Stories from Jerusalem / Al Quds

This site is technically not in Palestine but in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights. It is only a few kilometers west of Tel el Qadi (Tel Dan) and it is really a beautiful ancient site with an interesting history. It was the most northern part of the region that Jesus ever visited and according to the Bible it was here that he first confirmed to his disciples that he was the Messiah.

Banias is called after the Greek god of fertility, nature and wildlife: Pan.
It was believed that his birth cave was here in the big cliff and the same cave was considered to be the entrance to Hades, the underworld, where the fertility gods would spent time during winter.

People used to come and sacrifice goats to Pan by throwing them in the spring. If the goat did not sink down then the sacrifice was not accepted and they would toss in new born babies.

During excavations a lot of statues of deities were found and remains of Temples that were built in Greek and Roman time.

The son of Herod the Great, Philip, made it the capital of his territory and named it Caesarea Philippi, after the emperor Caesar Augustus and after himself. It was a thriving Roman city. Jesus never entered the city but he came up to the cave of Hades to proclaim that he would be victorious over death.

After his visit to Banias he went down south towards Jerusalem and on one of the mountains, thought to be Mount Tabor, the transfiguration happened and he radiated in glory and he was seen by his apostles with Moses and Elijah.

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In this episode you can hear Palestinian American activist Abbas Hamideh, the founder of Al Awda for the right of return of Palestinians and the founder of the immensely popular Facebook group Mama's Palestinian Kitchen!

Abbas was  born in Puerto Rico and grew up in the United States. When he was 12 years old his father took him to his homeland, Palestine. They went to Deir Yassin, in West Jerusalem, where his father is originally from. At the same age as Abbas was during that first visit, 12 years old, his father witnessed the Deir Yassin massacre. He survived it and he ended up in a refugee camp in Jericho. In 1967 they were expelled again and they left to Puerto Rico.

This visit changed everything for Abbas. He understood the sadness, the bitterness and the anger of Palestinians in diaspora. He decided to become an activist, to struggle for the right of return of the Palestinian refugees that got scattered around the world. He established Al Awda and they organized many awareness raising events and protests.

During the Covid pandemic they could not do anymore protests and gatherings. Some of the platforms on social media that Palestinians were on, were not necessarily a safe space where they could publicly share their love for Palestine. There was a particular group where Arabic food was the common ground, but the admins kept blocking Palestinians who were critical and asked to boycott Israeli products.

So Abbas decided to start with Mama's Palestinian Kitchen and he could have never imagined how successful that would be. He had to ask friends to help him moderate the group and they had to come up with some strict rules in order to keep the page manageable and alive.

If you want to become a member of the group you can find the Facebook page here, click:
Mama's Palestinian Kitchen Facebook group

Check out the website of Al Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition
https://al-awda.org/

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On Sunday 17 April I took the bus from Beit Safafa to the old city to join a tour in Silwan with Emek Shaveh, an Israeli NGO that, in their own words, works  to defend cultural heritage rights and to protect ancient sites as public assets that belong to members of all communities, faiths and peoples.

That day was Easter Sunday for the Catholic Church, Pesach for the Jews and Ramadan for the Muslims. As we walked up to Mount Zion we saw a lot of police blockades, police everywhere and Jewish people walking towards the plaza in front of the Buraq wall. We heard helicopters flying over and we realized it was a tense day to go on a tour in Silwan. During the tour we heard shooting several times.

Silwan is a Palestinian village close to the old city. Silwan is the place where the city of Jerusalem started in the Canaanite period, in the Bronze Age time. This is where the first small settlement was established near the Gihon spring.

Today there is a big archaeological site and a lot of excavations are happening in Silwan. With archaeologist and founder of Emek Shaveh, Yonathan Mizrachi, we walked around the visitor center and the excavations and other parts of Silwan, to talk about how archaeology is used to make claims of ownership and to create a justification for taking over the Palestinian area of Silwan.

There are two settler organizations active in Silwan: Elad and Ateret Cohanim. They use different methods to take over houses from Palestinians and create Jewish presence in the neighborhood.

In this episode you can hear from archaeologist Yonathan Mizrachi that there is no evidence that the palace of King David was built in this area. They have not found anything from the 10th century, the time of King David, although the site is called 'City of David' archaeological park.

