Events Calendar

	AEI-Open Windows Visitors Belgium Students Visit October 30 to November 11, 2005   In the beginning of November, a small group of high school students from Belgium came to visit Palestine for two weeks. They chose the AEI-Open Windows as a partner for this journey as a follow-up to an earlier exchange program entitled "Eye-to-Eye"  in 2002 that could not be continued because of the Al-Aqsa-Intifada. The aim of today's exchange program was to get a deeper understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by having face-to-face contact with both sides. Participants were three 17-year-old students, Wanda, Griet and Bram. Accompanying them was Dirk Appels, a teacher at. Each one was hosted by a different family in order to increase the personal contacts with the Palestinian people. These families were either AEI staff or members of the various AEI groups. The group was guided by the AEI. The two German volunteers at the AEI, Valerie and Vinzenz, led in some events, such as the trips through Bethlehem, Ramallah and Battir. Following is a short description of the activities. Monday, October 31st: The group had a tour of Bethlehem, including the Nativity Church, the Milk Grotto, the Bethlehem Museum, and the old city as well as the market. The Nativity Church is one of the oldest churches in the world, which was built by empress Helena in 334 A.C. above the Grotto of the Nativity where Jesus was born. In the Milk Grotto, the Holy Family hid from king Herod. A few drops of Mary's milk dropped on the ground and turned the rock white. Bethlehem Museum, located near Manger Square, shows the traditional Palestinian daily life, the housing, and traditional handicrafts such as embroidery. In the afternoon, they had a trip to the two Shepard's Fields in Beit Sahour, the Catholic and the Greek Orthodox, where the shepherds had seen the angels telling about the birth of Jesus. Afterwards the group had a tour through the A'ida and Deheisha Refugee Camps near Bethlehem. In Deheisha the group was guided by a young man, Jihad, from the refugee camp itself who talked about the history and the present situation in the camp. In A'ida Camp they met a relative of the AEI's director Fuad Giacaman. Iskandar Qamar is an originally Jerusalemite Arab Christian refugee who rebuilt his textile business in A'ida after he left his hometown. Since there was very little time for the visits to the camps, they decided to repeat their visit there at the end of their stay. Tuesday, November 1st: The students had a tour of Jerusalem, guided by Toine van Teeffelen, member of the AEI staff, and Valerie and Vinzenz. They walked downwards from the Mount of the Olives through several churches of different religions to the Garden of Gethsemane, passing a prophet's tomb and the Jewish cemeteries. They walked along Via Dolorosa to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. After taking lunch in the old city, they got some impressions of the markets in the old city, but also of the Jewish part of Jerusalem's city center, because they entered the Wailing Wall area from the Israeli side. Wednesday, November 2nd: The group visited St. Saba (Mar Saba) Monastery in Wad An-Nar, about 14 kilometers east of Bethlehem. The monastery was destroyed and pillaged several times during the Byzantine era. The monks who are living there are very reclusive; some of them even lived in caves for several years without communicating with each other.  Since women are not allowed to enter the Orthodox monastery, the girls had to stay outside, but they met a priest who told them about the monastery's history. The group also went to Herodion mountain, named after the ancient fortress 9 km southeast of Bethlehem, from where they had a great view on the Bethlehem and Jerusalem area, the Dead Sea and the Judean desert. King Herod built a palace inside the mountain after raising parts of it artificially in the first century BC. Thursday, November 3rd: The group visited the A'ida and Deheisha Camps again. Iskandar Qamar received the guests again and took the time to talk about his life and experiences as well as about Palestine in detail. First of all he told the students that his family is originally from Lebanon, but that he himself was born in Jerusalem. In his schooldays, he went to several schools run by different religious associations that came to Jerusalem in the 19th century. Since they were from different European countries, they taught different languages like French, Italian or Spanish. This is why he is fluent in at least four foreign languages. For him it was also normal that Jews and Arabs went to the same class, because when the Jews started to come to the country after the First World War, there were no schools for Jews. In 1942 he opened a souvenir shop in Jerusalem near King David Hotel, but after the division of Palestine and Israel in 1948, he had to leave Jerusalem and to move to Bethlehem, because Jerusalem was invaded by the Israelis and he was afraid due to the reports about mass-massacres. He started with a laundry, but changed after a while to the textile business and opened a small factory at the big junction in Bethlehem. Due to unfortunate circumstances, again he had to leave his place and move to another part of Bethlehem, the A'ida Camp, where he is still living now. He explained that in former times, the land where he is living belonged to the mayor, but since he didn't want to have a refugee camp growing directly beside his home, he sold the land to people with a factory. Altogether Iskandar Qamar worked for 40 years in the textile business. Unfortunately, some years ago he had to close down his factory, because the textile industry in China is producing cheaper than factories in Palestine. Furthermore he gave lots of information about the Bethlehem and Palestinian history. He told the guests for example that in former times Bethlehem, Beit Jala and Beit Sahour consisted of approximately 95% of Christians, but now there is a majority of Moslems. The first reason is that the biggest part of the population came to the Bethlehem area as refugees after the wars of 1948 and 1967, still living in the refugee camps. The second reason is the emigration of the Christian Palestinian population to all over the world. They were rich enough to leave Palestine to North and South Americas to sell olive wood products. As an example he told that only in Santiago de Chile there are nowadays living more than 100.000 people from Beit Jala and their descendants, although Beit Jala