The Palestinian sumud means steadfastness, patience, capacity to carry on, but it is also about the connection with the land, the Arab hospitality, which always means caring for visitors and families. This cultural tourism program shows the sumud of Palestinians in the Bethlehem area as a story of people, place and culture. The program brings out the fascinating identity of Palestine and how this identity is related to the culture of the land including customs and meanings dating back to the early times of the Bible and Koran and before. The program involves AEI groups of Palestinian women and youth in displaying authentic cultural practices through pieces of drama, music, songs and trills. The practices reveal how different religions encouraged remarkably intertwined and overlapping customs which still carry an educational message for today. A storyteller will relay diaries and letters and stories from old and more recent times and connect them with present-day life. In this way, you will experience the Palestinian and Bethlehem story in its different dimensions. To encourage participation, visitors and tourists will be invited to share some of the cultural practices.

Groups are welcome to visit the program as a whole or to share elements of it.

THE PROGRAM: EIGHT DAYS

1. Connecting with the land: Artas and Hindaza

Sumud is about being close to nature and the environment. During this day we will learn about the fragile fabric of relations with nature Palestinian peasants have, and how people living on the land used to express their interdependency with nature in songs, stories, proverbs, and other cultural practices. In the beautiful village of Artas immediately to the south of Bethlehem we will learn about the village history and how several anthropologists and long-time visitors, many of them women, made studies of the village culture. We will visit and take a lunch at the Artas Heritage Center, and witness outside a wedding scene, procession, and sword dance. Weddings are highlights in Palestinian social and cultural life. They show the Palestinian cultural identity and express the connections with each other as families, communities and people. We will have a storytelling session at the Solomon Pools which traditionally is held to be close to the place where King Solomon or, in Arabic, Suleiman, wrote the Biblical Song of Songs. We will walk in the surrounding orchards and near the Hortus Conclusus Church (named after the Song of Songs’ “closed garden”), learn about the sacred meanings of the olive tree as well as the underground life of the jinns. Afterwards you are invited to visit the caves of Hindaza bordering the south-east of Bethlehem and then take a rest near the qasr (small tower) of the Giacaman family. We will enjoy there an early evening picnic with music, storytelling, and thanksgiving all below a starry Bethlehem sky – as Bethlehem families used to do since time immemorial when they visited and stayed in the countryside to take care of their lands and harvests.

2. Determination to stay on the land, Moslem-Christian living together

This day we will see a remarkable example of ecotourism. The Tent of Nations near the village of Nahalin to the south-east of Bethlehem is a project of the Bethlehemite Daoud Nasser who owns lands there. Surrounded by Israeli settlements, his land is threatened by expropriation, but he keeps up sumud by developing his farm and inviting visitors to his beautiful land. We will hear his story of courage and persistence. Afterwards we will visit the village of Al-Khader, named after the Christian-Moslem saint St George/Al-Khader (the Green One). Al-Khader, a Moslem village, hosts a church where Bethlehem youth will show the traditional practice of vow-making still conducted there by Christians and Moslems alike. In the church we will show silent acts telling about traditional religious practices at the church. A storyteller will relay some of the folk stories of St George/Al-Khader. For Bethlehemites, traditional Moslem-Christian living together is part of their sumud. Afterwards we will visit other villages and places to the west of Bethlehem and perform a play at a well - a man and woman meeting secretly!

3. Sumud is hospitality and generosity

Bethlehem means House of Bread or House of Meat. It is a symbol of hospitality. In the museum of the Arab Women’s Union, near the Church of Nativity, Palestinian women will show the traditional hospitality offered and the customs during the tolbeh, the meeting of families to discuss a potential marriage. What are the meanings of coffee? Is Arab and Palestinian hospitality just about giving much food and drinks or has it other meanings? And: Was it true that the inn-owner refused entry to the Holy Family, or do we read Luke wrongly? The storyteller will give an answer. At the museum we will learn about the traditional architecture of the hara (quarter) where city people live with their extended families around. Then we will walk to the Syriac hosh nearby, a network of narrow staircases, arches and small windows. We will hear from the diary of Jabra Ibrahim Jabra, a Palestinian author and critic who wrote a wonderful diary about his early life as a Syriac-Orthodox child in Bethlehem of the 1920s. We will visit an old workshop where traditional crafts are practiced, and roam through the narrow streets of old yet renovated Bethlehem. Afterwards, Bethlehem women will show the cooking of a traditional Palestinian dish at the AEI Youth House. You are welcome to help in the preparations! During the lunch you may page through albums with old photos of Bethlehem families. In the afternoon we will have a walk through the Church of Nativity and hear the stories of Bible translator St Jerome and his accompanier Paula. In the early evening Al-Harah Theatre from neighboring Beit Jala will perform their play “Born in Bethlehem” making parallels between old and modern times.

