the real estate of the churches. From the Jaffa Gate scandal that threatens to change the identity of the Christian and Armenian quarters of the Old City to the freezing of the bank accounts of several religious communities, the heads of churches have denounced the injustice they suffer from Israel. Many wondered, however, whether closing the church for a financial dispute was the only measure being protested. After all, Israeli illegal policies imposed on the Palestinian people in general, and Palestinian Christians in particular, are a daily bitter reality. The grievances go beyond the current financial dictation.ii

The latest Israeli steps have moved in the direction of changing the historical Status Quo agreement regarding churches and their properties in Jerusalem. The Status Quo of the Holy Places, as we understand it today, regulates the status of several holy sites in

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The Status Quo and the Living Stonesi

By Issa Kassissieh

The Palestinian Christian presence in the Holy Land must be secured and defended. To ask the churches to pay the property tax would be an acceptance of the illegal Israeli annexation of East Jerusalem.

Jerusalem and Bethlehem, including an outline of the rights and duties of the various Christian denominations and the status of Muslim holy sites. It was made by an Ottoman Farman (state official) in 1757, confirmed in 1852, and framed as a treaty in the treaties of Paris (1856) and Berlin (1878). It was respected by the British Mandate, the United Nations, and Jordan.

Historically, as an acknowledgement of the services they deliver to all Palestinians in various sectors, regardless of their religion, churches have been exempt from paying property tax. This practice has lasted for centuries but is being questioned by the Israeli government today. This represents a (further) Israeli violation of international law: As the occupying power, Israel is not entitled to change

the Status Quo regarding the religious sites (including Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound) or the long-standing tax-exempt status granted to the churches.

The Old City with the Haram al-Sharif in the foreground, seen from the Mount of Olives. The golden rotunda of the Dome of the Rock is seen in the middle, Al-Aqsa mosque to its right.

Coptic Orthodox Church in the Old City of Jerusalem.

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From this perspective, to ask the churches to pay the property tax would be to accept the illegal Israeli annexation of East Jerusalem. After President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, Israeli officials have been empowered to increase their efforts that aim to change the identity of East Jerusalem. This not only includes measures against the churches, but also the building of settlements, the demolition of homes, and the latest bill that would allow Israel to strip Jerusalemites of their residency rights if they are “disloyal” and stand to challenge such wrongful policies. This, by itself, is a grave violation of international humanitarian law.

The Israeli escalation of measures against the churches cannot be separated from the targeting of Al-Aqsa Mosque, and it must be understood that such policies stand to undermine the very identity of the Palestinian people. It is impossible to talk about the holy places without talking about the people who have kept them alive for centuries. Palestinian families, both Muslims and Christians, have preserved the heritage of such places. This has been the historical

message of the priests who serve the various communities in Palestine, and it is the message of great figures such as Patriarch Michel Sabbah and other heads of churches who have stood steadfast, asserting that they must confront not only Israeli policies that jeopardize the financial well-being of the churches, but also other unjust policies against their denominations.

We cannot forget the response received from some church officials when 58 Palestinian Christian families from Beit Jala asked them to take action regarding the construction of Israel’s illegal Annexation Wall in the Cremisan Valley: “We are against the Wall, but if Israel wants to build, there’s nothing we can do about it,” was one of the responses I personally heard. Wasn’t the construction of the Wall between Bethlehem and Jerusalem separating the Nativity Church from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher enough reason to stand tall and take a position to confront the challenge? In the end, it was the action of other religious figures – beginning with Father Ibrahim Shomali, the local Catholic parish priest of Beit Jala –who managed to focus international attention on the situation in the valley.

Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem.

It was a priest, with the legal support of the Society of Saint Yves, who kept hope alive among the parishioners. And everyone remembers the heroic stand of Father Ibrahim Faltas during the siege of the Church of the Nativity.

In reality, the churches of the Holy Land are an integral part of Palestine’s social fabric. The Palestine-Holy See comprehensive agreement stipulates clearly that churches, including their properties and institutions, are exempt from paying taxes. But the issue should go deeper than just the question of paying taxes: the voices who state that they would not mind paying taxes to Israel should be reminded that the challenges that Christians of the Holy Land face when wishing to stay in their homeland will not be resolved by reaching an agreement on taxation. The fear is that such behavior would accelerate the exodus of the remaining living stones of the Holy Land.

Residency and property rights are at the top of the list of Israeli violations against Palestinians. It is time for the faithful to feel that the churches will stand tall in their defense. Church properties should not be treated as foreign assets that could be sold to the highest bidder, but rather as part of the heritage, past, present, and future of Palestine. One can understand the grievances felt by members of the Christian communities when they see the disconnection between several of their spiritual heads and the reality they live in. Let us be clear: Just as churches, their institutions and properties, in Greece, Italy, and Spain are for the benefit and defense of their faithful, the same should be the case in Palestine.

“Man shall not live by bread alone” (Matthew 4:4) is one of the most beautiful teachings of the Bible. Closing the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was perhaps the right measure to force Israel to stop this dangerous escalation against the churches. However, it is important to always keep the people in mind. It is time for the churches to make it clear to their faithful that they consider Palestine, the Holy Land, to be not only a major pilgrimage destination but also a place to uphold the values of justice and peace. In this case, concrete messages are needed regarding the daily injustices affecting their own communities.

Mr. Issa Kassissieh is deputy head at the Negotiations Affairs Department of the Palestine Liberation Organization and serves as the Palestinian ambassador to the Holy See and to the Sovereign Order of Malta.

Article photos courtesy of Palestine Image Bank.

i The phrase “living stones” is a biblical metaphor for the Christian faithful and their close connection to God (1 Peter 2:5).ii See, for example, Jonathan Cook, “Money, not the protection of Palestinian Christians, was at the root of Holy Sepulcher protest,” Middle East Eye, March 2, 2018, available at http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/money-not-protection-palestinian-christians-was-root-holy-sepulchre-protest-1616428657. This article provides some critical voices, although the author does not agree with a number of points.

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hen children are asked to name things that they love about their mothers, food is one of the most reoccurring items on their lists. They will tell you that they love her laser-beam eyes that seem to find lost toys and detect lies before they even make their way to their mouths. Answers will vary from one child to another, but generally children will cite their mother’s food as one of the things they love about her. Food’s emotional fingerprint is stamped into our memory and emotions at a very young age. Nothing tastes like mom’s food, but more importantly nothing feels like it. As we age, we pursue cooking to replicate those dishes in the hopes of reviving childhood memories and all the feelings that come with them, and in the hopes that we can create similar experiences for our own children. Food is, therefore, not just sustenance, and our journeys into our kitchens are not only a daily chore to put food on our family tables, but rather a deliberate, creative process in which memories, love, belonging, loss, celebration, and a sense of identity are created and engrained for both those of us who cook and those who eat.

Food is culture and not a simple hedonistic pleasure that lasts for the duration of a meal. If it were just that, then food memoires and food writing wouldn’t be among the most popular types of literature. I

remember the first time I came to realize the power of food for me. I was in my second

year of college in the United States and was considerably homesick. I went to the kitchen to make tabbouleh and stuffed eggplants for myself and friends coming over for dinner, and it was as if I were transposed

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The Splendid Palestinian Table

By Riyam Kafri AbuLaban

back in time to my mother’s kitchen. As I recreated those two dishes, I was guided by my intuition, my visual memory, and my muscle memory as I felt my way around the kitchen and carved the eggplants, chopped the parsley, soaked the bourghul, and juiced the lemons. And when the food hit my tongue, my taste memory took me back to my mother’s kitchen again. The experience was powerful, but I am not sure it cured me of my homesickness; it perhaps made it even worse.

Food and cuisine are deeply engrained into our psyche, and it is no wonder that when someone tries to steal it, or claim it, or “appropriate” it as their own, our stomachs turn, quite literally and figuratively. The first time I stood in the grocery store holding in my hand a container of “Israeli hummus” nearly 22 years ago, I had to reconcile my feelings of homesickness, hunger, craving for food from home, and the fact that the hummus I knew was not Israeli. For me it was Palestinian, made with Nabulsi tahini, lemons from Tulkarem, and garbanzo beans dried by some old Palestinian woman in a nearby village, and rehydrated and cooked for hours by my mother. It made an appearance on our Friday breakfast table. And it was eat-it-by-the-spoon delicious, just ask my sister who until the age of five insisted on eating it with a spoon, she loved it so much. Little did I know (back then when I was a child) that 20-some years later, I would stand in the grocery store trying to convince myself not to buy the “Israeli hummus” and reach for the peanut butter instead, because deep down in my stomach,

A typical Palestinian breakfast with falafel, hummus, mutabbal (chick pea paste mixed with whole chick peas) and fresh vegetables.

Zucchini and grape leaves are stuffed with rice, minced meat, and spices.

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something turned, telling me that this would only culminate in a series of encounters with Israeli knafeh (a sweet made with cheese and pastry, soaked in sugar), falafel, sahlab (a starchy hot drink enjoyed mostly in winter), shakshouka (sautéed tomatoes with onions and sunny-side-up eggs), makloubeh (a dish with rice and fried cauliflower, eggplant, and potatoes), shawerma (a sandwich with shreds of meat, salad, and tahini sauce), and more, as I became more interested in food and cooking.

I most certainly do not want to spiral into a conversation of my hummus, your hummus. The conversation on hummus these days seems to take over much of the food-writing scene, including articles in peer-reviewed academic journals such as Gastronomica (published by the University of California Press) and mainstream media outlets such as The Guardian. Conversations on Middle Eastern cuisine must continue to be sophisticated and not trivialized. They rather need to remain cultured and complex, much like the subject matter that is multi-layered and diverse in its stories and history. On the other hand, this conversation is very personal and intimate. Who we are today and how we eat is largely shaped by the food presented to us as children. So although conversations on hummus may seem redundant, we need not degrade them into “Hummus Wars” as if they were some reality show on the Food Network. Neither can they be settled by a scholarly declaration of “Our Hummus,” as if to please two feuding sides into a deceiving claim of co-existence.

It isn’t the claim to the food that bothers me, per se, because we Palestinians are aware that our claim to hummus isn’t an exclusive one but rather part of a mosaic of Middle Eastern and Levant cuisine. It is the underlying message and attempt to erase Palestinian and Arab claim to these dishes that is infuriating. “The controversy about

Israel’s appropriation of Palestinian food has nothing to do with Jews eating Arabic food, but rather with a systematic approach to disappear Palestinians in all their details.” (Steven Salaita) It would be trivial and immature not to recognize that Arab Jews did exist and that they cooked and ate the cuisines of the countries and regions they lived in. But to attribute without the slightest recognition those dishes to Israel is nothing short of blatant, outright theft. Forget appropriation and call it exactly what it is, theft.

Palestinians recognize that their cuisine is part of a broader regional cuisine. What the world needs to recognize is that this region is the cradle of all civilizations, and the land of Mesopotamia cooked different versions of dishes now pictured on Instagram and Twitter and dubbed “Israeli” long before Israel ever existed as a political entity.

I am aware that people are agitated when talking about culture and food appropriation. That is not appropriation, they might claim, it is fusion. But what we have here is not cuisine fusion, because fusion, much like interdisciplinary approaches in education, may very well be asymmetrical, where one cuisine contributes more to the fusion dish than the other. However, both cuisines are properly recognized, respected,

From My Mother’s Pantry by Suzanne Matar. Photo by Rabi Salfiti.

and celebrated. While fusion is a celebration of cultures coming together, food appropriation and theft occur when one culture simply steals the food of another without any recognition of the existence of the other.

Palestinians do not eat food only to survive. Our cuisine is a product of a long-standing relationship with our land: mahashi (vegetables, mostly zucchini and eggplant, stuffed with rice and minced meat) are enjoyed in the winter to warm your heart and give you energy; watery spinach, rich in iron, is just what you need at the end of a cold day; khobbaizeh (malva parviflora) grows abundantly in late winter/early spring and is full of vitamins and nutrients needed to revitalize us after the cold season. And in the spring there is fool akhdar biz-zeit (green beans with olive oil) and za’atar akhdar (“green,” i.e., fresh thyme) for salads and salty pastries. The intrinsic connection we have with our land brings to our table colorful dishes and into our kitchens and cuisine intricate techniques of preparation and preservation: kneading, baking, stuffing, rolling, drying, pickling, and much more. Our food is a representation of the villages we lived in, the land we farmed, the olives we harvested, the weddings we danced in, and the funerals we walked in. Dishes connected to destroyed villages still make their way to our tables as we cook to remember a lost land and threatened existence.

For Palestinians forced out of their land in 1948, food is in the past tense, only to be brought into the present when dishes from their villages are made today to bring back a glimpse of the colorful squash, herbs, and crops of village life. For those who live in Gaza, food in the refugee camp is unwholesome, an unfinished puzzle with pieces missing.

Family Dinners: On the Table of Ursula by Mai Odeh,.Photo by Ameen Nayfeh.

Detail of a thyme plant.

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So when The New York Times claims that Israeli sahlab is the new latte, or when international food bloggers visiting Jerusalem claim that they enjoyed Israeli delicacies in the Old City and post pictures of themselves with Abu Mohammad making halaweh in the background, our stomachs will turn in pain and rejection. It is quite ironic that as Rachel Ray tweeted colorful photos of “Israeli mezza” that featured baba ghanoush (eggplant dip), hummus, and tabbouleh just a few days before Christmas, Christian Palestinians were making that exact same mezza for Christmas Eve. To claim that this mezza is exclusively Israeli is no different from white American churches hanging photos of a blond, blue-eyed Jesus Christ. That is not appropriation, whether intentional or not; those who do it are participating in the theft and disappearance of a culture.

Family Dinners: From My Mother’s Pantry by Suzanne Matar. Photo by Rabi Salfiti.

In recent years, Palestinian food enthusiasts, bloggers, writers, artists, and anthropologists have started to gain momentum. Laila El-Haddad, Rula Bishara, Joudie Kalla, and many more food enthusiasts are making a splash on the food-culture scene and are reclaiming Palestinian dishes with superb recipes and riveting family stories. If you ask most of them, they would tell you that they write to keep a record for themselves, that their books began mainly as memories they wanted to preserve. Many of these writers reside outside Palestine.

I think the challenge of being a food writer in Palestine is quite obvious. How can we write about food and the richness of our cuisine when we are surrounded in every direction by land confiscation, child prisoners, unemployment, and poverty? How can we talk about food when hunger strikes are on and off in Israeli prisons? I myself haven’t reconciled this jarring difference, but I know that if we do not move to make our presence known on the food-culture scene, we will continue to watch our favorite childhood dishes be hijacked. Perhaps if we continue to cook together, always connecting our dishes to the land we came from, it stops being food-writing for the sake of pleasure but rather a conversation on identity and existence.

A new project called Palestine’s Hosting Society began last August by the artist Mirna Bamieh. The collective has several projects from food tours to family dinners

to restaurant takeovers where Palestinian ingredients are reimagined in fusion dishes and restaurant cuisine. It is dynamic as more people join and reinvent and rejuvenate the collective so that it may tell a broader story. The family dinner project documents the food traditions of Palestinian families as people cook and invite others to their dinners, and tables become a space to explore food and hospitality politics, share experiences, and reconstruct people’s relationship with food, place, and space. In Haifa, Suzan Matar, hosted a dinner with the theme Min Moonet Sitti (From My Mother’s Pantry), where she featured dishes made from the typical Middle Eastern pantry with things like sun-dried tomatoes, homemade maftool (hand-rolled tiny pasta pearls), pickled vegetables, and home-dried labaneh (strained yoghurt). While her grandmother is Lebanese, those items and techniques are staples in any of our kitchens. More projects like this one are needed as Palestinians living in Palestine reclaim their dinner tables and with them, their connection to their lands. Another family dinner featured the Gazan kitchen with such dishes as rummanieh, originally from Yafa, which became part of the Gazan kitchen as refugees brought it with them. Rummanieh has now been nearly forgotten in Yafa, but that night people were able to rediscover Gaza through the smells and tastes of the dishes served. (www.palestinehostingsociety.com)

Our struggle is uphill; dishes we have known and loved since our childhood will continue to be claimed as Israeli. Musakhan (glazed onions served on a special bread with chicken, roasted

pine nuts, and freshly pressed olive oil, spiced with sumac and allspice) will most probably be appropriated as holiday food in Israel, and knafeh will take different shapes and forms as its theft continues. As you dip your bread into yet another “Israeli dip” and tweet pictures of it from the heart of Ramallah, Nablus, or Jerusalem, I hope you taste in the ripples of the olive oil the confiscated groves and their burnt trees, I pray you feel the dispossession that afflicts Palestine and Palestinians, but also their resilient spirit and determination to continue to exist.

