For International Women's Day, today on the 8th of March, I prepared a tour in the old city of Jerusalem, that takes you through the history of Jerusalem with women as the main characters! 

Unfortunately the old city is closed to visitors due to the war with Iran and the tour is canceled. I decided to record some of the stories of these important historical women and share this episode with you on International Women's Day. 

This virtual guided journey through Jerusalem highlights the lives of several women whose stories shaped the city’s faith, art, politics, and daily life. From Mary Magdalene and Mother Mary to Melisende, Rabia al Adawiya, Khassaki Hürrem Sultan, Helena, Eudocia, and Hind al‑Husseini, we trace witness, rule, charity, and education across centuries.

If you enjoyed it and if you want to support me, because in these times of war, as a tour guide, we don't have any income, then I would highly appreciate if you went to my Ko-fi page where you can buy me a coffee.

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My name is Kristel, I studied history and tour guiding in the Netherlands and I have a tour guide license from the Israeli Ministry of Tourism and from the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism. During the Covid pandemic I created the podcast Stories from Palestine. I stopped uploading new episodes when things opened up and I could actually go out there and do tour guiding. But now, due to the current war situation, I have decided to go back to podcasting, focusing on stories from Jerusalem. 

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A couple of years ago I received three pieces of embroidery that used to be the chest pieces of Palestinian dresses. The Palestinian dress is called a 'thob' in Arabic. The person who gave them to me said she had received them from an Israeli woman who had said: “these were from the people who used to live here” 

As she didn't know what to do with them, she handed them to me. I also didn't know what was the best thing to do so I asked a Palestinian friend who is a designer and knowledgeable about Palestinian heritage. She then referred me to the Palestinian Heritage Museum in Jerusalem where I met with Bahaa Jubeh, the curator.

In the first episode we took a tour of the ground floor of the museum, focused on all kinds of heritage objects such as pottery, straw items, copper pots, metal objects and agricultural tools. 

In this second episode the tour takes us to the upper floor of the museum where we focus on the history of the traditional Palestinian thobs and tatreez, the dresses with embroidery.

More information about the Palestinian Heritage Museum:

https://dartifl.org/

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A couple of years ago I received three pieces of embroidery that used to be the chest pieces of Palestinian dresses. The Palestinian dress is called a 'thob' in Arabic. The person who gave them to me said she had received them from an Israeli woman who had said: “these were from the people who used to live here” 

As she didn't know what to do with them, she handed them to me. I also didn't know what was the best thing to do so I asked a Palestinian friend who is a designer and knowledgeable about Palestinian heritage. She then referred me to the Palestinian Heritage Museum in Jerusalem where I met with Bahaa Jubeh, the curator.

In this first episode you will learn more about the museum as we take a tour of the ground floor that focuses on all kinds of heritage objects such as pottery, straw items, copper pots, metal objects and agricultural tools. 

The audio quality of this episode is not studio quality as we recorded it in the rooms of the museum that produced quite a bit of echo. 

The second episode that I will upload is a tour of the upper floor of the museum where we focus on the history of the traditional Palestinian thobs and embroidery. 

Find out more about the Palestinian Heritage Museum:

https://dartifl.org/

Facebook: @palestinianheritagemuseum

Instagram: @dta_palestinianheritagemuseum

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In this episode you will hear three interviews I carried out for PAX Palestine Podcast with four Palestinian young women who share their transformative journey with the Youth Bridges for Democracy and Participation project. This project is carried out by PAX and the Palestinian Center for Peace and Democracy (PCPD).

Through this initiative youth and women are learning to step into local governance roles, empowered with the skills and confidence to hold municipal authorities accountable and contribute to their communities.

If you want to know more about the work of PAX for Peace you can go to their website https://paxforpeace.nl

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Nada is a Palestinian-American author, teacher and mother. She was six years old when her mother kidnapped her from Kuwait, at the time when Iraq invaded Kuwait. They went to the United States where her uncle lived in Rhode Island. She did not yet realize that it was not a holiday but they were going to stay.

Her debut book All Water Has a Perfect Memory is a memoir that takes readers from the author’s ancestral origins- the coast of Yaffa, Palestine, to her birthplace of Kuwait, eventually landing on the shores of Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island. 

The narrative confronts generations of silence and, ultimately, revelation with an imaginative blend of folklore and history that explores the relationship between our bodies, ancestors, and the Earth. The work explores the way the author is intertwined with her maternal line while reuniting with her father after a 30-year separation.

Voices once hidden in the waters of our bodies are amplified and released to forever alter the landscape, breaking cycles and seeding an audacious hope interconnected to lands past and present.

https://jadedibispress.com/product/all-water-has-perfect-memory-by-nada-samih-rotondo/

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Recently the kids and I watched the film 'A house in Jerusalem' by filmmaker Muayad Elayyan who happens to be a far cousin and friend of my husband Tariq. Although he told me that he had a small role as an extra in this film, which he's had in all Muayad's films, I did NOT recognize him. Turns out the policeman in the scene when Rebecca wanders off from the summer school activity in Jerusalem and ends up with the Palestinian puppeteer, is MY husband!! We only realized at the end of the film when we saw his name in the end credits, that we had missed out on recognizing him. It was a hilarious moment when we played it again and then figured out the policeman was Tariq!

Muayad visits Singer Cafe regularly so it wasn't hard to catch him for a podcast interview. After his earlier films: 'The reports on Sarah and Saleem' and 'Love Theft and Other Entanglements' this film 'A House in Jerusalem' is the latest. It came out in January 2023 and it is still being shown at film festivals around the world.

