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AEI-Open Windows Activities
Two Days
Retreat for the Youth Group
A Two day retreat December,
26-27 was prepared for the AEI youth group who
are going to be part of the Cultural Tourism
Program, Spirit of Sumud. Day one started
with a lecture about Oral History by Dr. Adnan
Musalam. He spoke about how oral history is an
integral part of the written history, it
enriches the information and plays a major role
in the documentation process. Unfortunately,
many historical information was stolen and
vandalized by the Israeli occupation as a way of
eliminating the Palestinian culture. Dr. Musalam
is currently working on documenting all the
information from World War One, where he started
gathering it since 1993 with the help of
Bethlehem University Students who conducted
several important interviews with elderly who
passed through this period. He later discussed
the following periods of the great amount of
snow that covered the area in 1920 and 1950, the
big earthquake in 1927, the Palestinian strikes
and revolution through 1963-1939, Al- Nakba (the
Palestinian Catastrophe) in 1948, Refugee camps
1948-1951, July war of 1967 (Al Naksa), The
First intifada 1987, the Gulf war 1991 and the
deterioration of education due to closure of
schools and arresting of teachers during the
first intifada. Later, the discussion proceeded
about the issue of Immigration and especially
the Christian Immigration in Bethlehem Area,
discussing the causes and results of it.
Afterwards, the youth group
head to the Bethlehem Quarters lead by Mr. Fouad
Jackaman, explaining about the architecture of
the “harah”, how people used to live, where
their celebrations took place and the closeness
of the family ties.
Later, at the youth house Mr.
Mohammed Muqbil from the Ministry of Tourism and
Antiques spoke about Palestinian Antiques and
its international importance, taking us to a
journey through time and explaining the origin
of human race, and how they evolved through time
across the era’s that passed on human kind; such
as Epiphytic, Natophian culture which is
resembled in the natoph valley in Jerusalem,
where settling started and humans began to
depend on building. He later talked about the
Bronze age and the Canaanites which are the
Palestinian people came and how they were the
first to invent writing which enabled the social
and political relations to start, which later
encouraged the regional trade. He also explained
about the tools that they used to use, and how
they evolved from scrapers to flakes to blades.
Moreover, Mr. Muqbil
explained about the importance of the landmarks
present in Palestine and their historical and
international significance such as: the Nativity
church, Khreitun valley, Mar Saba monastery,
Solomon Pools, the Dead sea and Tal al Sultan,
Jerzim Mountain in Nablus where the Samarian
still live, the mosque of Abraham, Sabastya,
Khurbet um Amer- St.Helarion Monestery , the
Andathon Port and gaza valley in Gaza, Um al
Rayhan forrest in Jenin.
Afterwards, Mr. Nidal Allan
our Drama Trainer met with the youth, in order
to continue their weekly practices of presenting
the Palestinian culture through various drama
performances related to each place around
Bethlehem area.
Later that evening, Mr. Toni
Nassar met with the youth and they had an Inter-
religious retreat about Jesus Birth.
Day two started with a trip
to Khreitun Valley and caves, east of Beit
Sahour. Accompanied with a presentation and tour
by Mr. Imad Al Atrash the Directore of
Palestinian Wild Life Organization. Mr. Atrash,
explained about the wild life in the valley, he
talked about the nature, the plants around; how
some like “akoub” is decreasing and “zuhaif”
which you can make honey from, he also explained
about the various animals that live there like
the fox, hedgehog, the poisonous red snake and
the hyena. Later in the road was a view of the
mountains and caves where the monks used to
live, such as Khreitun the monk who used to live
in Qaysaria and used to fight the oppression on
Christians from Adrylian the emperor. After the
Emperor died the Christians were free to
practice their religious rituals, then Khreitun
went to visit Jerusalem where he was kidnapped
on the way and help captive in one of the caves
called “ein farrah”. However, the kidnappers
were mysteriously poisoned and Khreitun decided
to build a convent there, that’s how the name
Khreitun came.
The trip continued to a visit
to the Palestinian Heritage Center where we met
with the director Mrs. Maha Sacca. She explained
about the tools that our ancestors used to use
for cooking, cleaning, and their household. As
we toured the center she showed us the
embroidery, the tents and how the men and women
used to gather and sing songs, meet together and
drink coffee. We later went to a room which has
valuable photos from her great grandparents, and
you can see the change of costume and dresses as
time passed.
Afterwards, we continued our
journey to the Tent of Nations where we had
lunch and heard about the brave struggle of
Nassar family who moved to live in their land
away from electricity and modern life style to
preserve their land from the Israeli settlers
and Occupation. Mr. Daoud Nassarand Mr. Toni
Nassar accompanied us through a tour around
where they live, explaining about the connection
of the land and how they preserved it through
generations. You can notice how they are
surrounded by three settlements: nabi Daniel,
Beitar elit, and Gush Etzion. There brave non
violent struggle and Sumud has touched
everyone present. |
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