Dr. Riyam Kafri AbuLaban is a food enthusiast and educator. She holds a PhD in organic chemistry and currently serves as the Ramallah Friends School-Upper School Principal. She is a wife and mother of two. On weekends her kitchen smells of za’atar, cinnamon, lemon, and honey.

Taboun bread is baked on a special hot surface.

Knafeh is made with sweet cheese and pastry, soaked in sirup. Nablus is famous for the best knafeh in Palestine.

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n February 2018, under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Mohammed Al-Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of the Emirate of Sharjah, the ICCROM Regional Conservation Centre in Sharjah (ICCROM-Athar) announced the first round of the competition for the Award for Cultural Heritage Conservation in the Arab Region. The biennial award is designed to honor and reward remarkable works that contribute to the protection and vitality of tangible cultural heritage in the Arab world.

Following an examination of the large number of outstanding projects that were submitted from all regions of the Arab world and that aimed to preserve and protect cultural heritage in its various forms, fourteen projects were shortlisted for the second phase. Remarkably, five of the fourteen shortlisted projects were restoration and archiving projects from Palestine, submitted by a number of dedicated Palestinian institutions working in the field of cultural heritage preservation.

The winning project, entitled “Revitalization of the Historic Centre of Beit Sahour,” was submitted by the Centre for Cultural Heritage Preservation (CCHP). The project included seven traditional buildings and a public square that had been rehabilitated during the past few years. The square and buildings are located in the historic center of Beit Sahour, and their selection was based on their architectural and cultural value, in addition to the fact that they had been abandoned

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Revitalization of the Historic Center of Beit Sahour

By Salaam Bannoura

The International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) acknowledged the city of Beit Sahour in the conservation of its historic center, and in February 2018 granted it the award for best conservation practices in the Arab region.

for a long time and had started to deteriorate structurally and physically, thus creating health and environmental hazards. The rehabilitation of the targeted areas, in line with CCHP strategies, was intended to serve the local community.

To carry out the rehabilitation of these identified buildings, Beit Sahour Municipality and CCHP concluded agreements with the buildings’ owners that stipulated that the buildings were to be used for a period of 10 to 15 years free of charge. Accordingly, CCHP raised funds for rehabilitation and prepared the designs and the tendering documents. The rehabilitation works were implemented by CCHP following the international restoration standards in a manner that ensures the preservation of originality and integrity.

The works included, but were not limited to, consolidating and reinforcing the buildings, treating structural problems, cleaning the façades, restoring the ceilings, restoring original windows and doors or fixing new ones when needed, paving and tiling floors and surfaces, and creating the electrical and mechanical networks necessary for the new functions assigned to each of the rehabilitated buildings.

The result is noteworthy: Dar Awwad is now being used as the Peace by Piece Tourism Information Center; Dar Abu Sa’da is being managed by Beit Sahour Municipality and hosts the municipality departments of projects, public relations, and community service. Adjacent to Dar Abu Sa’da is Dar Hilal, which is now the headquarters of Siraj Center and also houses the Palestinian Centre for

Architect Issam Juha receiving the ICCROM-ATHAR award.

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Rapprochement between People, both of which are involved in the cultural and alternative-tourism sectors. Next to Dar Hilal is Dar Qumsieh, which is being used as a restaurant and guesthouse.

Dar Al-Shomali, located across the street from Dar Abu Sa’da and Dar Hilal, serves as a guesthouse. Right next to Dar Al-Shomali is the original location of Beit Sahour’s old market, which had been abandoned, creating an unpleasant and unsafe environment. The market was razed,

Once-abandoned buildings and neglected areas have been significantly transformed, creating a vibrant environment in the city and providing vital services to the town of Beit Sahour and its surroundings.

Old Market of Beit Sahour, revitalized for community activities and festivals.

and the area was transformed into a public square that now hosts most of the town’s events, festivals, and public activities.

Taking a short stroll south of the square, one discovers Dar Sababa and Dar Ishaq. These two buildings share an internal courtyard and now serve as the Bethlehem Fair Trade Artisans (the Handcraft Village), a center that specializes in promoting

traditional Palestinian handicrafts. The nearby structure, Dar Musleh, is run by the Arab Orthodox Charitable Society and is used as a training and empowerment center for youth.

The revitalization of the historic center of Beit Sahour has had an impact on various aspects of the city. On one hand, the end result of implementing the aforementioned projects in a relatively small area contributed to re-energizing the cultural, social, religious, economic, and tourism sectors through adopting traditional

This map provides an overview of the location of the described projects.

Dar Hilal Building used after rehabilitation for the Palestinian Centre for Rapprochement between People.

Dar Awwad used by the Peace by Piece tourism information center.

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trends in a contemporary manner to protect and develop the urban fabric and traditional buildings. On the other hand, the rehabilitation projects not only preserved the local built cultural heritage, they also utilized it as a tool for socio-economic development through adapting traditional buildings for the benefit of the community.

In addition, rehabilitation projects provide better mechanisms for protecting and managing cultural heritage given that they require the preparation of feasibility studies and

operational plans for each project to ensure sustainability and public benefit, which distinguishes CCHP from other centers. It is also worth mentioning that the rehabilitation process takes into consideration the surrounding landscape and environment alongside the traditional buildings, in order to create harmony between the building and its environment.

The projects provided temporary job opportunities for workers and craftspeople during the implementation of the projects (24,500 direct working days), in addition to making possible the creation of permanent jobs through providing the active organizations with headquarters, which will sequentially increase the number of staff (to date, more than 30 permanent jobs have been created).

Furthermore, the projects aimed to develop the capabilities of architects, engineers, and craftspeople through practical training courses and programs in parallel with implementing the rehabilitation work, which ensures applying high-quality preservation techniques in a manner that respects the authenticity of historic buildings.

Dar Al-Shomali Guest House.

Dar Musleh Building used by the Arab Orthodox Charitable Society.

Dar Sababa and Ishaq used as a handicraft village.

All in all, the projects resulted in the rehabilitation of a built-up area of approximately 3,120m2, including 54 rooms, in the historic center of Beit Sahour. Notably, the successful adaptation of the traditional buildings to a variety of needs and new functions has had a positive effect and has encouraged interested individuals and the private sector to invest in the area. New investments in the historic center of Beit Sahour include the Citadel Restaurant, Al-Ghad Al-Jadid Center, the Seeds Library, several cafés, Dar Al-Musica, and others.

life in the historic center, redeveloping it as a commercial center, encouraging the tourism sector, and creating social events and activities to revitalize the city center.

The efforts of Beit Sahour Municipality and CCHP in protecting the historic center were first recognized by the Arab Towns Organization in its tenth session in Doha, Qatar, in 2010, where Beit Sahour was awarded first prize in the architectural heritage category. Since then, the rehabilitation projects have been gradually implemented, and

The joint efforts of CCHP and Beit Sahour Municipality noticeably go years back. Both parties realized the significant value of the historic center of Beit Sahour and hence developed an Emergency Plan for the Revitalization and Management of the Historic Center in 2009. The plan recommended the urgent and immediate intervention in the historic center of Beit Sahour in order to ensure the protection and management of this cultural heritage and to reduce the deterioration of the area’s traditional buildings and urban fabric, aiming to improve the quality of

both parties remain keen on sustaining the local cultural heritage with the aim to offer an outstanding example for other local institutions and governance bodies to follow.

Salaam Bannoura holds a BSc in architectural engineering and an MSC in conservation and management of built heritage. She has been working at the Centre for Cultural Heritage Preservation (CCHP) in Bethlehem since 2012, and is currently the head of the Research and Training Unit at the center.

Dar Abu Sa’da Building used by Beit Sahour Municipality.

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ed cross-stitch on black fabric – this is a common feature that dominates today’s handicrafts scene, which is teeming with purses, cushions, and shawls produced by a number of women’s embroidery groups across Palestine. Over the last several decades, the red-on-black cross-stitch has been erroneously presented and perceived as “the traditional” Palestinian embroidery style. This monotonous trend, it seems, is due in part to the popularity of etamine, a loosely woven, grid-shaped cotton embroidery fabric that makes cross-stitch embroidery work easy and accessible for income-generation means.

Looking at textiles and garments from several collections of rural (Fallahi and Bedouin) dress from Palestine that date back to the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, as exhibited at Birzeit University Museum, Dar Al-Tifl Museum, and Inaash al-Usra Folk Museum, one cannot help but notice

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Sixteen Stitching Techniques The Forgotten Treasures of Palestinian Embroidery

By Tania Tamari Nasir and Shirabe Yamada

Stem Stitch

the myriad of vibrant colors such as indigo, orange, fuchsia, and green, which meet and converge through the multitude of intricate stitching techniques that zigzag, swirl, trim, and connect the silk, linen, and brocades of that period. A stark contrast to the all-too-repetitive motifs found in many charity and tourist shops in Palestine.

With the gradual decline in handmade garments in Palestinian villages, most of these non-cross-stitch techniques have become rarer and seemingly almost entirely forgotten, so documenting them from a handful of elderly embroiderers was a race against time. This sense of urgency gave the experts Widad Kawar and Tania Tamari Nasir the idea to make an embroidery instruction manual that would teach today’s generation these disappearing stitching techniques. After a lengthy process of research and documentation, the long-awaited book, Embroidery Stitches from

The book comes as the unofficial sequel to Kawar and Tamari Nasir’s 1990 publication, Palestinian Embroidery: Traditional “Fallahi” Cross-stich (State Museum of Ethnography, Munich, Germany). It was made through an extensive study of cross-stitch, the most widespread embroidery technique in Palestine, and featured patterns from five main areas where it was prevalent: Ramallah, Hebron, Jaffa, Bir al-Sabe’, and Gaza. The book, published in Arabic, English, and German, was the first of its kind and received widespread attention. It was conceived by Tamari Nasir who was a witness to the evolution of embroidery in Palestine with its turbulent history: from a family and village folk craft before the 1948 Nakba to a commercial tool for income generation today. Faced with the grave responsibility of ensuring the family survival following al-Nakba and al-Naksa, women throughout Palestine

Palestine: An Instruction Manual, will be published this year by the fair trade organization Sunbula. Focusing on sixteen lesser-known stitching techniques as well as the unmistakable cross-stitch, the book aims to reassert the relevance and centrality of these techniques as part of a long and inspiring history of crafting and creativity in Palestine.

and al-Shatat (the diaspora) began to sell their embroidery work through charities and women’s organizations as a means of income generation – making shawls, cushions, and bags by adapting the decorative surface motifs in their dress to fit the new products. Ironically, unable to afford their own work and creations, as well as moving away from making their

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own traditional dress, most of what was being produced began to lose the sensitive and personalized touch of generations past. While flourishing and being celebrated internationally as a symbol of Palestinian identity and resistance, the repetitive production of this traditional craft for the sake of sales was losing its purpose, distinct characteristics, and individual charm, especially as the old expert embroiderers were passing away and younger generations were naturally looking for the less expensive alternative to the labor- and cost-intensive embroidery.

Tamari Nasir, Kawar, and their group of concerned friends embarked on the journey of safeguarding the patterns and techniques of traditional embroidery, to which Kawar offered her internationally renowned collection

of traditional Palestinian costumes and accessories for study. Hundreds of traditional dresses, spanning the period between 1850 and 1950, were examined, and patterns and color combinations were carefully studied, documented, and reproduced. The book, printed in multiple editions since its first publication, has successfully fulfilled its mission. It is being used today in almost every women’s group in Palestine as the must-have resource of cross-stitch patterns for making handicrafts.

Now the impending task at hand was to document the lesser-known embroidery stiches and figure out their techniques, such as the couching-stitch from Bethlehem and the patchwork from Galilee, as well as the various hemming and connecting stiches used throughout Palestine.

Manjal and Manjal Madalawi

Most of these stitches, simultaneously functional and ornate, were primarily used in the creation and construction of entire garments, all the while ensuring a distinct aesthetic identity and style. The social, technological, economic, and political changes that have affected life in Palestine, and indeed the world over, inevitably took their toll on these techniques. As endless war and the Occupation rearranged life’s priorities, and as women stopped making their own dress, and economic necessity steered most embroiderers to cross-stitch on black etamine, these complex embroidery techniques began to drop out of use. No longer as relevant as they used to be, and with the rise of the sewing machine and factory-made clothes, these old and sophisticated treasures were being elbowed out of style, memory, and celebrity.

Conscious of this, Tamari Nasir teamed up with Sunbula, which works with hundreds of women

across Palestine by supporting their economic empowerment through handicrafts production. Sunbula recognized the importance of creating a comprehensive embroidery instruction manual – it would not only help to preserve the rich and varied techniques before being lost, but it would also help the embroiderers, young designers, and established artists to enrich their knowledge and skills in order to expand the design possibilities of their products and creative work.

In 2010, the fashion designer OmarJoseph Nasser-Khoury joined the team as a researcher and co-author. The team first studied the collection of traditional costumes at Birzeit University Museum and sorted the techniques into two main categories of stitches: the purely ornamental, and the decoratively functional. Each category contained individual stitching techniques: 16 in total that could be understood and analyzed. The team

Manjal Hallal

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enlisted the help of embroiderers –Sabha Ali from Yatta, Dawlat Abu Shawish from Amari Refugee Camp, Jameeleh Abu Nijm from Al-Bireh, Sumayya Abu Audeh from Gaza, and Ruqiya Al-Santareasy in Amman –who approached elderly embroiderers in their communities to help identify the names, locations of origin, and usages of the stitches. The result was a fascinating collection of information on such techniques as tihshai, the satin stitch used to fill in floral motifs, or al-e’qeida il-majdalawieh, the connective seam stitch from al-Majdal in southern Palestine used to sew together separate pieces of fabric.

The next step was to deconstruct and understand each stitching technique. The team interviewed and videotaped Julia Khaliliya from Beit Jala and Sabha Ali from Yatta, who still knew how to embroider using these stitches. After many hours of

watching and studying the video, and experimenting with actual fabric and threads, Nasser-Khoury created the illustrated, step-by-step instructions for the sixteen techniques – the most crucial component of the book, whose goal is to reinvigorate these techniques and reaffirm their place in contemporary and future Palestinian creative production.

The book, a bilingual Arabic-English publication, is currently in the final stage of production. Once completed in June, Sunbula plans to make it widely available for women’s organizations across Palestine and in the diaspora, and to hold workshops that aim to promote its use as a practical aid for contemporary and future embroiderers.

At the core of this project is Tamari Nasir’s strong belief that caring for one’s cultural heritage, one’s roots, is like caring for one’s children – a need and a responsibility. In her words: “Palestinians do this with love and compassion, which gives us fortitude and courage, anchoring us on our native land, giving us hope, as we persevere in our quest to preserve, document, and safeguard our cultural heritage, our identity as a people, in the face of systematic usurpation and threat of appropriation. Caring and holding on to one’s cultural heritage is a reminder of one’s humanity.”

Manjal ‘Ereijeh

With the gradual decline in handmade garments in Palestinian villages, most of the traditional non-cross-stitch techniques have become rarer and seemingly almost entirely forgotten, so documenting them through a handful of elderly embroiderers was a race against time. This sense of urgency gave the experts Widad Kawar and Tania Tamari Nasir the idea to make an embroidery instruction manual that would teach today’s generation these disappearing stitching techniques.

You can support the publication of Embroidery Stitches from Palestine: An Instruction Manual by joining Sunbula’s crowdfunding campaign. To find out more, visit www.sunbula.org, Facebook: sunbulafairtrade, or Instagram: sunbulapalestine.

Article photos are courtesy of OmarJoseph Nasser-Khoury and Birzeit University Museum.

Tania Tamari Nasir is a classical singer and a writer who is actively involved in the preservation, development, and promotion of Palestinian cultural heritage. She is the project adviser and co-author of Embroidery Stitches from Palestine: An Instruction Manual.

Shirabe Yamada is the executive director of Sunbula, a fair trade organization that supports 23 craft-producer groups across Palestine in the marketing of their products and the development of their capacity. She is the general editor and producer of the upcoming Embroidery Stitches from Palestine: An Instruction Manual.

Couching and Fishbone Stitch

Couching and Fishbone Stitch

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ultural heritage, in its diverse manifestations that range from historic monuments and urban fabrics to traditional practices and museums, enriches our everyday lives in various manners. In cities, urban heritage encapsulates citizens’ pride and sense of belonging, it nurtures a sense of identity, promotes social cohesion, and may foster openness and inclusiveness. In Palestine, as in the rest of the world, 75 percent of the population live in urban areas.i As cities have become home to the majority of the population, UNESCO has made people central to its mission and has adopted cultural conventions that all have been ratified by the State of Palestine.ii The preservation of urban heritage as an inclusive and common space in which people are given the opportunity to make choices and practice their freedom is particularly

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Cities, People, and IdentityInclusive Cultural Heritage

By Ahmad Junaid Sorosh-Waliand Mohammad Abu Hammad

needed in Palestine, as it fosters the sense of identity that is facing growing challenges as a result of occupation and globalization. An inclusive urban heritage that is properly preserved is a strong means to transmit Palestinian national identity to future generations.