itself has only 15.000- 20.000 inhabitants. He also mentioned the destructions in Bethlehem that had taken place in the past. In former times, there was an Armenian convent and olive trees in front of his house. Today there is nothing left but the Wall and desert. All in all, the Belgians were really impressed by his deep knowledge and his unbelievable life story. They moved on to Deheisha Refugee Camp and were again guided by Jihad. They saw the misery of a refugee camp in its streets. It is hard to believe that in less than one square kilometer there are more than 11.000 people living. Over half of the Deheisha Refugee Camp population is children who have to play in the dirty streets, because they have nowhere else to go. It is also logical that in summer there are water shortages. He also told the group that an inhabitant of Deheisha Refugee Camp uses about five liters of water a day in average while an Israeli needs 30 liters in the same time. For the whole refugee camp there is only one doctor who is only working some hours a week which shows that the medical care in the camps is totally insufficient. The only ray of hope is some small, newly-founded institutions in the camps, like Ibdaa, where Jihad is volunteering, which is trying to offer at least some place where children could go during their leisure time. In the streets of Deheisha Refugee Camp, the group also made a less pleasant experience which fortunately remained without serious consequences. Since it was the end of Ramadan and everybody was celebrating it, the children were throwing firecrackers in the streets. One of the crackers hit Wanda, stuck in her hair and exploded directly next to her ear. First of all, everybody was concerned that she was seriously hurt, but after a while it became clear that she was all right and could continue the program. In the afternoon, they met the AEI High School Group. After a very amusing Ice-breaking game, the Palestinians informed the Belgians about daily life, exams and their feelings in High School and vice versa. Of course there were many differences like the number of hours the students spend in school every day, the breaks (the Belgians have more breaks, but usually the Palestinians can leave earlier from school) or the school uniforms. But the biggest contrasts were obvious in the final exams, where Palestinians have to learn a lot more by heart than the Belgians and therefore have to study more, as well as in the possibility that the Belgian students can specify in one subject. E.g. all the three students have their specification in horticulture, but in different ways. While Griet focuses on the more theoretical aspects of it like chemistry, biology and physics, the others study it in a very practical way. Although there are so many differences, the students have a lot in common, especially concerning their dreams and feelings. Friday, November 4th: The group visited Al-Khader Monastery, the origin of the story of St. George who is also adored by Muslims, and Artas village with the Solomon's Pools, old water reservoirs dating back to Roman times. Further down the valley the Hortus Conclusus monastery is located, a Roman Catholic monastery with nuns from all over the world, especially Latin America and Italy. Saturday, November 5th: The group visited Hebron, including Abrahams Oak, Abrahams Mosque and the old city. In the evening, the two girls of the group, together with Valerie and some of their fellow volunteers, went to the "Cosmos", a disco in Beit Jala, where they enjoyed the evening very much by practicing Arabic dancing. Sunday, November 6th: The group enjoyed a trip to the Dead Sea and Jericho. Monday, November 7th: Valerie and Vinzenz guided the group through Ramallah. The group passed through Qalandia checkpoint and visited the Muqata and Arafat's tomb, where they had a short interview (with the questions being asked in a positive suggesting way) on their opinion about Arafat with a Palestinian journalist. They also saw the fruit and vegetable market and did some shopping while their teacher waited in the bank facing some trouble to get money. On the way back they passed Qalandia again, seeing the daily reality at the checkpoints including walking on very muddy paths, opening their bags, showing passports and waiting. On the way to Jerusalem the bus was stopped at a checkpoint. The soldiers tried to stop a man from passing, but he had a permit for going to the hospital. After letting everyone wait for some time, the man was allowed to re-enter the bus. Tuesday, November 8th: The group visited two schools with which they had contact earlier on through the "Eye to Eye" Exchange Project between Belgian and Palestinian schools. They went to Battir village, guided by Valerie and Vinzenz, to visit the local UNRWA school for girls, talking to the Principal, Mrs. Sana' Abu Ghosh an EAI board member. They saw the sometimes hard conditions in the school, such as the lack of money or teachers, as well as the ancient still used irrigation system of Roman times. They went to visit a local artist who manufactures souvenirs from clay and who suffers from the lack of tourists. They also saw the UNRWA school for boys further down the valley which is located directly next to the "green line" of 1948. Later, they visited Mrs. Elham Hamad, principal of the Bethlehem Secondary School for Girls and an AEI board member. With both principals they talked about how politics influence the school life, listening to stories such as two shot dead girls from the Bethlehem school during the Al-Aqsa-Intifada; one killed by soldiers, one having bombed herself. In the afternoon, the group visited Bethlehem University, guided by a member of the AEI Employees Group and a student at the university. In the evening, the students joined Valerie, Vinzenz and other volunteers in a German Hip Hop concert at the university, organized by the Goethe Institute in Ramallah. Wednesday, November 9th: The AEI Women's Group and the Belgium group had a joined meeting, talking about peace building and non-vioelnt activities; RRCA and communicating palestine. Afterwards they had brunch together, prepared by the members of the Women's Group. In the evening, the AEI organized a farewell party for their guests inviting the High School Group and the hosting families. Everybody had a lot of fun by dancing and talking with each other. Thursday, November 10th: The students and their teacher departed to Tel Aviv, where they met an Israeli peace activist. Friday, November 11th: Flight back to Belgium.