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Quarterly Newsletter Last month, our Centre wrapped up two years of intensive work in the field of integrated cultural heritage preservation in the Bethlehem District. With all the work that has been accomplished we still feel that we have barely started a process that should eventually entrench the value of cultural heritage and the need to preserve it wisely and viably in the collective conscience. But how do we get on with this process when the threat of war is still on our doorsteps? This month, a whole year will have passed since the beginning of the siege of the Nativity. Since then, much has been written about the damages incurred to this holy site and its surrounding area, to the old centres of Nablus and Hebron, to the refugee camps, to the groves and olive trees, yet the devastation still continues and multiplies. On the other hand, the ills of the Israeli occupation in the Palestinian Territories seem to have paled next to the ravages of war in neighbouring Iraq, which perhaps enjoys the highest concentration of archaeological sites in the world –Mesopotamia, the Fertile Crescent, Babylon, are some of the names that come to mind with reference to this presently ravaged part of the world, and each evokes a whole lot of associations, both real and mythical, but all inextricably connected to this ancient land that saw the birth of human civilisation. We, Palestinians, can identify with the sense of loss that must overwhelm the Iraqi people and as we watch endlessly the incremental destruction of Iraq, we try to make sense of the avalanche of debates about the war, which have swept the news networks around the world We cannot help but ponder over the debacle that hovers at the forefront of the massive devastation of this war: the rebuilding of Iraq and the wrangling over responsibilities and modalities for this rebuilding. But the central question remains to be asked: will this rebuilding restore the mass devastation of millennia of recorded history and more importantly, will it restore the bruised dignity of millions of people? In the midst of such concern, where a whole part of the world remains subject to threat of various kinds and degrees, we are only too aware of the need to salvage what remains of our cultural heritage here in Palestine. We cannot prevent the ravages of war but we can intercept the ravages of society and those resulting from unsound decisions through the reform of our policies and the passing of new legislation that addresses present needs. Since 1998, the need for policy reform and new legislation was identified and the Ministries of Tourism and Antiquities and Culture, in cooperation with the World Bank proceeded in drafting a project proposal regarding this issue. Unfortunately this project did not get off the ground until recently when Bethlehem 2000 Project, through the Centre for Cultural Heritage Preservation, took the project in hand and called for proposals for a draft of new laws. We also share in the mental muddle: in our little corner of the world, we Palestinians were expecting the worst from this war, yet our predictions proved incorrect. Though the occupation continues its course of destruction and killing, there has been no spectacular fallout and even our anticipation of a much-dreaded curfew has proved vain as we are allowed to go about our lives in our little enclosures. It is confusing! Our former experience during the Gulf War and our on-going experience with the tactics of the occupation have been thwarted by some unexplainable forces! We were not tempting fate by expecting the worst, it is just that uncertainty seems to be our existential lot. We have adapted our lives to it inasmuch as it is possible given the proposals and counterproposals that shape our present and have determined our future in the last decades or so. Whoever said that today is yesterday’s tomorrow was not thinking of us, as we do not seem to be able to fit in this order of logic. As we improvise and cope, the pursuit of quality and higher standards and any attempts at forecasts are constantly upset by superior forces that will always work against us for as long as the occupation continues and we cannot get a firm grip on our issues. Rehabilitation Works Al-Anatra Quarter:
Public Awareness and Community Development Awareness Campaign for Schools of the Bethlehem District The first phase of this campaign, which targeted 1385 out of a total of 3824 sixth-grade children, included visits to tourism and cultural heritage sites, and provided children with the total ‘tourism experience’. We hope that GTZ, which funded this phase, will support a continuation of this project for the remaining children. As a complement to this campaign, the Norwegian Government through NORAD is supporting a series of educational and creative activities related to awareness of cultural and natural heritage for all sixth grade children. The implementation of this campaign is underway, and we hope that by the end of this school year we will have reached all 1385 children, and we will resume the project to extend the activities to the rest of the children in September.