Urban areas in Palestine are rich with heritage assets. The historic centers in cities such as Jerusalem, Nablus, Hebron, and Bethlehem, as well as the numerous urban archaeological sites that can be found in their vicinities and the associated cultural landscape offer unique and diverse experiences for locals and visitors alike. It is of paramount importance to reveal the potential of all these places to help build an inclusive society with a strong identity that respects cultural diversity. This starts with ensuring access and furthermore implies that the understanding and enjoyment of heritage must be fostered among all social groups, including women, men, boys, and girls on the basis of equality and freedom.

The UNESCO national office for Palestine, through its Culture Programme and in alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, promotes the inclusiveness of cultural heritage in Palestine. Urban heritage in Palestinian cities and towns is the arena to mark a successful experiment in this regard, despite its relatively small area in the expanding Palestinian cities. Urban heritage can provide places of creativity and offers fulfilment of people’s aspirations for a distinctive living experience as it is built according to a human scale that allows for walkability, interconnectedness, and mixed uses, and has the capacity to provide services in inviting outdoor spaces. In addition, urban heritage places are nodes of economic activities for creative industries and craftsmanship, generating jobs through cultural productions that include, for example, glass, ceramics and pottery in Hebron, olive wood and mother of pearl artifacts in Bethlehem, and soap and sweets in Nablus.

A panoramic view of the Old Town of Nablus. Photo by Junaid Sorosh-Wali.

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UNESCO’s experience in Palestine, gained through numerous types of cultural heritage projects, reveals the role that Palestinian urban heritage can play in enforcing an inclusive society and identity within cities. Recently, UNESCO worked closely with the Palestinian government to prepare two conservation and management plans for the World Heritage Sites “Birthplace of Jesus: Church of the Nativity and the Pilgrimage Route, Bethlehem” and “Palestine: Land of Olives and Vines – Cultural Landscape of Southern Jerusalem, Battir.”iii As the purpose of these plans is to provide effective management of the sites for sustainable use, UNESCO called for and assured the development of

management systems that are people-centered, embrace public knowledge and know-how, promote free access and use of heritage places, and secure their adequate conservation and transmission to future generations.

Other recent examples of the role of urban heritage as inclusive places and constituents of identity are the Old Town of Nablus and Sebastiya, which are among the 13 sites listed on the Tentative List of Palestine,iv a list that comprises the properties that Palestine considers for future nomination to the World Heritage List. At the request of the Palestinian government, UNESCO has provided technical support by addressing

The village of Battir. Photo by Inas Deeb.

Palestinian pottery comes in traditional and new designs and forms.

Mother-of-pearl box.

UNESCO is actively engaged in preserving Palestinian cultural heritage to foster a strong sense of identity among current and future generations and to provide public spaces that promote social cohesion based on the principle of inclusiveness.

challenges to urban development in the archaeological sites of the Roman Hippodrome and Amphitheatre, which are in the proximity of the Old Town of Nablus and an integral part of the site listed on the Tentative List of Palestine as “Old Town of Nablus and its environs.”v An urban development program was proposed by private developers over the archaeological site without taking into account the unquestionable cultural value of the site and its importance for the city’s inhabitants and identity. Even though they are located on privately owned property, and without undermining the owner’s rights, UNESCO has called on the Palestinian government to conserve the site due to its unique heritage values, proposing to turn it into an archaeological park that is accessible to all. A heritage site in the heart of the city can play a great role in educating youth and in promoting social inclusion through hosting public meetings and diverse communal activities.

Even when sites are in a degraded state, the proper attention of people and authorities can transform urban heritage into public venues that help compensate for the lack of inclusive urban spaces in today’s Palestinian cities. UNESCO realized this in 2014 in the Nablus area, when the abandoned archaeological site of Tell Balata,vi identified with the ancient Shechem

and containing unique remnants from the Middle and Late Bronze Ages – dating from around 2000 until 1100 BC – was transformed into an archaeological park that provides explanations and historical background and features a visitor’s center. Built after comprehensive conservation research and with proper management, the venue has enabled the local community to reconnect with the site, encouraging individuals and groups to interact and better understand the significant role of the site and cultural heritage in their lives.

The same applies to the Roman Forum in Sebastiya, which is an open space that awaits the possibility to reclaim its

Soap is stacked up in delicate towers to dry.

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ancient central role as a gathering space and venue for social negotiations. The Palestinian government is implementing an optimistic program that aims to regenerate the historic town in Sebastiya and the surrounding villages, and thus looks at the potentials of such a space. UNESCO, while supporting this initiative, advises the Palestinian government on suitable ways of applying physical interventions in the forum without undermining its values. Guiding principles, developed by UNESCO and approved by the

Palestinian government, were shared with the project’s designer architect. They emphasize the main principles of creating a communal heritage space accessible to all social groups on the basis of equality, while meeting local economic development needs.

As Palestinian urban heritage is a significant part of the identity of the cities and peoples, the demands for its preservation is increasing day by day. Socio-economic needs, urban pressures, and neglect, if they continue

Archeological site of Sebastya (Basilica and the Forum). Photo courtesy of Palestine Image Bank.

Tel Balata Archaeological Park (in the center of the image) Nablus. Photo by Dr. Gerrit.

at the current pace, will deprive this heritage of its strong and attractive values. The preservation of inclusive urban heritage will not only protect its physical assets, it will also transmit its spirit in forms of diversity and pluralistic traits for future generations, hence transmitting an intact identity.

Ahmad Junaid Sorosh-Wali is the head of the Culture Unit and a Culture Programme Specialist at UNESCO Ramallah Office. He has worked with UNESCO since 2003, first in the Tangible Heritage Section until 2005, then at the World Heritage Centre as Focal Point for Western, Nordic, Baltic and South-East Mediterranean Europe before joining UNESCO Ramallah Office. Mr. Sorosh-Wali holds a master’s degree in architecture and another in heritage conservation.

Mohammad Abu Hammad is an architect and urban planner, holding a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Birzeit University and a master’s degree in urban studies (4CITIES in Urban Studies) from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. He has 13 years of experience in the fields of architecture, urban planning, and cultural heritage in Palestine. He currently works as a project coordinator in the culture unit at UNESCO Ramallah Office.

i UN Habitat: https://unhabitat.org/books/first-state-of-palestine-cities-report-recommends-national-urbanization-policy/. ii The 1954 Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict with Regulations for the Execution of the Convention (Accession March 22, 2012); the 1954 Protocol to the Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict (Accession March 22, 2012); the 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property (Ratification March 22, 2012); the 1972 Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (Ratification December 8, 2011); the Second Protocol to the Hague Convention of 1954 for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, March 26, 1999 (Accession March 22, 2012); the 2001 Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage (Ratification December 8, 2011); the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (Ratification December 8, 2011); the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (Ratification December 8, 2011).iii Palestine: Properties inscribed on the World Heritage List (3), UNESCO, available at https://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/ps.iv Available at https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/state=ps.v Tentative List: “Old Town of Nablus and Its Environs,” UNESCO, available at http://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5714/.vi More information about Tel Balata Archaeological Park project and site’s history is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TB4vaRrHk38 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n_dbYJTxH0.

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SA Win-Win Model for ReplicationPalestinian Cultural Heritage: from Preservation to Revitalization

By Walid Hasna andMotaz Dawabsheh

here is no doubt that the challenges facing Palestinian cultural heritage are enormous, specifically the preservation of cultural heritage sites such as historical buildings and monuments. As a result of the occupation and with the prolonged siege on Gaza, hundreds of sites have deteriorated due to having been neglected and abandoned, a situation that is frequently exacerbated by limited access and fragile financial allocations for preservation. This applies not only to sites located in Area C, East Jerusalem, and Gaza, but also to the centers of major cities and villages. Questions that come to mind include: Why are new service facilities proposed when cultural heritage monuments are deteriorating and remain unused? Or more precisely, why are historical village centers left to decay as new construction is planned, or taking place, for community centers, service facilities, and other institutions? Not only in the old city of Hebron – which was recently proposed for listing as a World Heritage Site – are a number of historical spaces closed and unutilized, this is also the case for sites located in the Old City of Jerusalem and others in cities throughout the West Bank and Gaza.

Efforts made by the government to place the preservation of historical sites on the national agenda are well appreciated, and the role of civil society organizations and NGOs is very significant.

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However, there is a need to explore new mechanisms of response. The fact that historical sites remain unused should be considered a critical risk, and we must move strategically into revitalization dynamics.

Challenges are becoming increasingly apparent; they have been clearly identified and outlined in a number of studies. Solutions, however, must offer new platforms for the protection of Palestinian cultural heritage sites. Efforts must aim to unleash their productivity and increase their role within a greater national vision that acknowledges their contribution to the reinforcement of identity and to social cohesion.

Palestinian contemporary furniture designs introduced at Khan Al-Wakaleh in Nablus through a UNIDO - UNDP partnership.

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Thus, new development niches must be explored in the quest to fulfil the aspirations of the Palestinian people towards sustainable development while preserving heritage, and more sustainable and nationally driven initiatives must take into consideration the historical and geographical location of Palestine. But more importantly, conservation efforts must be framed as win-win drivers. We must move from a re-active to a pro-active mode, from preservation –which is indeed an urgent priority – to revitalization (taking preservation as a backup option).

Taking into account such considerations, UNDP’s Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian People (UNDP/PAPP) has preserved numerous Palestinian cultural heritage sites and has proposed a new model of revitalization to tackle an important question: How can we ensure sustainable preservation and regular maintenance of sites when we must operate within the context of harsh financial conditions and have limited resources available for culture heritage? UNDP has proposed an innovative approach for the operation and management of cultural heritage sites by encouraging partnerships among the public and private sectors, using public-private partnership (PPP) models. This initiative has been generously supported by the European Union and has targeted two key historical sites, namely Khan al-Wakaleh in Nablus, which had not been functioning for many years, even though investments had been made for its preservation; and the magnificent Maqam an-Nabi Musa in Jericho, a unique monument that plays a central role in history. It has shaped Palestinian national identity but unfortunately has been subject to years of abandonment, notwithstanding the annual Mawasem (seasonal festival) attended by a wide array of Palestinian institutions, specifically during the Easter season.

This EU-funded initiative was launched in full partnership and collaboration with Palestinian institutions that include the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, the Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs, and Nablus Municipality. It presents an integrated and coherent effort that aims to revitalize and change mindsets and introduce structural changes at the institutional level. To this end, historical documentation was utilized in the drafting of preservation plans, and operations and management strategies were developed to meet stakeholders’ targets in terms of sustainable cultural, social, and economic outcomes. In addition, the need for new investment by the Palestinian private sector was acknowledged. It serves as a catalyst, while the authenticity of the sites and their integrity were given priority over commercial goals.

As part of this initiative, the selection of operators – albeit not an easy task – was well managed. Among the key constraints that had to be tackled were sustainable preservation and regular maintenance. Securing support and assistance for the operation and management of these sites is more difficult as it requires a substantial commitment to continued capacity assistance.

A number of strategic objectives can be achieved that include the sustainable maintenance of targeted sites and their preservation in accordance with internationally acknowledged best practices. This approach creates new permanent job opportunities for the local community; furthermore, it benefits the historical value of a site, as it becomes part of the overarching effort to create an attractive tourism map in Palestine that can cope with the growing demand posed by domestic and international tourism activities. Palestine has recently been classified as one of the top countries among the fastest-growing tourist destinations. At the level of the private sector, it has been vital to explore new investment opportunities, particularly regarding tourism and cultural heritage and the creation of new social enterprise platforms. At the level of Palestinian institutions, it is essential to efficiently and effectively manage the generation of revenues to facilitate serving new sites. To this end, revolving and matching funds must be secured for re-investment in order to enhance the

national capacities for better oversight and supervision, and for the marketing of new touristic destinations. Ultimately, and in the long term, UNDP operates under the ambitious goal of reducing its critical dependency on donor allocations for the preservation of cultural heritage sites and historical buildings.

The revitalization of cultural heritage sites is a positive asset that serves to safeguard their existence, strengthen a sense of identity, enhance social cohesion, create entertainment and social venues, generate jobs, increase expertise and know-how, and enrich education.

Khan Al-Wakaleh historical site in Nablus following rehabilitation and preservation works by UNDP with support from the EU.

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The institutional support of the Palestinian government represented a key stride, as it assisted in reviewing the existing legal frameworks and drafting legislation related to cultural heritage and tourism. It helped propose more efficient response mechanisms that reinforce the engagement of the Palestinian private sector while re-emphasizing the sites’ authenticity, integrity, and historical values. Such steps are timely and required during this stage of finalizing the endorsement of the first Palestinian national cultural heritage and tourism law. The institutional support offers a capacity-building package to the involved Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities departments towards activating the role of cultural heritage sites in supporting tourism strategic objectives.

The revitalization of the Khan al-Wakaleh historical site, serving as a first model of this scope at the national level, is an experience that deserves replication and upgrading. As mentioned previously, the site had not been fully utilized for many

years despite genuine preservation efforts. Nowadays, the site is an attractive and productive destination, listed on the most popular tourism hubs, such as booking.com and others. It offers 20 permanent direct jobs for local Palestinian youth and is managed by the Palestinian private sector. It is worthwhile mentioning that much of the furniture was manufactured by local industries in the city of Nablus.

UNDP, together with the EU and the Palestinian government, is looking forward to the success of the other pilot model, namely, Maqam an-Nabi Musa. Currently, the preservation and rehabilitation works are under way, with an anticipated completion date of October 2018. The operations and management agreement with the private sector has been signed between the Ministry of Awqaf and a group of talented Palestinian youth entrepreneurs. Both historic sites are directly managed by Palestinian women, thus providing significant success stories for the empowerment of women in Palestine.

This revitalization initiative, with the valued support of the European Union, has attracted interested partners and internal financing institutions, with current discussions taking place towards mobilizing additional support for upgrading and replication.

Investment in cultural heritage sites and the innovative connection with the tourism industry constitutes a way to safeguard and preserve Palestinian monuments and the national heritage treasury. It reactivates the role of the sites in line with their original functions, placing emphasis on their authenticity and integrity. This effort entails a collaborative approach of synergy and dialogue with active institutions, tapping into their existing know-how, knowledge, and experience. It shapes new dynamics that enhance the value chain at all levels and in different forms, thereby improving technical preservation capacities and bringing them in line with international cultural heritage guiding principles. Such endeavors strengthen technical and vocational education and training (TVET) and reinforce national capacities to develop plans for the sites’ operation and management. Placing the historical value of cultural

heritage at the heart of the process increases awareness of and advocacy for cultural heritage, enhances private-sector knowledge of details of such sites and practices, and encourages general participation in this social and economic responsibility for their preservation. Furthermore, we are leveraging for the role of cultural heritage as part of identity and development by introducing specialized forums in Palestinian textbooks. Last but not least, we call on Palestinian businesspersons in the diaspora to take note of and follow up on the emerging demand for preservation as a business-solidarity scheme.

Walid Hasna is the UNDP infrastructure for development team leader and has more than 30 years of experience in development in Palestine.

Motaz Dawabsheh, a program analyst at UNDP/PAPP, has 14 years of experience in development. Motaz also has an MA in sustainable development and institution building.

Article photos © Ahed Izhiman - UNDP/PAPP.

Rehabilitation works at Maqam an-Nabi Musa, supported by EU through UNDP.

General view of Maqam an-Nabi Musa - a spectacular dome-covered monument in Jericho.

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SA Modern Story of Embroidery

By Doa Wadiand Rania Filfil

alestinian heritage has evolved over many centuries to encompass clothing, embroidery, dance, music, food, proverbs, and several cultural aspects that form the identity of Palestinians inside the State of Palestine and in the diaspora. In his article, “Land, Heritage and Identity of the Palestinian People,” Majdi Shomali argues that this heritage evolved in agricultural communities where land was a main means of livelihood and production. Thus, by means of solid family values, Palestinians enshrined traditions and customs related to marriage, childbirth, child-rearing, provision of nourishment, clothing, folk medicine, and handicrafts. They expressed these values in proverbs, dance, stories, and ethical and social beliefs.

Embroidery occupies a central role in the culture and representation of the Palestinian population. Similar to other handicrafts – such as pottery, jewelry, and carpets – Palestinian costumes narrate the local stories from various areas of Palestine through their cut, stitches, and colors. In 1948, there were 800 populated Palestinian villages where women in the hilly and coastal regions used distinct colors and patterns that reflected their very specific hometown. The dresses bore the names of their origin: dress of Ramallah, dress of Majdal, dress of Gaza, dress of Akka, and so on. Mothers passed the craft on to their daughters along with the history of the land.

