One of the most visited sites in the old city of Jerusalem is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This is where Christians venerate the place where Jesus was crucified and where he was buried in a tomb. Pilgrims that visit Jerusalem will follow the 'way of the cross' or in Latin the 'Via Dolorosa', the way of his suffering. On the route there are 14 stations where the pilgrims stop to remember something that happened to Jesus on his way to the Golgotha (in Aramaic) or the Calvary (in Latin)....

A short episode recorded under the olive tree in the garden to update you on the crowdfunding for the fees of the tour guide program in Jerusalem! With good news that we reached the goal! Including a shout out to some of the donors but I couldn't mention everybody because there are 69 people who supported me!! Also an update about the visit to the Open House of the School of Tourism and the English test I had to do there that consisted of a text to praise the greatness of Israel and how I...

After a long summer break I am back with new episodes. But from now on you can listen to the podcast bi-weekly.  In this episode I will tell you about my new plans for this coming year and I need YOUR help (and help of all my friends, relatives and podcast listeners!) to proceed with this plan. That's why I am explaining you why I think it is an important step in my life and how you can help me. If you agree and if you can and want to support, then this is the link you need to...

In this episode you can hear all about the Visit Palestine October program that Saleem and myself are organizing! This 10-days program includes a full day of olive picking and two nights with local families in the village of Abud. We will visit many of the people and places that you have heard about in the last two years of podcast episodes! We will start the program on Monday 3 October with an introduction to get all participants on the same page when it comes to history and terminology...

 In the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, where Israeli settlers are in the process of taking over many Palestinian houses, there is an archive where Palestinians can store their photos, diaries, posters and other tangible documents. It is the first Palestinian run archive that is trying to collect memories, history AND documents that are produced TODAY, to store them for future generations. The initiative is called 'Khazaeen', the Arabic word for 'cabinets'. Each Palestinian that brings...

 In 1999 Al-Quds University created the “Community Action Center” (“CAC”), a semi autonomous association, which aims to empower the Palestinian community in East Jerusalem. The CAC aims to empower the disadvantaged Palestinians of East Jerusalem to access their rights and entitlements and negotiate the complex bureaucratic procedures that control the flow of these rights. Most Palestinian inhabitants of East Jerusalem are residents and not citizens of Israel. They have to prove that the...

In the Naqab desert you can find the Nabatean desert cities that were established on the incense and spices route. This was a very important trade route that stretched over about 1800 kilometers from Yemen / Oman until the port in Gaza. The trade was mainly in frankincense and myrrh, but also pearls, gold and cotton were traded. As the camels needed to stop every 35 kilometers to rest and drink, there were about 65 stops on the whole incense route. The Nabateans, a nomadic Bedouin group in...

With a group of fifteen Palestinians and foreigners we visited the Arak distillery of Nader Muaddi in Beit Jalla. This podcast episode was recorded during his presentation. Nader Muaddi is very passionate about the craft of distilling Arak and the Palestinian heritage of this product. Arak is the oldest spirit in the world. Every single spirit comes from the roots of Arak. It started in the 8th / 9th century when the Arabs had their renaissance period. The first person documented in the...

In this episode you can hear Nadim Nashif and Mona Shtaya who both work for 7amleh, The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media and Digital Rights in the Palestinian context.    We talk about several aspects of their work. For example how social media is censoring Palestinians and others with a pro-Palestinian message. Many Palestinians have their social media profiles shut down without a valid reason and it is often hard to counter that.    Another issue that 7amleh works on is...

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...

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,...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Tel megiddo is an archaeological site in the Jezreel valley (Marj bin Amer in Arabic) where they found 25 layers of civilizations. Megiddo is mentioned several times in the Bible and it is associated with Armageddon, mentioned in the book of Revelations, the last book of the New Testament of the Bible, as the location for a final battle.  It is not for no reason that the writer of the book of Revelations chose to stage this battle at Har Megiddo (the mount of Megiddo, from which Armageddon...

This is a special episode in Dutch for the Dutch foundation 'Plant an olive tree' If you want to learn more about olive tree planting in Palestine you can listen to episode 6 of season 5 (20 February 2022) in English. Dit is een speciale aflevering in het Nederlands gemaakt op verzoek van Stichting Plant een Olijfboom. In deze aflevering spreek ik met Esther over het werk van de Stichting. Plant een Olijfboom ondersteunt geweldloos verzet van Palestijnse boeren tegen landconfiscatie door...

For this episode I joined the olive tree planting in Al Khadr, organized by the Keep Hope Alive campaign that is run by the JAI. (Joint Advocacy Initiative of the East Jerusalem YMCA and the YWCA of Palestine) I interviewed several people on the field, some of the organizers and participants of the planting day. We talked about the threats that Palestinian landowners experience from expanding settlements, violent settlers and the army who are after the Palestinian land, trying to take it by...

February is Black History month, an annual celebration of achievements by African Americans and a time for recognizing their central role in US history. I thought it was a great moment to record an episode about the Afro Palestinian community in Jerusalem. My friend Issam who runs Bassem's Gallery Bookshop Cafe in the Via Dolorosa helped me to connect to Mohammed Qous, a 22 year old member of the Afro Palestinian community, who grew up in the African quarter in the old city. His grandfather...

In the beginning of July 2021 Salah and his wife Nynke left Holland to go on a great adventure. They decided to go on a 6 month bike ride heading towards Istanbul and from there they would try to find a way to get to Egypt and from Egypt to Jordan and then finishing in Palestine to attend the wedding of Salah's sister in Balata camp in Nablus. In this podcast episode, recorded with live audience in Beit Sahour, Palestine, you can hear from Salah how they decided to go on this long journey....

For a full transcript of the podcast click on the transcript tab in Buzzsprout or go to the website https://storiesfrompalestine.info/2022/01/27/caesarea-maritima/ On the coast half way between Jaffa and Haifa are the ruins of the ancient port city of Caesarea Maritima. It was built by King Herod the Great about 2000 years ago. He named it Caesarea to honor the Roman emperor Ceasar Augstus. He built a harbor with a very advanced breakwater in the sea, made of pozzolana, volcanic ash mixed...