Program cultural tourism on Bethlehem/Palestine

THE SPIRIT OF SUMUD

Experience Palestinian stories of persistence, beauty and courage

Starting May 1, 2009
Arab Educational Institute (AEI-Open Windows)

Palestinian sumud means steadfastness, patience, capacity to carry on, but it is also about the connection with the land, and Arab hospitality, which always means caring for visitors and families. AEI’s cultural tourism program shows the sumud of Palestinians in the Bethlehem area as a story of people, places 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 displaying authentic cultural practices through drama, music, songs and trills. A storyteller will relay diaries and letters and stories from old and more recent times and connect them with present-day life.

Groups are welcome to join full-day or half-day visits or compose a program by combining several days.
 

THE PROGRAM: One FULL-DAY or HALF-DAY JOURNEYS

in and out of Bethlehem

1.    Connecting with the land: Artas and Hindaza (half day or full day)

Sumud is about being close to nature and the environment. During this day you will learn about the traditional fragile fabric of relations Palestinian peasants have with nature, 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 anthropologists, including the renowned Hilma Granqvist of Finnish origin, and other 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. Palestinian women will sing old trills which evoke images that remind of the lyrical Song of Songs.

If you plan to stay in the afternoon, you are invited to have either

-          a study session in which you will meet counterparts of your choice (for instance, teachers, a women’s group, university students). The session can be a conversation, reflection, or an informal meeting, or can focus on a specific cultural or spiritual topic.

-          a storytelling session at the nearby Solomon Pools. This is traditionally 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”), and learn about the sacred meanings of the olive tree and the underground life of the jinns (spirits).

As for evening dinner, you are invited to visit the fields and caves of Hindaza bordering the south-east of Bethlehem and 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 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.    Journey along the Wall near Aida refugee camp and Rachel’s Tomb (half day)

Early morning we will go to Aida refugee camp near Beit Jala and Rachel’s Tomb. We will hear about creative projects along the Wall which encourage communication, the promotion of human rights and cultural identity. Walking around Rachel’s Tomb, we notice the graffiti and creative initiatives such as showing a restaurant menu on the Wall! We visit the heritage souvenir shop of a family whose house is surrounded by the Wall on three sides, and hear her story. Afterwards we will watch a heritage scene played by Bethlehem women with the Wall as background.  At AEI’s Sumud Story House some women will tell their stories of sumud. We will take lunch at a local restaurant that faces difficult times because of the Wall.

3.    Education: Bethlehem University (half day, preferably Thursdays 11:00-13:00)

Meet students from Bethlehem University. We learn there about Palestinian education. How do young Palestinians look at the present and future? You will witness a conversation at the Turathuna Heritage Center of the University,  in which a Palestinian youth plays to be a grandchild of an older resident of Bethlehem, starts a conversation about history with him or her, and draws comparisons between past and recent times.

Afterwards, you are welcome to join a traditional lunch.

4.    Exposure journey: listening to Palestinian voices for peace and justice, Bethlehem (half day)

You are invited to join a presentation at AEI’s Sumud Story House in Bethlehem about the geo-political reality of the Bethlehem area, including the consequences of the Wall, settlements and checkpoint system. Afterwards you will share a discussion with some Palestinian non-violent activists who tell about their principles and practices. Then a traditional lunch.

5.    Weddings and handicrafts: Beit Sahour and Bethlehem (half day)

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, and hear about wedding customs. At the Heritage Center of Maha Saca back in Bethlehem, you will join an embroidery workshop, and see traditional dresses and other decorative items, and learn about their uses. You will end this half-day program with enjoying traditional food in Beit Sahour or Bethlehem.

6.    Sumud and hospitality: the center of Bethlehem (half a day or full day)

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 during the tolbeh, the meeting of families to discuss a possible 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 book of memories of 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 light 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, and see brief videos of Bethlehem/Palestinian culture.

If you join for the afternoon, you will have a quiet 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.

In the evening, you are welcome to join a dinner at a Bethlehem family home.

7.    Staying on the land, Moslem-Christian living together: Nahalin, Al-Khader, Battir and Wallajeh (half a day or full day)

Leaving Bethlehem through the old center of Beit Jala, this day will show you the courage and persistence of peasants in the south-western area of Bethlehem (Tent of Nations, Nahalin). They keep sumud despite the settlements and the Wall by developing their farms, sometimes in an original and ecologically minded way. We will hear their stories of courage and persistence despite land expropriations and other obstacles. Afterwards we will visit the village of Al-Khader, named after the Christian-Moslem saint St George/Al-Khader (the Green One), venerated as a rain-bringer. 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 you silent acts expressing traditional religious practices at the church. A storyteller will relay some of the folk stories of St George/Al-Khader helping the poor, the travelers and the sick. For Bethlehemites, traditional Moslem-Christian living together is part of their sumud.

After a lunch in the countryside you may either return to Bethlehem or visit some other villages to the west of Bethlehem - Battir and Wallajeh – where you will meet peasants and villagers and enjoy a play at a well - a man and woman meeting secretly.

At the end of the day, you are invited for a dinner with families in Bethlehem. During dinner you may page through albums with old photos of Bethlehem families, and see brief videos of Bethlehem/Palestinian culture.

8.      Tested in the desert: Wadi Khreitoun and Beit Sahour (full day)

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 with Palestinian women and youth 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, as well as the unavoidable settlements around. 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.

Alternatively, instead of Wadi Khreitoun, the monastery of Mar Saba can be visited.

In the evening, you are welcome to join a dinner at a Bethlehem family home.

9.      Abraham Day: Hebron and Beni Naim (full 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.

In the evening, you will be invited to join a dinner at a Bethlehem family home.

10. Traces of Palestinian identity: Jerusalem (full day)

Sumud is also about historical roots. This day will bring you 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. 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 the 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 from the Bethlehem area before 1948.

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.