Following the forced displacement of Palestinians after the 1948 war, embroidery served as the guardian of Palestinian culture. It appeared in various guises: on garments worn by women, on the paintings of artists such as Suleiman Mansour and Nabil Anani, on modern Western-style costumes designed for women, etc. Owning and wearing an embroidered article of clothing grew into something equivalent to a national duty. Indeed, through these bright-colored cross stitches, Palestinian women were telling the world that their

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culture would survive and be shared with present and future generations.

In addition to its cultural value, embroidery is a source of income for many women and men. More recently, building on this tradition, the Business Women Forum – Palestine (BWF), which was established in 2006 with a focus on women’s socioeconomic empowerment, launched a capacity-building program for women designers. BWF is dedicated to women entrepreneurs and develops activities to promote their businesses. Many BWF members have left their fingerprints on the map of Palestinian businesses, regionally and internationally.

Indeed, BWF has been working with over 450 Palestinian women, 150 of whom work in embroidery, throughout the West Bank, including Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. To these women, embroidery is not only a skill they learned and inherited from their mothers and grandmothers, it is also a daily happening that fills their lives with beauty, color, and joy.

Equally as important, embroidery has empowered women with concrete opportunities, transforming more than 3,000 women into breadwinners for their households. Having benefited from entrepreneurship training, coaching, and mentoring, they have taken the industry a step further and introduced modern patterns and styles while preserving the genuine characteristics of Palestinian embroidery. We have started to see their designs on traditional and modern Western clothes and on jewelry, furniture, purses, and other accessories. Each woman has produced her own brand, focusing on special patterns or fixtures.

BWF, in collaboration with many partners, has organized local, regional, and global exhibitions for its beneficiaries. New ideas are

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always welcome, including knitting, crochet, traditional food products, and drawings and paintings of the Palestinian landscape, as well as entrants into the banking sector, IT, and other services. The beneficiaries have received training in business administration, financial management, marketing, social media, and quality control. They have learned about international markets and how to sell online. They have learned to stand for their rights and understand the intricacies of their contracts.

This success has encouraged BWF to seek more international opportunities for its beneficiaries, including visits to international fairs and the organization of a fashion show in New York and in Russia with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the International Trade Centre. Thus, BWF has managed to introduce Palestinian embroidery into the latest international fashion designs, galleries, and showrooms under the supervision of Parsons School of Design and the New York

The Business Women Forum–Palestine works to build the capacity of businesswomen and provide investment strategies and access to finance for women entrepreneurs and youth through the Business Development Center and the One Stop Shop, the technical and marketing arm of BWF. Furthermore, BWF encourages entrepreneurship through targeting young entrepreneurs whom it encourages to join either the business sphere or the labor market through tailored programs such as the Internship Programme, Promoting Success Through Promoting Role Models, and the “Wassalny” Programme. Advocacy and promotion of issues related to women in the business sector is another aspect of BWF’s engagement, as the organization has become the voice of women in the business and entrepreneurship sector. An active member in national teams for drafting relevant policies, its engagement includes the National Team for Women’s Employment in cooperation with the Ministry of Labor, the Task Force for National Export Strategy-Paltrade, SMEs, and Women’s Financial Inclusion, together with the Palestinian Monetary Authority. BWF is part of the regional consortium “WE’AM.” BWF counts on its partners, beneficiaries, and the society at large.

School of Design in the United States, and the University of Arts London in the United Kingdom. The event was part of the opening of LDNY Festival, a month-long series of events in London and New York at UN premises. More than 300 people attended the event, which was co-chaired by the associate administrator of UNDP and the executive director of UN Women, and attended by many other international figures.

Ms. Doa Wadi has been the executive director of the Business Women Forum–Palestine since 2008. She is a professional with more than 22 years of experience in business leadership and development. BWF is a nonprofit organization that was established in 2006 with a mission to strengthen the role of businesswomen as leaders in the Palestinian economy through advocacy, networking, and the provision of business services.

Dr. Rania Filfil is an active member of BWF. She is specialized in translation and interpretation and holds a PhD in theories of translation from the Sorbonne University - Paris. Her focus is primarily legal, economic, financial, and medical translation.

Article photos © Ahed Izhiman - UNDP/PAPP.

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The City of Cultures and Civilizations

The Place of Water-Science Innovation

The Source of Life for Jerusalem through the Centuries

Nominated as a Cultural and Heritage Site of Potential Outstanding Universal Value in Palestine

ocated three kilometers south of the Nativity Church, the site of Solomon’s Pools encompasses an area of 245,000 square meters. The site is part of the Closed Paradise Valley “Artas” in Bethlehem, and is a place rich in valuable archeological contents and cultural and natural heritage that was created over thousands of years and through a number of eras – Bronze,

Roman, Byzantine, Mamluk, Ottoman, British, etc.

The three large reservoirs known as Solomon’s Pools are partly excavated from the rock and partly constructed. These pools were the main section of an ancient waterway that supplied water to Jerusalem; it was the largest aqueduct in Palestine – 68 kilometers long – and used for many centuries to maintain a regular water supply to Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Herodian Mountain. The pools have the capacity to hold around 400,000 cubic meters of water, with a total area of 30,000 square meters. The pools are supported through water flow from aqueducts coming from Wadi Arrub and Wadi al-Biyyar; in addition to a number of ancient springs. Nowadays, the pools still function, but they face serious threats and challenges (see photos).

In response to the site needs, Solomon’s Pools Center (SPPD) is continuously working to protect and improve the conditions of Bethlehem Governorate and

Call for support

For all concerned parties who are keen on preserving our Palestinian valuable heritage, this is a call to join us to preserve and sustain the largest remaining cultural heritage site in Palestine: the Solomon’s Pools Area.

the Solomon’s Pools area, creating a safe environment for the preservation of the site’s valuable cultural, natural, and manmade landscapes, including the three ancient pools, the Ottoman Murad Castle, the Mediterranean forest and gardens, the museum, the archaeological components, and areas such as the castle’s stables, the aqueducts, the surface-water collection canals, and the huge pumps and filters.

Through presidential decree and ministerial resolution, the Solomon’s Pools site was named “Solomon’s Pools – the City of Cultures and Civilizations in Bethlehem,” as the main center for Bethlehem, the Arab Cultural Capital in 2020. Accordingly, SPPD’s strategic plan for the next five years is to protect the historical site and to reduce the threat level in preparation for the transition to becoming the City of Cultures and Civilizations.

Archeological, historical, natural, and architectural studies and assessments are taking place at the moment and will be followed by rehabilitation works for the lower pool carried out by the “EMERGENCY CONSERVATION OF THE LOWER POOL AT SOLOMON’S POOLS PROJECT,” which is funded by the US Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation. The site still needs lots of intervention to reach its optimal and sustainable status.

Email: sppd.preservation@gmail.com, solpools@solomonpools.com

Tel: +970-2-276-0376, +970-2-276-8250, Fax: +970-2-276-8251

Contact Person: S. Arch. George N. Bassous, Vice President and General Manager.

By S. Architect George N. Bassous

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y father has a remarkable passion for, even obsession with, details. For him, every activity must incorporate a loving attentiveness to detail: the shades of colors, the shapes and lines of forms, the lights on the surface, the perfect timing between activities. He is an artist, and I have gotten used to seeing the results of this obsession in his works. No doubt there is something mystical about it. But it’s not difficult to imagine the situations that arose when we children had to apply this same obsession with detail to other spheres of our lives: from the fear of the herculean task of tidying up our rooms under his eyes, to the advantages of creating the perfect fashion outfit; from the crazy race to get ready on time – his time – to the unforeseen consequences of asking his help on a school project, but also the resulting high marks.

There is one field, however, that became the favorite kingdom of his obsession: cooking. This came as a surprise to us because, when we were children, the maximum effort my father put into cooking was to open a can of tuna and a can of beans and add some raw onions. That’s it. Lunch ready in five seconds. I guess he started to feel a sort of incoherence between his behavior in the kitchen and his behavior elsewhere; so to resolve it, he decided to become the new dictator of the oven, the tyrant of seasoning, the despot of spices, but more than anything, he became the absolute supreme ruler of the art of cutting. He made us cut kilos and kilos of almonds until we achieved the flawless thickness: three cuts of the same measure along the vertical line, for perfect toasting. He lectured us

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The Perfect Cut

By Sabrin Hasbun

on the importance of cutting meat in an overly precise version of normal minced beef for the best roz u loz (rice with almonds) topping. The potatoes needed to be not too thin and not too thick to find their rightful place among the meatballs of kufta (a dish with fried meatballs, onions, and tomatoes, baked in sesame sauce) without burning and without being undercooked. The onions had to be like that, too, and the parsley, even thinner. And if you wanted the perfect salata bi-tahini (salad with sesame sauce), there was just one possible way to cut

the cucumbers and tomatoes: into tiny squares of 5 x 5mm. Chop chop.

My relationship with Palestinian cuisine at first traumatized my Italian-accustomed taste buds and evolved into the shock of a totalitarian cut.

Only after having grown up and having moved out of my

parents’ house to a faraway country did I recognize the value of that food obsession. I missed the exact quantity of tahini in

hummus, neither one drop less nor one drop more,

when eating supermarket hummus. Or the meticulous use of sumac – to augment the flavor, not to kill it – instead of that confused taste

that organizers of “Arab nights” try to give to their events, mixing together all the “exotic” cultures.

I even missed the perfect cut of almonds that allows their oily core to become crisp and sharp after browning. But more than

anything else I missed those little squares of tomato and cucumber, and the lemon, garlic, and tahini of salata bi-tahini. Now that I cannot spend my Sunday

mornings smelling my father’s food, listening to his singing, helping him cook, cutting the almonds, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, and

whatever else, I finally understand his obsession. It is only after having looked for years for the perfect cut, focusing on the details, that you get to the point where those tasks become a ritual. It’s not just cooking anymore, it’s not just punctiliousness or obsession, it’s affection for and delight in your culture, and the desire to pass it along to the new generation as it is, to prevent getting lost in that pigswill of easy exoticism.

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I remember one night, in Italy, when I was 16 or 17. My father was asked to prepare a Palestinian feast for a gathering with friends. We were all there to help, everyone doing something, under the vigilant eyes of my father. There was a woman, a friend of friends, whom we had met that night for the first time, and I was given the task of cutting the tomatoes and cucumbers with her. My father showed her his perfect cut, sharing with her his enthusiasm for a well-cooked dish. When my father left us to our task, she let go a bored snort.

“Is he always like that?” she asked me.

“What do you mean?” I answered.

Of course, I knew what she meant. She was questioning my father’s obsession with details and the perfect cut. She started to mock him and cut the tomatoes in the worst way possible, on purpose, and then tried to convince me that there was no need to cut them the way he wanted, that it would make no difference, that it was just my father’s way of imposing his male authority. You can imagine how, after so many years of cutting and cutting again until the perfect square was achieved, that option sounded slightly alluring. But there was something inside me that found this woman’s attitude extremely offensive. At that young age, I couldn’t give it a name, but now I realize that hers was a clear attitude of bigotry: the preconception that because my father was an Arab man, he couldn’t but impose his power, and that I, as an Arab woman, needed to be preached to and saved. That woman, who was rebelling against my father’s way of cutting those fresh tomatoes into tiny

squares and trying to form a kind of women’s league with me against male power, didn’t sound to me rebellious or bold or clever at all. To me, she was not fighting against Arab paternal authority as she might have thought. She was being disrespectful towards and misappropriating something of immense value to me. I knew that my father could sound like an annoying know-it-all at times, and at times I was tempted, too, not to listen to him and to cut all those vegetables in a more laid-back way. But no, there is something special in the obsession that my father has with the precise details of a recipe: the love for his country’s food and traditions, the desire to share the wisdom behind them, the duty to protect the importance of that perfect combination of raw ingredients, and the need to preserve that impeccable flavor that can only come from those perfectly cut pieces, from those exact shapes and measures, and from that exact quantity of oil, salt, and garlic. No less, no more. That woman’s rebellious act was stupid and ignorant. She didn’t realize the significance and richness of my father’s actions. She only wanted to see a man who was telling her what to do. I saw a father who was trying to teach and pass on to me his love for Palestine and Palestinian food.

Sabrin Hasbun is an Italian-Palestinian transnational writer and blogger. She has always had to mediate between two cultures, and every day for her is a kind of journey across borders. Italy and Palestine are her two countries and form the focus of her writing, but in the last few years she has lived in France, Japan, and the United Kingdom and has been part of the academic worlds of the University of Pisa, the Sorbonne University of Paris, and Bath Spa University, where she is currently doing her PhD in creative writing. You can follow her experiences at www.sabrinisnothere.com.

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SCultural Heritage and Tourism

By Mays Yatim-Salsa

he culture and heritage sector has become known worldwide as a leading component of the tourism industry and as influential in the revitalization of open spaces and traditional buildings to be used for modern functions. As it is increasingly incorporated into economic development and employment growth strategies, this sector is not only a major global industry that generates income but also proof of cultural identity and a means to safeguard cultural heritage.

Tourism has always been a major industry in Palestine since it constitutes approximately 15 percent of the GDP. More than one-quarter of the working population are employed and involved directly and indirectly in the tourism industry. During 2017 more than 2.7 million tourists visited Palestine, with the first half of the year witnessing the most dramatic rise in tourism, according to data published by the UN World Tourism Organization.

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Hisham’s Palace. Photo courtesy of Tarek Khawaja, Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

Given that cultural heritage is an asset that can be utilized to enhance tourism and economic development, Palestine is implementing conservation projects that respond to current needs while preserving identity and traditional practices.

Many Palestinian tourism sites receive huge numbers of visitors – which is crucial for Palestine – yet a high percentage of visitors are pilgrims who only target religious sites. This has precipitated the need for Palestinians to work towards diversifying their marketing strategies and providing new approaches to tourism, promoting, safeguarding, and protecting Palestinian cultural heritage, and using it as a tool for economic growth and development in order to attract visitors who are interested wholly or partially in the historical, cultural, artistic, and heritage offerings.

Consequently, Palestine has redefined cultural heritage tourism as an important ingredient for development and sees it as a pioneer approach that generates income and contributes to improving the population’s living conditions through upgrading the physical historical fabric, archeological sites, and cultural landscape, bringing the historical centers back to life and promoting the hiking trails.

Among the wide range of cultural heritage projects that have been implemented to boost development, the most valuable and remarkable will be mentioned here. The Rehabilitation of Hisham’s Palace in Jericho,

funded by the government of Japan, is one of the pioneer projects led by the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities to link cultural heritage with tourism. This project, which involves removing rubble to uncover the world’s largest mosaic floor for public display, is expected to boost tourism in Palestine and Jericho, develop tourism services, and generate income.

Efforts to preserve cultural heritage and cultural identity, as well as to promote tourism are also being made in Jerusalem. The valuable pioneer initiative of the Custody of the Holy Land, The Creation of the Flagellation Museum in Jerusalem, highlights Palestinian cultural identity.

Syriac Hosh was rehabilitated in 2013 for adaptive reuse as a guest house in the heart of the historic center of Bethlehem.

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The Rehabilitation of An-Nabi Musa Complex in Jericho aims to prolong the visit time spent in this maqam (shrine) through promoting it as a tourism destination that includes a guest house, a bazaar, and a restaurant.

The Rehabilitation of Khan Al-Wakaleh in Nablus for adaptive reuse as a cultural center was implemented in cooperation with the private sector and funded by the European Union through the UNDP. This initiative employs cultural heritage resources to enhance the experience of tourists and visitors, thus contributing to creating alternative destinations that encourage them to extend their stay in the area, benefiting the local community.

Palestine has contributed much to the tourism sector through the rehabilitation of historic centers and the development of cultural heritage as a primary tourism product. This has been achieved through the implementation of a project titled The Regeneration of Historic Centers Targeting 12 Clusters in the West Bank. Funded by the Kingdom of Belgium through the Ministry of Local Government, this intervention

supports regeneration planning and practice, as well as policy development in Palestine.

At the same time, a range of projects were implemented in the Bethlehem Governorate to promote hiking paths and improve tourism facilities and services. One of these valuable projects is The Rehabilitation of Star Street in Bethlehem, funded by the government of Russia through the Bethlehem Municipality. This project aims to develop the street, transforming it into a vibrant route that leads to the Church of the Nativity, a World Heritage Site.