Research and Training Since the establishment of the Centre two years ago, we were involved in establishing its institutional framework and defining its policies and implementing some impending projects, which did not allow us the time to concentrate on training and workshops. In this edition of our newsletter, we are very proud to share with you a highlight of our activities in this segment of our work. Training for ethnographic research and data collection: Implementation of our Euro-Med Heritage II project ‘Mediterranean Voices’ has started with a training workshop for the researchers who will be collecting ethnographic data and conducting interviews with elderly people representing the different clans and ethnic groups in the Bethlehem District. Some of these interviews will be recorded on video and downloaded on the website we will share with our partner cities. The principal aims of the project are to promote awareness of the cultural heritage of Mediterranean urban spaces and to create and strengthen regional stakeholder networks. The central activity of the project is the creation of a database of oral and social history of urban spaces of the fourteen partner cities, which will form the basis for further activities both locally and regionally, including seminars and exhibitions. We will keep our readers informed of our progress through the publication of blurbs of the interviews and some of our findings. Training Program for Architectural Conservation In cooperation with the Association of Engineers and Hebron Rehabilitation Committee, our Centre has prepared for a training course in architectural conservation in the Districts of Bethlehem and Hebron. The objective of this training is threefold:
This training, which targets local engineers, architects, and contractors, includes a theoretical and a practical module, starts on April 16, 2003, and will last three months. Training Course for Territorial Cultural System Planning: The Centre has invited six participants from the Bethlehem area to attend this training course, which will be held in Malta, 4th – 11th May 2003, as part of the Delta project in which we are partners. The participants represent public institutions and private organisations, which will be our partners in the project, and the course is related to the fields of planning and development of economic democracy, development of economic potential and enhancement of cultural heritage. As a reminder to our readers, Delta is a Euro-Med Heritage II project that aims to promote the development of “territorial cultural systems”, that is territories in which a group of activities that are directly and indirectly connected to the enhancement of the cultural heritage are developed, promoted and carried out by public and private operators working in partnership. Thematic Workshop on ‘Management and Development of the landscape and integration of contemporary architecture and art’ in Seville, Spain, 15th – 17th May: a Delta Project workshop dedicated to the exchange of experiences between the network partners in order to increase shared knowledge regarding the integrated enhancement of heritage. Five Palestinian participants, representatives of public and private institutions involved in cultural heritage development will share in the discussions, and exchange views and information on their respective experiences. Policy Reform The Policy Reform Project, which has been introduced to our readers in the January issue of our newsletter aims to provide a better management, protection and enhancement of cultural and natural heritage resources. This project consists of three packages: Legal and Institutional Reform, Program Development and Capacity Building. The Legal and Institutional Reform package was awarded to the Institute of Law at Bir Zeit University who proceeded with the work according to terms of reference designed by the Task Force nominated for the project. This Task Force is headed by the Minister of Tourism and Antiquities – Coordinator General for Bethlehem 2000 Project. The Institute of Law has been working on Phase I, which includes a review of the larger legal and administrative structures related to the Palestinian Cultural and Natural Heritage, and an analysis of other relevant knowledge and experience with particular attention to international charters and standards. Based on this research, there will be a drafting of a Policy Framework as a preliminary proposal outline, which should also articulate a vision that adopts a modern approach to cultural management and give due consideration to other sectors that have impact on cultural and natural environment In addition to the above, it will be necessary for the Institute to review and assess the present Palestinian legal regime on cultural and natural heritage in order to identify which parts of the present regime should be maintained, amended or discarded completely. It should also conduct a comparative study and analysis of the legal regimes governing the management, protection and enhancement of cultural and natural heritage, review international conventions, charters, agreements, standards and recommendations concerning the management, protection and enhancement of cultural and natural heritage. All this work involves interdisciplinary consultations between legal experts working closely with other experts in the fields relevant to the law, such as cultural heritage, urban planning, archaeology and natural heritage. Once this policy framework has taken shape, it will be presented in a workshop with the various stakeholders. The objective of this first workshop is to deliberate the findings and recommend the adoption of the Policy Framework. The workshop will be attended by major stakeholders in the cultural and natural heritage community as well as by international experts. Invitations will be extended to representatives from the concerned Ministries, the PLC, concerned NGO’s, UNESCO and interested academic and legal professionals. Work on Program Development, another important component of the project which consists of research and documentation of the Palestinian experience and practice in the management of cultural and natural resources, has progressed substantially and this work will feed into the drafting of the new laws. The legal framework for listing of monuments and sites for protection will be based on existing lists. It is worthwhile mentioning that the project of the Conservation Master Plan of Betonia, a village in the vicinity of Ramallah, is a pilot project complementary to the drafting of the cultural and natural heritage law. It will assist the legal team in testing the field requirements and administrative procedures required to designate a site for protection. Riwaq has been awarded this project, which should be completed by 20 June 2003. New
Highlights of our activities Exhibition:
Our next exhibition will be on the documentation of renovation works in Nablus. More of our activities:
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