If you want to know more, visit their website : https://emekshaveh.org/en

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This is the fourth year that I use the month of Ramadan to deepen my own spirituality and break with some habits that I don't want to continue with and introduce new habits. They say if you do something for three weeks, it becomes a habit. During the four weeks of Ramadan I do not drink alcohol, I refrain from eating sugar and processed food and I focus on eating fresh vegetables, fruits and balanced meals. I drink more water also. And I start and end the day with yoga exercises and meditation.

During my walks I listen to spiritual podcasts. At the moment I am listening to the podcast "The Way Out is In" produced in Plum Village in France, about the Buddhist Zen tradition of Thich Nhath Hahn. It gives a lot of practical tools for being mindful, being in the present moment and allowing for feelings and emotions and suffering to be acknowledged and accepted as part of life.

During my mediation and calm and quiet moments this month, I have also been reflecting on my life in Palestine and the big decision I took to get married to a Palestinian and move here. Last summer I gave up the house I was still renting in Holland and now I have all my life in Palestine and I raise my children in this place.

In this podcast episode I share my reflections on the life in Palestine, focusing mainly on the cultural differences I experience and comparing how my life would have been different if we had decided to raise our children in Holland.

In this episode I used some soundbites I recorded in the last year of typical street sounds that we hear around us in the Bethlehem area.

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For the full transcript of this podcast click the transcript tab next to the show notes tab or go to the website:  https://storiesfrompalestine.info/2022/04/08/south-hebron-hills/

Sami Huraini is a young Palestinian activist from the village of At-Tuwani in the South Hebron Hills. His village, just as many other Palestinian villages in that region, is in area C, which is under full Israeli military control. Settlers and Israeli military are making life very hard for the villagers, in order to persuade them to move away into towns and cities under Palestinian Authority. But Sami is very clear: we are not leaving. This is our village, this is our land. We will defend and protect ourselves in a non violent way.

Many of the villages in the South Hebron Hills are not connected to water or electricity. The people suffer from continuous attacks by settlers who set fire to their properties, steal their tools and even their life stock, violently attack shepherds, villagers and even children.

The Israeli military is often present but does nothing to prevent the settlers from attacking Palestinians.

In At-Tuwani the youth organized themselves in an initiative called Youth of Sumud. Sami is one of the community leaders and he was arrested in the beginning of this year. Originally without any charges, later soldiers made up some claims against him. He was given an award for human rights defenders who are at high risk. This has helped in getting more media attention and more diplomats to visit At-Tuwani.

Recently they opened a guesthouse where visitors can stay. They are welcome to join for a tour around the South Hebron Hills, to spend some time in solidarity with the villagers, to be protective presence and accompany farmers, shepherds and children.

If you want to know more you can check out their facebook group Youth of Sumud

You can e-mail them : [email protected]

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The month of Ramadan 2022 started in Palestine on the second of April. Between sunrise and sunset Muslims refrain from eating. When they break their fasting, they usually start by eating a date. They do this because according to the tradition prophet Mohamad used to break his fasting by eating a date.

Dates have many health benefits and they are a healthy replacement for refined sugar.

In Palestine date palm trees mainly grow in the Jordan valley, where the oxygen level is high due to the fact that the Jordan rift valley is about 300 meters below sea level. The climate is warm and dry. A perfect environment for the date trees.

Jamileh Dajani is the only female Palestinian date farm owner in the Jordan valley. Her husband works abroad and she runs this business by herself, with the help of some workers who take care of pollination and harvesting. Jamileh produces for the local market and prepares special Jamileh delights, dates dipped in chocolate and covered with crunchy nuts and coconut. Especially around Christmas and Ramadan she is very busy.

But still she found time to talk to me about the origins of the date palm trees, their specifics, the different kinds of dates, the health benefits, the challenges that Palestinian date farmers have and the difference between the dates from the Israeli settlements and the Palestinian producers.

You can find Jamileh dates on Instagram @jamilehdates

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Masada comes from the Hebrew word Metzad and this means fortress. It is basically a fortress that was built on top of a rock plateau. It is located very close to the Dead Sea and it is a bit south of the Westbank, so it is not accessible to Palestinians from the Westbank currently.

The fortress was built in the time of Herod the Great who prepared it to be able to withstand a long siege. The rock plateau had palaces, water cisterns, storage halls, workshops, residencies for generals and barracks for soldiers and even a Roman bathhouse.