The Rehabilitation of the Historic Center of Beit Sahour was funded by the Italian government through the Palestinian Municipalities Support Program (PMSP), the government of Sweden through Sida, and USAID through Compete Project, implemented by the Centre for Cultural Heritage Protection (CCHP). This project aims to protect the built-up heritage and urban fabrics, bringing them back to life in terms of the cultural, social, religious, economic, and tourism sectors, and providing temporary and permanent job opportunities.

Old Market Square in Beit Sahour, which was revitalized as a public space for the city’s various cultural, social, and tourism activities.

The Handicraft Village at Dar Sababa and Ishaq in Beit Sahour.

Maqam Nabi Mousa, near Jericho. Photo by Ayman.

The Enhancement of Walking Trails in Battir, funded by the government of Italy through Battir Municipality, will contribute significantly to enhancing the tourism sector in the area and promoting it as an agri-tourism destination.

The Rehabilitation of the Historic Center of Araba, funded by the Arab Fund through the Welfare Association, aims to revitalize the historic center and improve its urban fabric.

Rehabilitation for adaptive reuse can be and, in our case, is rooted in the immediate needs of the community. Several traditional buildings were rehabilitated in Battir, Bethlehem, Sebastiya, Beit Sahour, and Tulkarem for the adaptive reuse of guest houses funded by the government of Italy through the Ministry of Local Government. The project provided a chance for visitors to explore and experience the architecture. In fact, a guest house in the heart of the historic centers contributes to the revitalization of its cultural heritage and history, and its integration into the tourism experience.

The axiom of cultural heritage projects is the improvement of quality of life, the preservation of cultural assets, and the development of the socio-economic sphere, of which tourism holds a major share. In spite of the current stalemate, tourism is foreseen

to remain the major economic activity in the Palestinian sector in the future. That is why the orientation of pioneering heritage work leans towards the social and economic development of the local community and tends to explore the best ways to bring maximum benefits to communities and small-scale service providers.

Numerous initiatives have been led by Palestinian cultural heritage organizations, the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, and the Ministry of Local Government, which worked closely with private and public stakeholders throughout the implementation of projects to define strategies for the revitalization of these centers. The involvement of the various stakeholders ensures the sustainability of the revitalization process, which encourages the participation of everyone in the process of urban development, thus contributing to a successful tourism and pilgrimage industry in Palestine.

Mays Yatim-Salsa’ holds an MA in tourism management and development of tourism services. She has been working at the Centre for Cultural Heritage Preservation (CCHP) in Bethlehem since 2007, as the head of the Awareness and PR Unit.

Hosh Abu Jarour in Bethlehem, the first icon school in the Middle East.

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SMy Father’s House

By Huda Imam

oday is the anniversary of my father’s passing. He died when I was a teenager, still young and reckless, and more interested in engaging with boys than with my parents. I didn’t have proper time to say goodbye to him nor to share the secrets in his heart, which would have normally been my rite of passage had I been an adult. Looking back now, I realize that he didn’t want to burden me with the grief that he kept inside himself all those years, the trauma related to those fateful events in 1948 when he lost his home, his city, and his country – a catastrophe that has become known as the Nakba, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were displaced from their homes to make way for the new Jewish immigrants. It was an injustice that my father endured, along with the deeply buried pain which was passed on to me through his DNA.

Somehow, the longing that I have for my father, whom I miss immensely, has become inextricably linked with my longing to be near his house in Baqa’a. The home my father grew up in is near the Old City’s Chain Gate, which leads to Al-Aqsa Mosque; however, the house he built and chose to live in still lies in the Greek Colony neighborhood in West Jerusalem. Not a week goes by that I don’t go with my son to stand outside the house. It’s a ritual that I have become accustomed to. While other families on Fridays go to the mosque to pray or gather together to share a meal, I take my son and we travel the three kilometers or so from Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem to West Jerusalem to breathe in the view of the house. I say “breathe” because that’s exactly what it’s like. We stand quietly side by side, and our eyes fixate on the stately well-crafted home with jasmine, lemon, pomegranate, and azkadinya (loquat) trees in the garden; we soak

TTiles repossessed from my father’s house in West Jerusalem are today in my house in Sheikh Jarrah.

The house is the primary space in which modern human beings live, the place where we form social ties and learn about our culture; emerging from our homes, we connect to and interact with our community. The appropriation or destruction of a home affects individuals and societies in ways that go far beyond the physical aspect of losing a roof over one’s head.

in the atmosphere, and we reminisce. Memories of my father come flooding back, and my mind plays tricks on me: I imagine that I am living there with mother, son, siblings, nephews, and nieces; and at my grandmother’s house, down the main road a few minutes away, we’re playing “nails on the rails” after school...

I am abruptly awakened from my dream by the vision of an Orthodox Jewish family passing by and pushing a stroller, casting a gaze our way; or the new inhabitants of my father’s home calling the police to forcibly remove me from the street overlooking my father’s house. But we are not the intruders here, a fact that is lost on the new residents of West Jerusalem, who largely hail from Europe.

The house of my father, Farid Imam.

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As part of our ritual, we follow up our visit with a French croissant from a patisserie in the German Colony area, not far from my father’s home. One can easily gaze at the people passing by and scan their faces, hoping to recognize someone who seems to belong to the place; they may say we are the strangers; however, as my son instinctively reflects, “they don’t seem to fit with this culture.” It is as though there is a gap between the new inhabitants and the environment.

On the thirtieth anniversary of my father’s death, I could choose to visit his tomb in Bab al-Sahira cemetery, but I don’t. I go instead to my father’s home, which is the place where I feel closest to him, and where I will always belong.

My story is shared by thousands of Palestinians all over the world who have also lost their homes and property and who dream of one day getting them back. Many Palestinian homes are in great demand due to their supreme quality and style. These homes have become the subject of several documentaries and websites produced over the past decade, and they have been used as well for educational and art purposes. Salim Tamari documented holistic information on Palestinian properties located in West Jerusalem that were lost in 1948,i as did Adnan Abdelrazekii and Abu Sitta.iii Cinematographically, Carol Mansour’s

Stitching Palestine reveals stories of women with the aspiration to “return.”iv Sahera Dirbas documented on camera how she accompanied families to the homes that were once theirs to directly witness their interactions with and feelings about the occupiers who wrongfully reside in these homes, a most moving experience.v In her book Golda Slept Here, Suad Amiry narrates personal stories of people and their homes. On social media, Alexandra Handal created a fascinating website called Dream Homes Property Consultants: Hot Properties, which describes how Israel advertises Palestinian homes as “Arab Style” to bring in a higher price. The website won second prize at Freedom Flowers Foundation’s 2015 Award Ceremony. She writes: “Expropriated Palestinian houses are ironically repackaged on the Israeli real estate market as ‘Arab-style.’ Their factual history is concealed behind this architectural euphemism. Taking the form of an online estate agency, this Web documentary art revisits the individual history of these homes, uncovering Palestinian stories of displacement, dispossession, and cultural cleansing from West Jerusalem.”vi To mark sixty years of the Nakba, a demonstration with huge media coverage was organized. People who wore T-shirts saying “Survivors of the Nakba” stood in front of their appropriated houses

Baramki House, today the Museum on the Seam. Haron al-Rashid House - the Bshrarat family.

in West Jerusalem. The outrageous Sheikh Jarrah injustice demonstrates the blunt discrimination applied when Israeli Jews claim properties in East Jerusalem. They are given access to these homes with complete government support, whereas Palestinians who owned houses in West Jerusalem have no rights to their property! I was arrested twice in front of my father’s house (at the request of the new occupiers/residents who did not wish to see me in the street) when I showed it to journalists or friends. But this applies not only to properties in what is now West Jerusalem. When I expressed solidarity with my neighbors who were evicted from our Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, I was arrested and put in prison; then the judge ruled that, for a period of three months, I was forbidden from entering Sheikh Jarrah, the place where I actually live!

Ben Gurion once proclaimed that the old (Palestinians) would die and the

young would forget, but the fourth generation of Nakba survivors have not forgotten, nor will they ever forget…

Young Palestinians today are actually busy preserving Palestinian heritage and culture through art, theater, storytelling, and cinema – a witness to their struggle to live the present with dignity even in the midst of the oppressive occupation!

Huda Farid Imam is a Palestinian by birth and lives in Jerusalem. She has worked in both academia and culture. Through her passion and profession, Huda strives to preserve Palestinian identity in Jerusalem.

i Salim Tamari, “Jerusalem 1948: The Phantom City,” Jerusalem Quarterly, available at http://www.palestine-studies.org/sites/default/files/jq-articles/3_Jerusalem_48_1.pdf; and “Jerusalem 1948: The Arab Neighborhoods and Their Fate in the War,” second revised and expanded edition, The Institute of Jerusalem Studies and Badil Resource Center, 2002, available at http://www.badil.org/phocadownloadpap/Badil_docs/publications/Jer-1948-en.pdf.ii Adnan Abdelrazek, The flourishing of Arab construction in occupied West Jerusalem (in Arabic). iii Abu Sitta, “The Atlas of Palestine (1917–1966),”The Palestinian Land Society, available at http://www.plands.org/en/maps-atlases/atlases/the-atlas-of-palestine.iv Available at Forward Film Production, https://www.forwardfilmproduction.com/stitching-palestine.v Stranger in my home Jerusalem, available at http://www.cultureunplugged.com/documentary/watch-online/play/10496/-Stranger-in-my-home--Jerusalem.vi For more information, please visit http://www.artraker.org/alexandra-handal/4578946139; and Freedom Flowers Foundation Awards 2015, available at http://www.freedomflowersfoundation.org/award2015.php.

Modern education combined with oral history is vital to preserve cultural identity.

My grandmother’s Aweidah House.

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SPreserving Palestinian Identity with Laughs

By Amer Zahr

omedy, in its purest form, is a mode of protest. And for me, as a Palestinian comedian, it’s my weapon of choice. Of course, in case the American or Israeli authorities are reading this, I mean “weapon” in the most nonviolent, freedom-loving, moderate interpretation possible.

And since Israel’s main goal since 1948 has been the eradication of Palestinian identity (and of Palestinians), most forms of Palestinian protest have taken on the less explicitly political form of cultural preservation. That’s right, everyone. Because of Israel’s constant denial of our existence and history, we are always protesting. Our mere presence has a constant gravity. Dabka is protest. Publishing a Palestinian cookbook is protest. Speaking Arabic is protest. Even eating hummus (and claiming it) is protest.

Back in December, the Internet erupted when American Food Network star Rachael Ray celebrated an “Israeli nite” of cuisine, replete with tabbouleh, stuffed grape leaves, and, yes, hummus. Many commentators reminded her nicely of Israeli aggression, violence, and

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appropriation. Some were academic. Others were angry. But I replied in the only way I knew how.

I produced a one-minute video detailing how to make Palestinian hummus. I quickly laid out my recipe. It’s quite simple and tasty, if I may say so. And no, to my Lebanese and Syrian friends, I don’t add garlic. After describing how to make Palestinian hummus, I turned to how one might make “Israeli hummus.” It went something like this:

“Now I’m going to teach you how to make Israeli hummus. It’s much easier. You just find a Palestinian who has made Palestinian hummus, kick him out of his house, and just say, ‘Zis is iskhaelli khummus.’”

That video got 500,000 views pretty quickly. AJ+, both English and Arabic, made corollary videos about my video, getting almost two million more views. Comedy turned out to be the best way to combat that attempt to appropriate our food, even if Rachael Ray had

absolutely no idea what she was doing, which, if you’ve ever watched her, is entirely possible.

As Palestinians, we spend a lot of time trying to keep our narratives alive. Many do it through writing novels. Others achieve it through poetry. Some sing. Lots of us engage in various kinds of activism, through legal channels, demonstrations, or simply sharing Palestine-related things on social media. I choose comedy.

You can get away with a lot as long as you’re making people laugh. Kings never cut off the jester’s head because he was hilarious. Humor is funny like that.

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A comedian has a sort of weird, disproportionate superpower. When I’m on stage, I’m holding the mic. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of people are waiting for me to say something. And I have the right to tell those who are rude or rowdy that they have to leave immediately. Of course, that comes with a huge responsibility too. I have to make people laugh. I can’t have a bad day at work like most other people. If I’m funny, people love me. If I’m not, well… it’s not good. If you were having a bad day, a good comedy show could turn that all around. A terrible comedy show could turn your bad day into something worse than you could have ever imagined.

To me, the best comedian is transparent, honest, and raw. And there’s nothing more raw than talking about being Palestinian. We Palestinians routinely feel the full spectrum of emotions on a daily basis. Sadness. Happiness. Depression. Jubilation. Optimism. Pessimism. Sometimes we get them all at the same time. Seventy years of occupation can really mess you up. Freud could have written a dozen books about us.

In the preface to my book Being Palestinian Makes Me Smile, I write:

“As a Palestinian, it can be very easy to become consumed by depression and despair. But I have always noticed that laughter and crying are not as different as they might seem. We have all seen people laugh so hard that they begin to cry. But have you ever seen people cry so hard that they begin to laugh? I have. See, not that different.”

Let me end by telling you a Palestinian story.

My mother was born in Akka in 1954. She’s been an Israeli citizen her whole life. She and her family were exiled from their hometown when she was a teenager. They ended up in California, where she attended college in her early twenties. She met my dad, a

Palestinian refugee who was born in Yaffa. He was raised in Amman and ended up in California for a PhD program in the 1970s. They fell in love, married, moved back to Jordan, had me in 1977, and then got kicked out of Jordan in 1979. I know this all sounds weird to most, but it’s pretty normal for us.

Anyway, I tell you all of that to tell you this. Even though I was born in Jordan and raised in the United States, I hold an Israeli passport. I always had the “right” to get it, thanks to an Israeli law that allowed for the children born abroad of Israeli mothers to get their passport. I never did it until 2014, when the Israelis denied me entry into Palestine when I was entering as an American citizen. I didn’t want to get banned from my homeland, so I obtained the citizenship of my

occupier through a legal loophole. I know this all sounds weird to most, but it’s pretty normal for us.

Anyway, I tell you all of that to tell you this. I now enter my homeland as a citizen of Israel. Luckily, for now, they can no longer deny me entry. Of course, this also means they can easily arrest me as a “national security threat,” give me “administrative detention,” and hold me for months on end with no formal charges or due process. I can’t reach out to my consulate. They’re my consulate. I know this all sounds weird to most, but it’s pretty normal for us.

Anyway, I tell you all of that to tell you this. I’ve now returned to my homeland a number of times using my Israeli passport. Now, you would think that, like in most countries, upon arrival, my fellow citizen border patrol agent would tell me something like, “Welcome home.” But that’s not exactly what happens.

Last time I entered, I handed the nice gentleman behind the glass window my native passport. Before opening it, he smiled widely, and then he uttered a few words in Hebrew. I smiled back, and I informed him, in English, that I don’t speak Hebrew. His mood quickly changed as he opened my passport and noticed my quite obvious and, as it turned out, quite annoying Arabic name. He went from visibly jovial to noticeably irritated.

But then it got even weirder. He looked at my photo, and then looked at me, still totally perturbed. He proceeded to pose a question that seemed quite peculiar to be directed to a citizen entering his own nation.

“What is the purpose of your visit?” he said.

I replied, “I’m coming home. What’s the purpose of yours?”

I think I ruined his day.

Amer Zahr in action.

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P e r s o n a l i t y o f t h e M o n t h

Issam Juha

When one explores the preservation of built-up cultural heritage in Bethlehem Governorate, Issam Juha emerges as a key figure who has made a significant contribution during his more than 15 years of work in this field. Architect Issam Juha, who was born in Bethlehem in 1977, studied at the Frères School and graduated from Birzeit University in 1999 with a BSc in architecture. Witnessing the important project of Bethlehem 2000 and its impact on the rehabilitation and revitalization of the three historic towns of Bethlehem, Beit Jala, and Beit Sahour, Issam decided to complete his studies in the field of cultural heritage, and in 2004 he earned an MA in world heritage studies from Brandenburg University of Technology, Germany. His master’s thesis tackled the issue of inscribing Bethlehem on the World Heritage List – a dream that he pursued and helped bring to reality through his work in preparing the first Palestinian nomination dossier to inscribe Bethlehem on the World Heritage List, which was achieved in June 2012.

In January 2004, Issam started his career as a conservation architect at the Centre for Cultural Heritage Preservation (CCHP). In February 2008, at the age of 31, the board of trustees headed by the Minister of Tourism and Antiquities entrusted Issam with the role of director of CCHP. This decision was the result of his proven skills and leadership capabilities. The center has flourished, doubling its staff from 10 to 20 employees and extending its mandate to cover the whole West Bank. Issam has played a major role in fundraising and has secured more than US$ 15 million to be invested in protecting cultural heritage resources in Palestine and utilizing these resources as a tool for socio-economic development, enabling CCHP to rehabilitate more than 80 historic buildings and 20 historic neighborhoods. Issam has taken part in the academic field as well through offering courses on cultural heritage and tourism for the BA and MA students at Bethlehem University.