4. Being tested in the desert

Sumud is about being tested. How do you carry on, in a life full of suffering, oppression and loss? This and other existential questions will be discussed in a meeting at the only place near Bethlehem which still prides a forest – at Wadi Khreitoun south of the mountain of Herodion. However, before having our meeting, we will first make a walk along Wadi Khreitoun to impress ourselves with the timelessness and rough nature of the wadi (canyon). We will see caves where Byzantine hermits used to live and pray. Bethlehem youth will show and tell about the life of monks and prehistoric cave dwellers. and play the Bedouin flute in the stunning silence of the wadi. A specialized guide will tell about rocks and birds. On the way back we will pass Oush Grab – the nest of the crow – at the edge of Beit Sahour which used to be a place to watch birds, then became an Israeli military camp and is now a site with various facilities for families and children facing what seems to become a new Israeli settlement.

5. Abraham Day

One of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Hebron begs attention. In Arabic Hebron means “Al-Khalil” or the Friend. The friend is patriarch Abraham, who is close to the heart of Palestinian Moslems and Christians as a symbol of hospitality. We will visit the Mosque of Ibrahim (or Machpela Cave) where Abraham and his wife Sara and children are buried according to tradition, visit the Soup Kitchen nearby, and take a walk in the center of town to see the old center and market and some of the small Israeli settlements which burden present-day Palestinian-Israeli relations. After taking the lunch and kanafeh (dessert made from cheese and sweets), we will head toward the east of Hebron. Passing the ruins of the Mamre oak (commemorating Abraham’s place of burial) we will continue to the village of Beni Naim where is a large old shrine devoted to Abraham and Lot. It’s a remarkable point of nature, one of those “high places” where Palestinian Moslem and Christian used to do prayers and make vows. We will explain and show the cultural practices associated with the site.

6. Weddings and Education

We will go to Beit Sahour, the town to the east of Bethlehem, which still practices the decoration of the bride with henna. You will be invited to share a henna workshop. After a traditional lunch in Beit Sahour or Bethlehem, we will move to the AEI Youth House to meet students from Bethlehem University. We learn about Palestinian education and studying the Palestinian identity. How do young Palestinians look at the future? Can they stay sumud, and preserve their Palestinian identity and culture? During this day you have a chance to witness a drama scene in which a Palestinian youth is interviewing his or her grandfather or grandmother, drawing comparisons between past and recent times.

7. Refugee camp, along the Wall

Early morning we will go to Aida refugee camp near Beit Jala and Rachel’s Tomb. We meet there Al-Rowwad (the pioneers) Cultural and Theatre Center which conducts – under the concept of “beautiful resistance” – projects which encourage communication, the promotion of human rights and cultural identity. At AEI’s Sumud Peace House we will visit Bethlehem families and hear about their stories of sumud – persistence to stay and live - despite the horrible presence of the nine-meter Wall nearby. We notice the graffiti on the Wall and such creative initiatives as the sticking of small bags on the Wall to put in your wishes, or even the showing of a restaurant menu on the Wall! One strategy of sumud is the generation of income, and we will visit the heritage souvenir shop of a family whose house is surrounded by the Wall on three sides, and hear her story. We will watch a heritage scene by Bethlehem women with the Wall as background. At the nearby Heritage Center of Maha Saca, you are invited to join an embroidery workshop. We will take lunch at a local restaurant that faces difficult times because of the Wall.

8. Traces of Palestinian identity

Sumud is also about going back to historical roots. This day will bring the visitors to the garden village of Ein Karem to the west of Jerusalem, the place of the birth of St John the Baptist and the Magnificat sung by the Virgin Mary. Few visitors of the churches there know that this used to be a mixed Moslem-Christian Palestinian village, and we will notice some houses of Bethlehem families who once lived there. Heading toward Jerusalem, while “reading” the landscape, we will visit the castle-like Greek-Orthodox Monastery of the Cross, in which neighborhood we will notice pre-1948 traces of Palestinian villages. We will hear storytelling in the monastery’s courtyard about adventures of Lot, the cousin of Abraham. After the lunch, we will take a drive through the Katamon and Bakaa quarters of Jerusalem which used to be inhabited by middle or upper-class Palestinians, many of them connected to Bethlehem. We will read from the letters of the famous Palestinian educator Khalil Sakakini near the house where he lived. On the way back to Bethlehem we will visit the remainders of the Moslem site of Badriyyeh, near Beit Safafa, which used to be frequented by Moslem.as well as Christian women before 1948.

In cooperation with www.palestine-family.net

Finally

As part of the cultural experience, you will receive a heritage set of books, postcards and photos which will deepen your knowledge of Palestinian and Bethlehem culture. The program will further give you an opportunity to see brief videos with interviews about cultural concepts essential to understand Bethlehem and Palestine – sumud, hospitality, closeness to nature, neighborliness and mutual support, and education. For more information about Palestinian culture: www.palestine-family.net.