The most famous story about Masada is that of the Roman siege in 73 AD when a group of Jewish Zealots who rebelled against the Romans, had taken the mount and decided that in case the Romans would take Masada, they would commit suicide.

This story is only known from one written account, by the Jewish apologist Flavius Josephus.

New research has shown that the ramp that the Romans started building, never reached the top of Masada. This really challenges the common understanding of HOW the Roman siege of Masada ended. Nevertheless, this is the story that is told by tour guides to the large amounts of visitors that visit Masada.

If you want to watch the film 'Avenge but one of my two eyes" by Avi Moghrabi who made parallels between the bravery of the Jewish Zealots who are praised by the Israeli narrative and the Palestinian freedom fighters who are put aside as terrorists, then go to this YouTube link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99Iy-IapIdY

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This episode was recorded in Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem, during our visit to Aida Youth Center where the director, Anas, spoke to us about the history of the refugee problem and life in the refugee camp.

There are 19 refugee camps in the Westbank, three of them are located in Bethlehem. Aida refugee camp is the most teargassed place in the world. There is an Israeli army base right next to the camp and the Israeli separation wall has been built just on the edge of the camp. There is literally no space for the Palestinians who live in Aida camp.

The camp was established by UNRWA in 1950 and families were given a tent to stay in. In 1956 they replaced the tents with rooms. One room for each six family members. There were no bathrooms and kitchens, only shared ones. These rooms have been replaced over time by houses built by the residents of Aida camp. And as there is no space to built outside of the camp area, they are building up, several floors. The camp has very narrow streets. 

Aida camp is named after a Palestinian woman who had a coffee shop in this area and who was a support for the first refugees that came to Bethlehem. The inhabitants of the camp come from different towns and villages that used to be situated between Hebron and Jerusalem. They locked their homes and took their keys hoping that they would return after the attacks were over. But they were never allowed, despite the UN resolution 194 that states that all Palestinians have the right to return to their homes.

If you want to follow Aid Youth Center on social media, here are some links:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZl2BVF0J8O_k4zcWL4AwHQ

https://www.aidacenter.org/

https://www.facebook.com/aidacenter.org

https://www.instagram.com/aida_youth_center

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The Mount of Olives is situated to the East of the old city of Jerusalem. The Mount plays an important role in the Bible. It is the place where Jesus taught his disciples to pray. It is the place from where Jesus looked at Jerusalem and wept for its future destruction. It is also from here that Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey and was welcomed by a crowd covering the street with palm branches. And of course it is the place where Jesus spent the last night before he was crucified, in the garden of Gethsemane, where he prayed to God asking if this cup could pass him.

The Mount of Olives and the Kidron and Hinnom valley are the location where according to all three monotheistic religions the final day of judgment will take place.

There are many churches, mosques and the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives.

In this episode I try to give a good impression of what you can see and of the history of these sites. It is absolutely not a complete description but rather an introduction. Hopefully you will come to visit the Mount of Olives for yourself one day!

If you make a donation to the podcast on Ko-fi the I will send you the link to the Mount of Olives video. When you make the donation on Ko-fi please refer to the video and send me your e-mail address!

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Five years ago, in 2017, the Walled Off Hotel opened its doors in Bethlehem. After a period of two years closure because of the Covid pandemic, the hotel has recently reopened.

The hotel is marketed as the hotel with the worst view, as it is located only a few meters from the eight meters high concrete wall that Israel built to carve out Rachel's tomb and a parking lot from Bethlehem for the exclusive visit of Israeli and foreign visitors to the site that is considered holy in all three monotheistic religions.

There is also an Israeli military army base in that area, right on the spot that used to be the ancient entrance to Bethlehem and which was a commercially busy street until it was blocked off by the Wall.

The Hotel's name is also a play on the famous and expensive high class Waldorf Hotels.
There are eight rooms in the hotel that are designed by Banksy and other artists. The Hotel also has a museum that highlights the political reality for the Palestinians and gives an introduction to the geo-political history.

There is a lot of art to be seen in the Hotel. Both in the lobby and the bar as well as in the gallery upstairs. You can see work by Banksy himself and art work by more than sixty Palestinian artists. The work in the art gallery is also for sale.

Check out the website : https://walledoffhotel.com

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