This success was a main reason for nominating Issam as a candidate for the Bethlehem municipal elections of 2012. At the age of 35, Issam became the deputy mayor of Bethlehem. During his mandate, he contributed to the remarkable achievements of the Bethlehem Municipality in the field of development projects, but more importantly, he was a key person in the preparation and endorsement of the first bylaws in Palestine for the protection of the historic center and traditional buildings in Bethlehem. These bylaws were endorsed by the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and the Ministry of Local Government, and have been a pioneering example that has encouraged the municipalities of Ramallah and Beit Jala to contract

CCHP to implement similar projects and prepare bylaws for their historic centers and traditional buildings.

Earlier this year, Issam represented CCHP at the ICCROM-ATHAR Regional Conservation Centre in Sharjah, where he received the Award for Cultural Heritage Conservation in the Arab Region. The biennial award was designed to honor and reward remarkable works that contribute to the protection and vitality of tangible cultural heritage in the Arab world.

Issam remains active as an architect and is keen to continue contributing to the national efforts for the preservation of cultural heritage resources in Palestine.

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Three years of field study and literature review have culminated in The Arab Architectural Renaissance. This book presents the creativity that characterizes the architecture and urban development in what since 1948 has become known as the western part of occupied Jerusalem. It is an exploration of the potential of Palestinians when given genuine opportunities and appropriate incentives to excel in various fields of community development. The author aims to present evidence to counter the Zionist-orchestrated propaganda that claims that Palestine was a “land without people.” The resulting book lays out a different reality.

By the end of the Ottoman Empire, throughout the British Mandate, and until the war of 1947/49, Palestinian cities and towns flourished with remarkable architectural design and unique-quality urban development, notably in the New City of Jerusalem, located outside the walls of the Old City. The great Arab architectural renaissance of this time affected the construction style of houses, architectural conservation methods, and management of space in Palestine. It made use of rich material and decorative elements, demonstrating the effort to integrate Islamic and Mediterranean style with modern functional requirements in order to create its own distinctive style. Palestinian Jerusalemite families invested in highly individualized architecture that featured creative stone design around doors and windows, and stylized façades, as buildings were decorated with arched windows, columns, and multiple balconies and verandas. In some cases, pink limestone was applied to symmetrically trim windows and doorframes, balconies, and corners. Much of the gray or colored stone came from the famous limestone quarries in the Jerusalem area.

The reviewed Palestinian neighborhoods, which in 1948 fell under Israeli occupation, demonstrate the New City’s development and stand as remarkable evidence to the claim of this renaissance. At the time, these 12 quarters formed a continuous area of Arab housing that extended to the south and southwest of Jaffa Gate. It was

The Arab Architectural Renaissance in the Western Part of Occupied Jerusalem

A Historical and Current Review Based on Documents, Figures, Maps and Photos

By Adnan Abdelrazek, PhD Rimal Books, 2018, 112 pages, US$ 20

Bo o k o f t h e M o n t hpart of the architectural renovation of the Arab built environment to the north, west, and south of the Old City walls that took place roughly between 1860 and 1946. At the end of the Ottoman Era, family-owned and public buildings outside the walled city showed clearly differentiated styles. Dwellings constructed by foreign Christian institutions were large in scale and displayed a European character. They served mostly to accommodate Christian pilgrims, hospitals, and schools, and their uniqueness endures in places such as Notre Dame Center, the Russian compound, the Italian Hospital, and more. Private Arab castles and houses, however, display a clearly Arab/Middle Eastern style; they served as family homes for elite Jerusalemite families and include the Orient House, the Rabah Husseini castle, currently the American Colony Hotel, and the Nashashibi castle, to name just a few. The third housing type outside the city walls constituted the densely populated Jewish neighborhoods that accommodated poor communities and Jewish pilgrims, such as Mea Shearim, Bati Ongrin, Nahlat Tzvi, and others.

The British Mandate administration designed plans that outlined five major zones in an effort to modernize and legalize the construction of city

buildings, roads, and the public domain. Simultaneously, it prepared for the implementation of the Zionist scheme of establishing a Jewish national home in Palestine and Jerusalem. This triggered Arab resistance, which culminated in the 1936/39 revolt. The book briefly reviews the 1936 Palestinian General Strike and subsequent developments.

The colonial scheme and the disastrous ramifications of the Nakba began with the imposition of the Partition Plan in Palestine. Orchestrated by the Zionist movement and its Western allies, it resulted in the creation of Israel on the majority of historical Palestine. During the 1947/49 war and shortly after, Palestinians lost close to 78 percent of their land, and more than 50 percent of the population were driven from their homes. The study sheds light on the cleansing of the Palestinian population from the western areas of occupied Jerusalem and the appropriation of their houses and property. The book ends by displaying in numbers the superiority of the Arab architectural renaissance before 1948 over the construction that took place after 1948 in the Jewish parts of the city.

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Ar t i s t o f t h e M o n t h

It was a cloudy, grayish winter morning when I drove up to Nazareth in December of 2002 with Erik Hillestad, the famous Norwegian producer, to introduce him for the first time to Rim. I called her a few days earlier to tell her about Erik and to ask her if she would be willing to meet him. “Those foreigners,” she said, “they come here with ulterior motives. I do not know what they want from me, and I do not like it.” Rim was, of course, referring to the loads of foreign producers who usually come with big luring budgets to produce Israeli/Palestinian artistic collaborations under the so-called “peace-building” projects. Rim, as many Palestinians, saw this as a way to whitewash Israel’s crimes and atrocities in front of the world, and was in no way willing to take part in any of it, regardless of the huge financial benefits that such endeavors could have brought her. I had to argue with her for about 10 to 15 minutes to convince her that this was a different kind of “foreigner” and that the mere fact that he was coming to record lullabies from the countries that President Bush had labeled the axis of evil said a lot about him and his project. Reluctantly she accepted. When we arrived, Erik wanted to record Rim’s voice on a portable recording device that he had brought with him, so they went into another room to do that. When they came out of the short recording session, Erik was in tears, so moved by the power of Rim’s voice. This was the impression Rim and her crystal-quality voice had on people. And this was the start of a prosperous musical relationship between Rim and Erik that resulted in numerous CD productions, the latest – Voice of Resistance – to be released this coming April, and tens of concerts worldwide.

I still remember the first time I met Rim, which was at Walid Abdulsalam’s house in Ramallah in the late 1980s. She had come with her mother Zuhaira just after returning from Russia (Soviet Union at the time), where she had finished her musical studies. She sang for us with no accompaniment and was delightful. Later, in 1992, I invited Rim to perform at the first festival I organized which was the Birzeit Arts Festival. From that early start, she sang her own songs and made a huge impression on her audience. This resulted in a long-term musical relationship between us, as she became part of the programming of most of the festivals that I was involved in, including the Palestine International Festival, the Jerusalem Festival, and the Jasmin Festival.

Some criticized Rim because she did not sing in the Arabic traditional way, but this was what was unique about her. She sang in her own way, a style not like any other, inimitably distinctive. Rim’s beautiful voice and the melodious songs she composed herself were not the only factors behind her success. She captivated audiences with her great charisma and stage presence, her beautiful smile, traditional dresses, and the dazzling silver accessories for which she was famous. The cherry that topped the cream on Rim’s uniqueness was her unfaltering political fortitude that was expressed through her songs – the stand she took

Rim BannaA Unique Musician and Human

Being Who Will Be Hugely MissedBy Suhail Khoury

against all kinds of injustice, whether in Palestine or anywhere else in the world. Like her voice, Rim’s political views were always crystal clear. Being from Nazareth, she could have enjoyed the financial and logistical support of various Israeli cultural bodies. Rim, however, never went down that path. She always stood by her people and their struggles for freedom, and refused any kind of relationship with the occupiers. She was an inspiring figure to all her followers, who were in the millions all over the world. She was a phenomenal person, a very humble artist, and a down-to-earth singer who had become an icon of Palestinian resistance songs.

A week before Rim died, Rania, my wife, and I decided to visit her. As we stood by her hospital bed hardly daring to initiate conversation since she was so very frail, dozing off from time to time, it became apparent that this was our final goodbye. We later remembered her lovely home full of beautiful plants and exquisite scents of herbal teas and healthy vegetarian cuisine that she always offered when we visited. Nevertheless, and in an attempt to raise her spirits, we made it a point to say that we were waiting for her to release her new CD at the Jerusalem Festival next August. She looked at us with her beautiful distinctive smile and said, “Yes, of course.” It seemed then that it was our spirits that needed salvation not hers, as Rim’s morale was as powerful as ever.

One week later, on the morning of Saturday, March 24, 2018, we received the sad news that Rim had finally lost the long battle with cancer. As we prepared to leave Jerusalem for Nazareth, I asked Rania if she knew whether Rim was Christian or Muslim, just so I would know what type of funeral ceremony to expect. Christian, I think, she answered. Reflecting on that, I realized that after thirty years of knowing Rim, not knowing her religion was yet another aspect of her uniqueness. She was simply a wonderful human being whom everyone loved.

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Ex h i b i t i o n o f t h e M o n t h

Stone Stills Johny AndoniaAl Ma’mal Foundation for Contemporary ArtAl-Jawalida Street, New Gate, Old City, Jerusalem

By Rana Anani

Johny Andonia’s Stone Stills liberates stones from their physical functionality as construction material by emphasizing their aesthetic qualities. He is particularly interested in flawed stones left aside, rejects in the small stone-carving workshops. Out of these leftovers, he creates temporary structures, rather intimate compositions that elevate these discarded stones to the status of “still life” objects in his paintings.

Natural lines negotiate their ways through unique contours, tones, and textures, with shades of grey, pink, yellow, and transparent white. The stones pose in the paintings with their cracks and fractures reflecting imperfection but also boasting the magical beauty of Palestinian geology. The strong sense of calmness and purity reflected in the paintings contradicts the stones’ own reality as representations of a fading traditional craft.

Andonia’s passion for stones came about as a result of spending a significant part of his childhood in and around small stone-carving workshops in Bethlehem that belonged to his mother’s family, a craft that is slowly disappearing along with its old-fashioned tools that are no longer suitable for a fast-paced age of commercialization. In a sense, painting cracked and broken stones with distinct bends and curves becomes a sort of documentation of the ways stone is cut and curved, and of a waning traditional craft.

In his first paintings in the series, the shadows, the background, and the shelf appear in a clear manner. Yet as he progresses into the project, the settings gradually

disappear, leaving the stone structures seemingly suspended in the void. Standing coldly on the shelf or hanging in midair in a heavy act of retreat, the stones in Andonia’s paintings look somewhat like gravestones waiting for a burial to occur. Their stillness suggests a testimony to the disappearance of a small craft in the face of atomization and industrial advancement hastening a future without restraints. Quarries eating big chunks of the Palestinian mountains have become more of an

ordinary scene around Bethlehem, where Andonia comes from, and elsewhere in Palestine. Another act of destruction that is faced with a state of silence and numbness.

Stone Stills is an invitation not only to appreciate the aesthetics of stones beyond their normal functionality but also to contemplate the state of stones and their masons who are transformed into still and silent spectators of events.

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Wh e r e t o G o

There is no better way to explore the rich agricultural fields of Jenin than by passing through them on foot. In springtime, beautiful carpets of khobezeh (common mallow) that extend along the edges of barley and wheat fields await the hikers. Some might not know that this wild plant is actually one of the delicacies of the season. The healthy leaves taste great when sautéed with onions and olive oil. Wildflowers grow everywhere and add vivid colors to the overwhelming greenness of the place; among them are cyclamens, anemones, wild mustard, mountain tulips, and various kinds of orchids.

A Stroll through the Fields of Jenin

Courtesy of VisitPalestine.ps

The area offers a spectacular sensory experience, especially during spring, when everything is freshly green and ready to be picked from a patch and eaten along the way. Imagine passing through fields of green onions dotted with wild fennel plants. Of course, out of respect for the farmers’ hard work, be sure to taste only modest amounts of the goods, and, when possible, ask the owner’s permission before indulging. Palestinian farmers are very generous and often share their crops with passers-by. So in addition to being invited to stop for a cup of tea or coffee (when available), you might be offered a head of fresh lettuce or a handful of

green almonds to enjoy along the way.

Having a Palestinian guide who grew up in the area or at least somebody who speaks Arabic well to accompany you on the trek would be a great advantage. That person could introduce you to others living in the area and create connections with a variety of local people – for example, the Bedouins, who lead a simple life and take care of their animals, and the hard-working farmers, who can often be seen on their tractors, plowing their fields.

If you would like to spend a weekend in the Jenin region and walk a specific, official trail, you could follow the Masar

The plains of Jenin.

Ibrahim al-Khalil (www.masaribrahim.ps). Start your weekend with a hike from Rummana to Burqin, stay overnight in Burqin, and on the next day continue towards Arraba. The hike will take you through groves of massive, ancient Roman olive trees and lands dotted with orange pottery shards that also date to Roman times. One of the important sites in the area is the elegant Burqin Church that is believed to mark the spot where Jesus healed ten lepers of their disease (Luke 17:11–19). The old core of Arraba is also a place that should not be missed. The town is known for its splendid palaces that date to the Ottoman period. The mansions were built by the Abd el-Hadi family that was, at the time, actively engaged in local and international politics.

Arranging a local family homestay (available in many places across Palestine) offers an interesting alternative to typical guesthouse or hotel accommodations. Spending time with a local family can offer insight into Palestinian culture, traditions, and cuisine; and if you’ve been studying Arabic, it provides a great opportunity to practice. The families often prepare delicious traditional meals such as maqloube (a rice and vegetable delicacy with chicken or meat) or warak dawali (stuffed grape leaves), which are rarely available in restaurants.

Travel tip: Jenin can be reached conveniently by public transportation from Ramallah or Nablus. Shared taxis can take you to the smaller villages in the Jenin area for around five to eight shekels per person.

To learn more about various sites in Palestine, visit our website at www.visitpalestine.ps, or contact the Visit Palestine Information Center in Bethlehem via info@visitpalestine.ps or (02) 277-1992, or visit us in Bethlehem.

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Sacred CuisinePreserving Traditions and Experimenting with InnovationChef Izzeldin Abdul Aziz Bukhari

I first experienced Sacred Cuisine at a taco-night event at Garage Restaurant in Ramallah last autumn. Each plate was served with made-from-scratch tofu tacos and rice and beans. Subtle but distinct flavors emerged with each bite. A few months later, Sacred Cuisine creator and chef Izzeldin Abdul Aziz Bukhari volunteered to prepare a spinach, beet, and feta salad and quinoa stuffed bell peppers for the Dalia Association’s Make a Difference with Your Meal fundraising dinner. Izzeldin explains that the Sacred Cuisine initiative provides an opportunity to combine his passion for food with the various elements of his ancestral roots. His descendants arrived in Jerusalem in 1616 from Bukhari, Uzbekistan, to establish a Sufi center, which still exists near the Haram in the Old City. Every Thursday after meditation, the Bukharis would cook a meal to share with the community. Sacred Cuisine embraces the good practices and principles that Izzeldin grew up with in his Sufi family in Jerusalem: prepare simple food that is acquired with minimal harm and pain in order to nourish his community. The menu thus consists of vegan and vegetarian meals made from local products using natural ingredients and minimal packaging. According to Izzeldin, his food aims to ensure a sustainable livelihood while reclaiming history and facts for the conscientious eater.

You can experience Sacred Cuisine through its pop-up kitchens at local markets across Palestine as well as on special nights organized by local restaurants. In addition to cooking meals in pop-up kitchens and local restaurants, Izzeldin is developing a line of vegan products for his vegan and health-conscious followers. You can purchase vegan pesto, avocado vegan cheesecake, and blueberry vegan cheesecake. Izzeldin explains that he uses local products as much as possible to create his products. The vegan cheesecakes, for example, are sweetened with debess (grape molasses) and flavored with rose water. Many vegan recipes include ingredients that are very hard to find here. In addition, Sacred Cuisine is organizing a series of hiking and cooking adventures starting this spring. Participants will learn to forage for edible wild plants and cook them out in nature. The first event will focus on making maqluba in the wild. Sacred Cuisine is also collaborating with Al-Ma’amal Foundation in Jerusalem to develop a series of food tours to celebrate and preserve our ancestors’ knowledge and recipes, countering the Israeli appropriation of our indigenous culinary culture. Over the next five years, Izzeldin hopes to grow his line of vegan products and build a community of conscientious eaters. He envisions Sacred Cuisine serving as a platform for other like-minded chefs and producers.

You can follow Sacred Cuisine on Facebook and Instagram to get the latest on upcoming events and eating opportunities. Izzeldin can also be contacted at thesacredcuisine@gmail.com or 058-442-5568.