In this film a British Jewish girl named Rebecca comes with her father to Jerusalem after her mother has died in a tragic car accident. Her grandfather has a house in West Jerusalem where they can live. They are both overwhelmed with the trauma of losing the mother, but the father is trying to make things work in their new environment. Rebecca explores the garden, finds an old well, manages to open it and finds a traditional rag doll in the well. This leads her to connect with the ghost of the young Palestinian girl Rasha. What follows is the story of what happened to this girl Rasha during the 1948 Nakba when the family was forcibly displaced from their home.

In the podcast interview with Muayad we touch on many aspects of the film and on Muayad's personal family history. His both grandparents were displaced from their homes. The theme of intergenerational trauma both on an individual level as well as on the collective level are very present in the film.

Muayad could never have imagined that his film would come out just months before the 7th of October and before the ethnic cleansing campaign in the Gaza strip. "There are many parallels to what happened in 1948 and what is happening in Gaza."

If you want to follow up with news of screenings of the film then this is the facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ahouseinjerusalem 

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On a Friday evening in September I attended a beautiful concert of the Amwaj children's choir in Bethlehem. I had tears rolling down my eyes. Not only did the choir sound so beautiful, but also did I realize what Palestinian children in the Westbank are suffering through. And how their peers in Gaza are losing everything, their houses, their beloved ones, their schools, their chances, their future, their hope...

I decided to interview Michele Cantoni, an Italian musician (violinist) who established the Amwaj choir with his wife Mathilde Vittu, the Choir Director.

The Amwaj choir has two branches, one in Hebron and one in Bethlehem. Children who want to be part of the choir have to commit to all the rehearsals and the performances.  There is no fee, the choir is for free, available to all children who want to make the commitment.

The repertoire consists of songs in many different languages. They have performed in different parts of Palestine as well as in France, Belgium and Italy.

This year they adapt the choice of the songs to the current reality with themes like solidarity and freedom.

In this episode you can hear some soundbites that I recorded during the concert and of course the interview I did with Michele a few days later.

If you want to read more about the Amwaj choir or if you want to contact Michele and Mathilde please go to : https://amwajchoir.org 

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The Makhrour valley is situated between Beit Jala and Battir and the larger part of this valley has been designated as part of a world heritage site registered by UNESCO as 'Palestine, land of olives and vines' 

The slopes of hills on either side of the Makhrour valley have terraces that date back to at least the Roman era. These agricultural terraces are farmed by Palestinian farmers from Beit Jala and Battir.

On a hot September morning I walked with my friend Dee down the valley to visit Shadi who started farming two years ago on the renovated land of his family. He is selling his produce at our Singer Cafe every Wednesday morning. This year the summer heat came very early in June and most of his crops burnt. I wanted to check on him and see what remained of his hard work. 

After our visit we passed by the solidarity tent of the Kisiya family as they were just holding a press conference and preparing for a solidarity march with representatives of different faith communities. The family is struggling against a group of settlers and the Jewish National Fund trying to take over the land. The family was leasing this land from the original owner who left the country and passed away abroad. According to the local law the Kisiya family now has the right to remain on the land until a descendant of the owner would claim the land, but as far as they know, the owner did not have any offspring. 

The settlers have not been able to prove they have bought the land. But the military issued a new military order preventing the Kisiya family from entering the Makhrour valley.

An international solidarity vigil is planned for 29 September. You can organize your own activity or join an event in your country. 

Go to https://linktr.ee/savealmakhrour to connect and follow the efforts to save al Makhrour on Instagram. If you want to join the WhatsApp community you can contact them on the contact form. 

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This is interview with Yousef Khoury, a Christian Palestinian theologian originally from Gaza, currently living in Bethlehem, was conducted in April 2024. The content of this interview was used for the book: "Daybreak in Gaza, stories of Palestinian lives and culture". In this interview Yousef shares with us his memories of Gaza before the destruction that happened since 7 October 2023.

The book was edited by Mahmoud Muna and Matthew Teller, with Juliette Touma and Jayyab Abusafia. Published by Saqi Books (London). Profits from sales are being donated to the charity Medical Aid for Palestinians. The book includes writing and images from almost 100 contributors, bringing together stories, essays, war diaries, memoirs, poems and artworks by all sorts of people from Gaza or connected to Gaza - writers and artists, but also shopkeepers, farmers, teachers, medics, office workers, and more.

You can order “Daybreak in Gaza” at your local bookshop in any country, or from Amazon and other online bookstores - but there are two extra-special ways to order:

1- Direct from the publisher at https://saqibooks.com/ - they will ship worldwide, and buying from the publisher maximizes the amount going to charity. (Also, Saqi have been publishing books about Palestine and the wider Middle East for decades, and have a fantastic list of fiction and non-fiction titles that is well worth exploring).

2- Or you can choose to support the Palestinian economy directly by ordering from EducationalBookshop.com - This is a Palestinian-owned and Palestinian-run bookshop in the eastern part of Jerusalem run by the co-author of DAYBREAK IN GAZA, Mahmoud Muna and his family for many years. They will ship worldwide.

This October and November, the book’s editors Mahmoud Muna and Matthew Teller will be speaking about Gaza, and Palestine, in London and cities around the UK, with events planned in Amsterdam, Brussels, Frankfurt and elsewhere. Keep an eye on SaqiBooks.com and Matthew’s website matthewteller.com, where tour updates will be posted. 

The launch event is scheduled for Thursday 3rd October, at the famous Stanfords bookshop in London.

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