Yields 5 servings

Ingredients1 bunch of spinach1 medium beet 1 handful of toasted walnuts1 handful of cubed feta cheese

For the Vinaigrette2 tablespoons grape molasses (debess ‘ennab) ½ teaspoon sumac ½ teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper 2 tablespoons lemon juice 3 tablespoons olive oil 1 tablespoon ginger vinegar Salt to taste

Directions Wash, peel, and cut the beet, discarding the ends, then shred it.Toast the walnuts in a pan on the stove over low heat, shaking the pan frequently to prevent burning.Remove the stems from the spinach and discard any undesired leaves. Then wash, rinse, and chop the leaves into ¼-inch ribbons.Cut the feta into cubes.

To serve Toss the spinach with a small amount of vinaigrette. Separately, toss the shredded beet with vinaigrette, leaving some dressing on the side for later. Place the spinach in the serving bowl first, then mound the shredded beet in the center. Add the feta, then sprinkle the walnuts on top. Finish by adding more of the vinaigrette (as desired), and enjoy with friends or lovers. Sahha!

Izzeldin has generously shared his recipe for spinach, beet, and feta salad.

Beet and Spinach SaladWith Sumac, Grape Molasses (Debess) Vinaigrette

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e v e n t s

JERUSAlEM

CONCERTS Wednesday 1118:30–20:00 Amwaj Choir and Les Petits Chanteurs de Lyon will present a rich directory that includes traditional Arabic music, Western classical music and World music, organized within the framework of Al Kamandjati Festival. École biblique et archéologique française - Saint Étienne convent in Jerusalem. Thursday 1218:00–19:00 Lingling Yu & Ming Zeng will present a mixed repertoire of the musical instrument Pipa – both military music, which vigorously expresses the legendary fights, and literary music, which is inspired by poetry, landscapes, and historical dramas. Organized within the framework of Al Kamandjati Festival. Church of the Redeemer.

THEATERWednesday 1120:00–21:30 Kathak - Aïtana de los reyes is a dance of celestial expression by Anuj Mishra, presented within the framework of Al Kamandjati Festival. Al Hakawati Theater.

BETHlEHEM

CHILDREN’S EVENTSMonday 215:30–18:30 Easter Art and Play Day for children from 4 to 12 years old, organized by Bethlehem Municipality through Mary Doty Children’s Park. Mary Doty Children’s Park. For registration, please call 059-529-0299. CONCERTS Friday 1320:00–22:00 On the Silk Road, Musical Journey is a musical creation from the Moghol Palace of Kubalaï Khan, Emperor of China, which reveals the magic of a mythical Orient described in The Book of Wonders of the great traveler Marco Polo. Organized within the framework of Al Kamandjati Festival. Murad Castle.Saturday 1420:00–22:00 Concert featuring Yasmine Hamdan, the icon of Arab progressive rock music, followed by an uplifting set by DJ Sama. Organized within the framework of Al Kamandjati Festival. Murad Castle.

EXHIBITIONSTuesday 10 – Saturday 28 10:00–18:00 There Is a Light that Never Goes Out, an exhibition by Darat Al-Funun (Amman), organized within the festive events marking the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the Khalid Shoman Foundation - Darat Al-Funun. The exhibition is open daily from Monday to Saturday. Bab idDeir Art Gallery.

FILM SCREENINGS Thursday 517:00 Memory of the Cactus is a 42-minute documentary film by Hanna Musleh that addresses the story of the destruction of the Palestinian villages. The screening is followed by a Q&A with the director Hanna Musleh. Auditorium - Dar al-Kalima Cinema Club - Dar al-Kalima University College of Arts & Culture.Friday 20 17:00 Jenin, Jenin is a one-hour film by Mohammad Bakri (2006) that shows the true story of the “Battle of Jenin” back in 2002. Followed by a Q&A with the director. Auditorium - Dar al-Kalima Cinema Club - Dar al-Kalima University College of Arts & Culture.Thursday 2617:00 Fix Me, by the Palestinian filmmaker Raed Andoni who has been plagued with migraine headaches and suffers from depression. He has recorded his sessions with an analyst in hopes of finding relief. Auditorium - Dar al-Kalima Cinema Club - Dar al-Kalima University College of Arts & Culture.

SPECIAL EVENTSThursday 12, Friday 13, Saturday 1418:00–23:00 The Second Easter Festival presenting an opportunity for families to gather in an entertaining atmosphere of music and fun. The Arab Orthodox Sports Club in Beit Jala.Tuesday 3 – Monday 9 9:00–17:00 Intensive course on icon drawing for locals and internationals. Bethlehem Icon School.

THEATREThursday 1918:30 The Secret Life of Saeed: The Pessoptimist is a play by the artist Mohammed Bakri, based on the 1974 satirical fiction book by Emile Habibi. Auditorium - Dar al-Kalima Cinema Club - Dar al-Kalima University College of Arts & Culture.

TOURS Saturday 7 8:00–18:00 A Sufi Trails Hike in Deir Ghassaneh in the hills nor th of Ramallah, organized by VisitPalestine.ps in cooperation with Al-Rozana Association, to explore the unspoiled beauty of the surrounding countryside and to visit evocative medieval Sufi sanctuaries in Palestine. The hike will be followed by participation in Al-Kamandjati Musical Journey Festival Concer t. Meeting Point – Visit Palestine Center in Bethlehem. For registration, please contact info@visitpalestine.ps. Friday 1316:00–18:30 Bethlehem’s Old Quar ter “Tour with Open Eyes,” organized by VisitPalestine.ps, to discover the charm of the old city of Bethlehem and its quar ters. The tour is followed by an optional meal in Bethlehem and an evening concert of Al-Kamandjati Musical Journey Festival at Solomon’s Pools. For more information and registration, please contact info@visitpalestine.ps.

Saturday 149:00–14:00 Hiking in Battir, organized by VisitPalestine.ps, to discover the unforgettable landscape featuring olive groves and vineyards. The tour is followed by two optional concerts: Al-Kamanjdati Musical Journey at Edward Said National Conservatory – Yabous in Jerusalem at 18:00, or an electro-rock local concert at Murad Castle – Solomon Pools. For more information and registration, please contact info@visitpalestine.ps. Friday 208:00–18:00 Hike from Surra to Dhahriya, organized by VisitPalestine.ps, on Masar Ibrahim al-Khalil, passing through the rural areas surrounding Surra along the path to Dhahriya. The hike will be followed by musical concerts in Dhahriya within the Al-Kamandjati Musical Journey Festival. Meeting Point Visit Palestine Center in Bethlehem. For registration, please contact info@visitpalestine.ps.Sunday 223:30–13:00 Sunrise Concert in the Desert and Hike, organized by VisitPalestine.ps, is a sunrise contemplation concert of Lingling Yu & Ming Zeng on the pipa and flute, with Palestinian and international artists in the natural setting of the desert overlooking the Dead Sea. The concert and breakfast will be followed by an amazing hike through picturesque landscapes. Meeting Point Visit Palestine Center in Bethlehem. For more information, please contact info@visitpalestine.ps

BIRzEIT

EXHIBITIONSSunday 1 - Monday10:00–18:00 Labour of Love: New Approaches to Palestinian Embroidery, an exhibition, curated by Rachel Dedman, organized by the Palestinian Museum and Al Taawon Association. The exhibition is open daily except Thursdays and runs until August 25, 2018. The Palestinian Museum.

RAMAllAH

CONCERTS Tuesday 1019:00–21:00 Maqamat Baghdadieh Concer t presented by the Baghdadi Maqam’s project to introduce a new perspective on the Iraqi maqam, organized within the framework of Al Kamandjati Festival. Ramallah Municipal Theatre.

EXHIBITIONSMonday 2 – Monday 3011:00–19:00 Nostalgia art exhibition by artist Khalil Dajani, organized by Dar Zahran Heritage Building in commemoration of Palestinian Land Day (Yom al-Ard). Dar Zahran and Terra Fidea.

FILM SCREENINGS Friday 2719:00 – 21:00 Die Innere Sicherheit will be presented as part of Films Night in the Gallery. It is the third screening of the film series “War, an event free of People” by one of Germany’s most influential filmmakers, Harun Farocki. The screening is organized by the Goethe-Institut and will be followed by a discussion with the Palestinian curator Jack Persekian and artist Lara Khalidi. French German Cultural Center.

SPECIAL EVENTS Thursday 5 -Sunday 22Al Kamandjati Festival, organized by AL KAMANDJÂTI Association. For more information, please visit www.alkamandjati.orgThursday 2619:00 Open Music Night is an open night that will include music improvisations, open mics, and concerts in various spaces to celebrate the beginning of spring, organized by the Goethe-Institut. French German Cultural Center.

THEATREThursday 519:30–21:00 Deba of Mayotte is a Sufi women’s ritual performance that consists of an ensemble of 13 women dressed in beautiful frocks, slowly rocking back and forth to the rhythm played on hand drums, sharing profundities about earthly and spiritual matters. Organized within the framework of Al Kamandjati Festival. Ramallah Cultural Palace.

InTERnATIonAl

SPECIAL EVENTSThursday 519:00–20:00 Dar Samaa’: The Beginnings of Fairuz is an encounter organized by IRAB Association for Arabic Music and Dar El-Nimer for Arts and Culture to discover the beginnings of Fairuz and to listen to a selection of her rare songs, dating between the summer of 1950 and early 1952. Dar El-Nimer for Arts and Culture, Beirut, Lebanon.Wednesday 1118:00 Sci-Fi Trilogy exhibition opening that brings together three of Larissa Sansour’s films – A Space Exodus (2009), Nation Estate (2012) and In the Future They Ate from the Finest Porcelain (2016). Dar El-Nimer for Arts and Culture, Beirut, Lebanon.Wednesday 18 18:00 Creativity Under Occupation is an encounter with Palestinian teacher Ziad Khaddash: a talk, short film screenings, and book signing, organized by Dar El-Nimer for Arts and Culture in collaboration with MMKN Organization. Dar El-Nimer for Arts and Culture, Beirut, Lebanon.

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Freres Street, New Gate, JerusalemTel 628 2537, Fax: 627 5390 kp@actcom.co.il (50 rooms; mr; res)

Ambassador Hotel Sheikh Jarrah, Jerusalem, 91196, Tel: 541 2222, Fax: 582 8202 reservation@jerusalemambassador.com, www.jerusalemambassador.com

(118 rooms; bf; cf; mr; res)

Latin Patriarch St. 33, JerusalemTel 628 2431, Fax: 628 2401 gloriahl@netvision.net.l

Gloria Hotel

Knight's Palace Hotel

(104 rooms; mr; res)

Jerusalem Hotel15 Antara Ben Shadad St., Jerusalem Tel: 628 3282, Fax: 6283282, raed@jrshotel.com, www.jrshotel.com

Ali Ben Abi Taleb Street, Jerusalem Tel: 02-6282588, Fax: 02-6264417 christmashotel@bezeqint.net

Christmas Boutique Hotel

Carmel Hotel Al-Masyoun, Ramallah, Palestine Tel: 2972222 Fax: 2966966, www.carmelhotel.ps

74 rooms & suites, 20 hotel apartment, Spa, Gym, 2 Bars, 6 conference rooms, 2 restaurants, and indoor parking.

Al Masyoun, RamallahTel: 022979400 Fax: 022979401info@caesar-hotel.ps, www.caesar-hotel.ps

Caesar Hotel Ramallah

Al-Nuzha Street 24 , Ramallah Tel 297 7073reservation@lavenderboutiquehotel.com, www.lavenderboutiquehotel.com

Lavender Boutique Hotel

Jericho ResortsBisan Street, Near Hisham Palace, 162 Jericho, Tel: 232 1255, Fax: 232 2189reservation@jerichoresorts.com, www.jerichoresorts.com

3 Paratroopers Road, P.O. Box 20531, Jerusalem, 91204 Tel: 627 9111, Fax: 627 1995, www.notredamecenter.org

Mount of Olives, Jerusalem, 91190Tel: 626 7777, Fax: 627 1319svnarch@bezeqint.net, www.7arches.com

Seven Arches Hotel

Pontifical Institute Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center

/amb.jerusalem

Jerusalem Hotel

Pontificial Institute Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center

Jericho Resort Village

Sancta Maria HotelDr. Geminer Street, Beyhlehem Tel : 02-2467374/5/6, Fax :02-2767377info@sanctamariahotel.com, www.sanctamariahotel.com

81 rooms

Taybeh Golden HotelMain Street 100 ,Taybeh (Ramallah District) Tel 289-9440info@taybehgoldenhotel.com, www.taybehgoldenhotel.com

a c c o m m o d a t i o n

3 Paratroopers Road, P.O. Box 20531, Jerusalem, 91204 Tel: 627 9111, Fax: 627 1995, www.notredamecenter.org

Pontifical Institute

Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center

Pontificial Institute Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center

8584

Newly Renovated - Swimming Pools - Weddings - Family Vacation - Conferences & Retreats - Special Events

With summer entertainmentlife goes better

Newly Renovated - Swimming Pools - Weddings - Family Vacation - Conferences & Retreats - Special Events

With summer entertainmentlife goes better

r e s t a u r a n t s

Middle Eastern, French, and Italian Cuisine

Al Diwan Restaurant Ambassador Hotel Sheikh Jarrah, Jerusalem, 91196, Tel: 541 2222, Fax: 582 8202reservation@jerusalemambassador.com, www.jerusalemambassador.com

/amb.jerusalem

Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem 97200Tel 532 8342, contact@shahwan.org

Borderline Restaurant Café

Italian Cuisine

Jerusalem Hotel Restaurant (Kan Zaman)15 Antara Ben Shadad St., JerusalemTel: 628 3282, Fax: 6283282, raed@jrshotel.com, www.jrshotel.com

Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem 97200Tel 582 5162, 532 8342, contact@shahwan.org

Pasha's

Oriental Food

Tel: 627 9177, rooftop@notredamecenter.org, www.notredamecenter.org

Cheese & Wine Rooftop Restaurant(Pontifical Institute Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center)

Mediterranean Cuisine

Deik Quarter - Manger square, BethlehemTel: 2769222

Bab idDeir Cafe & Bar

AlMasyoun, RamallahTel: 2979400

Martini Bar Martinibar_ramallah

Martini Bar

Ramallah- Ain Musbah, Lod St.022976665 | 0599648648

Mates Choclate n’Coffee House

Mates Chocolate n' Coffee House

Notre Dame Rooftop/Cheese & Wine Restaurant

Jerusalem Hotel

/BabidDeirCB/

Main Street, Taybeh Village, Ramallah DistrictTel: 02-289-9440, info@taybehwinery.com, www.taybehwinery.com

Taybeh Brewery

Near the rotary, Taybeh Village, Ramallah District Tel: 02-289-8868, taybeh@palnet.com, www.taybehbeer.com

Proudly Brewing & Bottling Premium Palestinian Beer since 1994

Opening Hours: Monday- Saturday 8 AM-3:30 PM

https://www.facebook.com/taybehbeer/

Taybeh WineryMaking Boutique Palestinian Wines since 2013

https://www.facebook.com/Taybehwinery/

Opening Hours: Daily 9 AM-5 PM

Enjoy the panoramic view of Jericho

Elisha's Spring, P.O.Box 12, JerichoTel: + 972 (2) 2321590; Fax: + 972 (2) 2321598Info@jericho-cablecar.com, www.jericho-cablecar.com

Telepherique & Sultan Tourist Center

JerichoCableCar

Newly Renovated - Swimming Pools - Weddings - Family Vacation - Conferences & Retreats - Special Events

With summer entertainmentlife goes better

Newly Renovated - Swimming Pools - Weddings - Family Vacation - Conferences & Retreats - Special Events

With summer entertainmentlife goes better

Newly Renovated - Swimming Pools - Weddings - Family Vacation - Conferences & Retreats - Special Events

With summer entertainmentlife goes better

Newly Renovated - Swimming Pools - Weddings - Family Vacation - Conferences & Retreats - Special Events

With summer entertainmentlife goes better

8786

a t t r a c t i o n s c u l t u r a l c e n t e r s

EAST JERUSAlEM (02)

ARTLABMob. 0544 343 798, artlabjerusalem@gmail.com

Al-Jawal Theatre GroupTelefax: 628 0655

Al-Ma’mal Foundation for Contemporary ArtTel: 628 3457, Fax: 627 2312info@almamalfoundation.orgwww.almamalfoundation.org

Alruwah TheatreTel: 626 2626, alruwahtheatre2000@yahoo.com

Al-Urmawi Centre for Mashreq Music Tel: 234 2005, Fax: 234 2004info@urmawi.org, www.urmawi.org

America Househttp://jerusalem.usconsulate.gov/americahouse2.html

Ashtar for Theatre Productions & TrainingTelefax: 582 7218info@ashtar-theatre.org, www.ashtar-theatre.org

British CouncilTel: 626 7111, Fax: 628 3021information@ps.britishcouncil.orgwww.britishcouncil.org/ps

Centre for Jerusalem Studies/Al-Quds UniversityTel: 628 7517, cjs@planet.edu www.jerusalem-studies.alquds.edu

Community Action Centre (CAC)Tel: 627 3352, Fax: 627 4547, www.cac.alquds.edu

Educational BookshopTel: 627 5858, Fax: 628 0814info@educationalbookshop.com www.educationalbookshop.com

El-Hakawati Theatre CompanyTel: 583 8836, Mobile: 0545 835 268f.abousalem@gmail.com, www.el-hakawati.org

French Cultural CentreTel: 628 2451 / 626 2236, Fax: 628 4324 ccfjeru@consulfrance-jerusalem.org

Issaf Nashashibi Center for Culture & LiteratureTelefax: 581 8232, isaaf@alqudsnet.com

Jerusalem Centre for Arabic MusicTel: 627 4774, Fax: 656 2469, mkurd@yahoo.com

Melia Art CenterTeleFax: 628 1377, Melia@bezeqint.netwww.meliaartandtrainingcenter.com

Palestinian Art Court - Al HoashTelefax: 627 3501info@alhoashgallery.org, www.alhoashgallary.org

Palestinian National TheatreTel: 628 0957, Fax: 627 6293, info@pnt-pal.org

Sabreen Association for Artistic DevelopmentTel: 532 1393, sabreen@sabreen.org www.jerusalem.usconsulate.govwww.facebook.com/USConGenJerusalem

Sanabel Culture & Arts TheatreTel: 671 4338, Fax: 673 0993sanabeltheatre@yahoo.com

The Bookshop at the American Colony HotelTel: 627 9731, Fax: 627 9779 bookshop.americancolony@gmail.com www. americancolony.com

The Edward Said National Conservatory ofMusicTel: 627 1711, Fax: 627 1710 info@ncm.birzeit.edu, ncm.birzeit.edu

The Magnificat IntstituteTel: 626 6609, Fax: 626 6701

magnificat@custodia.orgwww.magnificatinstitute.org

Theatre Day ProductionsTel: 585 4513, Fax: 583 4233tdp@theatreday.org, www.theatreday.org

Turkish Cultural CentreTel: 591 0530/1, Fax: 532 3310kudustur@netvision.net.il, www.kudusbk.com

Wujoud MuseumTel: 626 0916, www.wujoud.org, info@wujoud.org

Yabous Cultural CenterTel: 626 1045; Fax: 626 1372yabous@yabous.org, www.yabous.org

BETHlEHEM (02)

Al-Harah TheatreTelefax: 276 7758, alharahtheater@yahoo.cominfo@alharah.org, www.alharah.org

Alliance Française de BethléemTelefax: 275 0777, afbeth@p-ol.com

Anat Palestinian Folk & Craft CenterTelefax: 277 2024, marie_musslam@yahoo.com

Arab Educational Institute (AEI)-Open WindowsTel: 274 4030, www.aeicenter.org

Artas Folklore CenterMob: 0597 524 524, 0599 679 492, 0503 313 136artasfc@hotmail.com

Badil CentreTel: 277 7086

Beit Jala Community-Based Learning and ActionCenterTel: 277 7863

Bethlehem Academy of Music/ Bethlehem MusicSocietyTel: 277 7141, Fax: 277 7142

Bethlehem Peace CenterTel: 276 6677, Fax: 276 4670 info@peacenter.org, www.peacenter.org

Catholic Action Cultural CenterTel: 274 3277, Fax 274 2939info@ca-b.org, www.ca-b.org

Centre for Cultural Heritage PreservationTel: 276 6244, Fax: 276 6241info@cchp.ps, www.cchp.ps

Environmental Education CenterTel: 276 5574, eec@p-ol.com, www.eecp.org

Inad Centre for Theatre and ArtsTelefax: 276 6263, www.inadtheater.com

International Centre of Bethlehem-Dar AnnadwaTel: 277 0047, Fax: 277 0048 info@diyar.ps, www.diyar.ps

ITIP Center “Italian Tourist Information Point”Telefax: 276 0411, itipcenter@yahoo.com

8988

Nativity Stationery LibraryMob: 0598 950 447

Palestinian Group for the Revival of PopularHeritageTelefax: 274 7945

Palestinian Heritage CenterTelefax: 274 2381, 274 2642mahasaca@palestinianheritagecenter.com www.phc.ps

Relief International - Schools Online Bethlehem Community-Based Learning andAction CenterTel: 277 7863

Sabreen Association for Artistic DevelopmentTel: 275 0091, Fax: 275 0092

sabreen@sabreen.org, www.sabreen.org

Tent of NationsTel: 274 3071, Fax: 276 7446tnations@p-ol.com, www.tentofnations.org

The Edward Said National Conservatory ofMusicTelefax: 274 8726info@ncm.birzeit.edu, www.birzeit.edu/music

The Higher Institute of MusicTelefax: 275 2492, highiom@hotmail.comwww.thehigherinstituteofmusic.ps

Turathuna - Centre for Palestinian Heritage(B.Uni.)Tel: 274 1241, Fax: 274 4440 pdaoud@bethlehem.edu, www.bethlehem.edu

HEBRon (02)

Al Sanabl Centre for Studies and HeritageTel: 256 0280, sanabelssc@yahoo.comwww.sanabl.org, www.sanabl.ps

Beit Et Tifl CompoundTelefax: 222 4545, tdphebron@alqudsnet.com

British Council- Palestine Polytechnic University Telefax: 229 3717, information@ps.britishcouncil.org www.britsishcouncil.org.ps

Children Happiness CenterTelefax: 229 9545, children_hc@yahoo.comDura Cultural Martyrs CenterTel: 228 3663, nader@duramun.org www.duramun.org

AMIDEASTTel: 221 3301/2/3/4, Fax: 221 3305 Mob: 0599 097 531

France-Hebron Association for CulturalExchangesTel: 222 4811info@hebron-france.org, wwww.hebron-france.org

Hebron Rehabilitation CommitteeTelfax: 225 5640, 222 6993/4

Palestinian Child Arts Center (PCAC)Tel: 222 4813, Fax: 222 0855 pcac@hotmail.com, www.pcac.net

The International Palestinian Youth League (IPYL)Tel:222 9131, Fax: 229 0652 itv@ipyl.org, www.ipyl.org

Yes Theater,Telefax: 229 1559 www.yestheatre.org, info@yestheatre.org

JERICHo (02)

Jericho Community CentreTelefax: 232 5007

Jericho Culture & Art CenterTelefax: 232 1047

Municipality TheatreTel: 232 2417, Fax: 232 2604

JEnIn (04)

Cinema JeninTel: 250 2642, 250 2455info@cinemajenin.org, www.cinemajenin.org

Hakoura CenterTelfax: 250 4773 center@hakoura-jenin.ps, www.hakoura-jenin.ps

The Freedom Theatre/Jenin Refugee CampTel: 250 3345, info@thefreedomtheatre.org

nABlUS (09)

British Council- Al Najah UniversityTelefax: 237 5950

information@ps.britishcouncil.org www.britishcoumcil.org/ps

Cultural Centre for Child DevelopmentTel: 238 6290, Fax: 239 7518nutaleb@hotmail.com, www.nutaleb.cjb.net

Cultural Heritage Enrichment CenterTel. 237 2863, Fax. 237 8275 arafatn24@yahoo.com

French Cultural Centre Tel: 238 5914, Fax: 238 7593 ccfnaplouse@consulfrance-jerusalem.org

Nablus The Culture Tel: 233 2084, Fax: 234 5325 info@nablusculture.ps, www.nablusculture.ps

RAMAllAH AnD Al-BIREH (02)

A. M. Qattan FoundationTel: 296 0544, Fax: 298 4886 info@qattanfoundation.org www.qattanfoundation.org

Al Kasaba Theatre and CinemathequeTel: 296 5292/3, Fax: 296 5294 info@alkasaba.org, www.alkasaba.org

Al-Kamandjâti AssociationTel: 297 3101info@alkamandjati.com, www.alkamandjati.com

Al-Mada Music Therapy CenterTel: 241 3196, Fax: 241 3197info@al-mada.ps, www.al-mada.ps

Al-Rahhalah TheatreTelefax: 298 8091, alrahhalah@hotmail.com

Al-Rua’a Publishing HouseTel: 296 1613, Fax: 197 1265, Mob: 0599 259 874akel.nichola@gmail.com

AmideastTel: 240 8023, Fax: 240 8017 westbank-gaza@amideast.org, www.amideast.org

ArtSchool PalestineTel: 295 9837, info@artschoolpalestine.com www.artschoolpalestine.com

Ashtar for Theatre ProductionTel: 298 0037, Fax: 296 0326 info@ashtar-theatre.org, www.ashtar-theatre.org

Baladna Cultural CenterTelfax: 295 8435

Birzeit Ethnographic and Art MuseumTel. 298 2976, www.virtualgallery.birzeit.edu

British CouncilTel: 296 3293-6, Fax: 296 3297

information@ps.britishcouncil.org www.britishcouncil.org/ps

Carmel Cultural FoundationTel: 298 7375, Fax: 298 7374

Dar Zahran Heritage BuildingTelfax: 296 3470, Mob: 0599 511 800info@darzahran.org, www.darzahran.org

El-Funoun Dance TroupeTel: 240 2853, Fax: 240 2851info@el-funoun.org, www.el-funoun.org

Franco-German Cultural Centre RamallahTel: 298 1922 / 7727, Fax: 298 1923info@ccf-goethe.org, www.ccf-goethe-ramallah.org

Gallery OneTel: 298 9181, info@galleryone.ps

Greek Cultural Centre - “Macedonia”Telefax: 298 1736/ 298 0546 makdonia@palnet.com

In’ash Al-Usra Society- Center for Heritage &Folklore StudiesTel: 240 1123 / 240 2876, Telefax: 240 1544usra@palnet.com, www.inash.org

International Academy of ArtsTel: 296 7601, info@artacademy.ps

Khalil Sakakini Cultural CenterTel: 298 7374, Fax: 296 6820 sakakini@sakakini.org, www.sakakini.org

Mahmoud Darwish Foundation and MuseumTel: 295 2808, Fax: 295 2809Info@darwishfoundation.org www.darwishfoundation.org

Manar Cultural CenterTel: 295 7937, Fax: 298 7598

Mazra’a Qibliyeh Heritage and Tourism CentreTelefax: 281 5825, mazraaheritage@yahoo.com/www.geocities.com/mazraaheritage

Nawa InstituteTel: 297 0190, info@nawainstitute.org

Palestine Writing WorkshopMob: 0597 651 408, www.palestineworkshop.com

Palestinian Association for Contemporary ArtPACATel: 296 7601, fax: 295 1849paca@pal-paca.org, www.pal-paca.org

Palestinian Association for Cultural Exchange(PACE)Tel: 240 7611, Telfax: 240 7610pace@p-ol.com, www.pace.ps

Popular Art CenterTel: 240 3891, Fax: 240 2851info@popularartcentre.org www.popularartcentre.org

Ramallah Center for Human Rights Studies(RCHRS)Tel: 241 3002Ramallah Cultural PalaceTel: 294 5555, Fax: 295 2107rcpevents@ramallah-city.ps

RIWAQ: Centre for Architectural ConservationTel: 240 6887, Fax: 240 6986 riwaq@palnet.com, www.riwaq.org

Sandouq Elajab TheatreTel: 296 5638, 295 3206 sandouqelajab@yahoo.com

Sareyyet Ramallah - First Ramallah Group (FRG)Tel: 295 2690 - 295 2706, Fax: 298 0583sareyyet@sareyyet.ps, www.sareyyet.ps

Sharek Youth ForumTel: 296 7741, Fax: 296 7742 info@sharek.ps, www.sharek.ps

ShashatTel: 297 3336, Fax: 297 3338info@shashat.org, www.shashat.org

Tamer Institute for Community EducationTel: 298 6121/ 2, Fax: 298 8160tamer@palnet.com, www.tamerinst.org

The Danish House in Palestine (DHIP)TeleFax: 298 8457, info@dhip.ps, www.dhip.ps

The Edward Said National Conservatory ofMusicTel: 295 9070, Fax: 295 9071info@ncm.birzeit.edu, www.birzeit.edu/music

The Palestinian Circus SchoolTel: 281 2000, 0568 880 024

www.palcircus.ps, info@ palcircus.ps

The Palestinian Network of Art CentresTel: 298 0036, 296 4348/9, Fax: 296 0326iman_aoun@yahoo.com

The Spanish Cultural CenterTel. 295 0893, chp@panoramacenter.org

Young Artist ForumTelefax: 296 7654, yaf@palnet.com

Zawyeh Art GalleryMob. 0597 994 997anani.ziad@gmail.com, www.zawyeh.net

GAzA STRIP (08)

Al-Qattan Centre for the ChildTel: 283 9929, Fax: 283 9949 reem@qcc.qattanfoundation.org www.qattanfoundation.org/qcc

Arts & Crafts VillageTelefax: 284 6405 artvlg@palnet.com, www.gazavillage.org

Ashtar for Culture & ArtsTelefax: 283 3565, atlas9@palnet.com

Culture & Light CentreTelefax: 286 5896, ifarah@palnet.com

Dialogpunkt Deutsch Gaza (Goethe-Insitut)Tel: 282 0203, Fax: 282 1602

Fawanees Theatre GroupTelefax: 288 4403

French Cultural CentreTel: 286 7883, Fax: 282 8811 ccfgaza@consulfrance-jerusalem.org

Gaza TheatreTel: 282 4860, Fax: 282 4870

Global Production and DistributionTelefax: 288 4399, art.global@yahoo.com

Holst Cultural CentreTel: 281 0476, Fax: 280 8896, mcrcg@palnet.com

Theatre Day ProductionsTelefax: 283 6766, tdpgaza@palnet.com

Windows from Gaza For Contemporary Art Mob. 0599 781 227 - 0599 415 045 info@artwfg.ps

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j e r u s a l e m

9392

b e t h l e h e m

9594

r a m a l l a h

9796

g a z a

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t h e l a s t W o r l d

Bad ConscienceI kick myself every time I am tempted and fall for an e-debate with one or more Zionists on Facebook after I read a provocative comment. No matter what I post, and no matter what they post, the dispute often ends abruptly when I say, “That’s my last post on this. Thank you for an exemplary exercise in futility!” I normally add one or two comments for the road and don’t read their last posts!

Seriously though, the level of contempt, the intensity of insults hurled, the disdain, the haughtiness, the questioning of your origins and ancestry, the bigotry, and the sheer hatred at times is unbelievable. Naturally, this comes from both sides! Anyway, any argument is met with a counter argument. Any document presented is met with two contradicting documents. And the charade continues endlessly. I have not heard of anyone “converting” the other as a result of such discourse. Zero, zilch.

Interestingly enough though, a few years back, you would rarely see Palestinians boldly arguing with Zionists on social media platforms. Today, I can safely say that they’re at least a match. Pro-Palestinian internationals often join the circus and come down on Zionists like a ton of bricks; something we hadn’t witnessed in the past. As if they finally got the chance to divulge what they’d been harboring for a long time. Everyone knows that the virtual arena is another battleground (although mostly for pacifist wimps with big mouths). As distressful as the experience is for us Palestinians, however, it is an opportunity to make known our opinions on matters that more often than not never make it to the mainstream media. No doubt, the apparent shock on the Zionist front during such debates is far greater than that experienced on the Palestinian side, which is already familiar with Israeli hasbara or propaganda. The dismissal and disbelief of (any) Palestinian argument is immediate, but when you hear something shocking, particularly for the first time, especially when it is against everything you believed in all your life, you do not forget it easily, even if you pretend you do.

The chance of being dismissed as a Palestinian virtual interlocutor becomes even more remote when you, directly or indirectly, bluntly or subtly, convey the message that Palestinians have a narrative, a deep-rooted culture with a rich oral history, folk tales, songs, and dances. Palestinians have a flag that they rally around, olive groves and vineyards that they cherish, and they have their own heroes and people they look up to. The fact of the matter is that, according to international law, the Israeli presence is nothing less than occupation and is thus subject to the Geneva Convention. Sooner or later, justice will prevail. The Palestinians certainly aren’t going anywhere, so the earlier the question of Palestine is resolved, the better for everyone.

A guy once asked me, “Who are you people?” “We’re your bad conscience,” I replied. I never heard from him again, and I certainly have not managed to convert him.

Sani MeoPublisher

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