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PALESTINIAN STORIES
ON THE WALL INBETHLEHEM
The Wall Museum
Culture and Palestine Series, Bethlehem
ARAB EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTE
Copyright 2012 by AEI-Open Windows
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher.
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The
Wall Museum
Palestinian stories on the Wall in Bethlehem
Once the area around Rachels Tomb, a pilgrimage place
for Moslems, Christians and Jews, was one of the liveli-est in Bethlehem. The Hebron Road connected Jerusalem
with Bethlehem, and its northern section was in fact the
busiest street in town. It was the gate from Jerusalem into
Bethlehem. After entering Bethlehem along the main road,
visitors either chose the direction to Hebron or the road to
the Church of Nativity.
The reality now is different. During the 1990s Rachels
Tomb developed into an Israeli military stronghold with
the Jerusalem-Bethlehem checkpoint close by. As such it
became the focus of Palestinian protests, especially during
the second Intifada after September 2000. In 2004-5 Israel
built Walls near the Tomb and a surrounding enclave, bothof which it had already annexed to Jerusalem. The Tomb
thus became forbidden territory to inhabitants of Bethle-
hem. In the course of time no less than 64 shops, garages,
and workshops along the Hebron Road closed their gates.
This was not just because of the ghting, shootings and
shelling going on during the second Intifada, but also be-
cause the area became desolate as a result of the Wall. Peo-
Requests for permission to reproduce selections from this book
should be mailed to: AEI-Open Windows, [email protected]
Published in Bethlehem, Palestine, by the Arab Educational In-
stitute (AEI-Open Windows) as part of the Culture and Palestine
series.
The Wall Museum:
Palestinian stories on the Wall in Bethlehem
Photos: Fadi Abou Akleh
The Culture and Palestine series explores expressions of Pal-estinian culture, including popular customs, arts, traditional
and present-day stories, as well as writings and refections upon
Palestinian daily life.
www.aeicenter.org
Printed in Bethlehem, Palestine
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ple still remember that parents warned their children not
to visit the area with its imposing 8-9 meter high concrete
Wall almost twice as high as the Wall in Berlin.
Those inhabitants who did not want or could not leave the
area thought what to do. How to create life in a dead and
deadening environment?
Among different initiatives, the Arab Educational Institute,
member of the international peace movement Pax Christi,was advised by its members in that neighborhood to start
up cultural activities. In 2009 AEI opened the Sumud Story
House there, in which four women groups, including one
made up of women from the neighborhood, came together
for weekly meetings and various social activities. Among
those activities were cultural events like the formation of a
large human Bethlehem star; the singing and playing from
roofs and balconies along the streets; a concert from down
under a military watchtower; meditative and inter-religious
sessions, and the establishment of a womens choir per-
forming next to the Wall. In 2009 AEI launched the modest
but annual Sumud Festival in the area. Other Wall-torn cit-
ies, like Berlin and Belfast, provided models of inspiration.
The Wall Museum is the last stage of those imaginative
cultural activities. One side remark about the name: the use
of inverted commas around museum is on purpose. The
museum is not intended to become permanent. It is in fact
our hope that the Wall museum stories contribute to cracks
in the Wall, to its breaking down, and in fact to the collapse
of all Walls around us and around the Palestinian people in
particular. In other words, we hope that the Wall Museum
by its very success will once destroy itself.
In this context human stories shown on the posters can-
not have but a very special meaning. The fragile, human,
personal stories you read in this book stand in a stark and
comprehensive contrast to the concrete Wall. The personal
story humanizes, opens up, asks for human understanding,
whereas the Wall kills the environment, closes up, takes
away the human horizon, warehouses people behind theWall. By preserving human memory, the human story is a
challenge to the Wall.
The rst two groups of in total 60 stories, collected in this
volume, were attached to the Wall at Christmas 2011 and
in September 2012. They are stories of Palestinian women
from the three neighboring towns, Bethlehem, Beit Jala and
Beit Sahour, but also from villages around Bethlehem and
other places. The stories express a rejection of the Wall,
but show also the womens sumud or steadfastness; and the
human longing for the healing of home and the creation
and preservation of life over destruction. Moreover, the
stories give a sense of history and suggest the possibility
of change. Again this is in opposition to the Wall which
somehow suggests by its very appearance that change is
impossible. Last but not least the display of the human sto-
ries points to the will to reclaim the Palestinian story. This
story, as we all know, has long been denied by the many
stereotypes surrounding Palestinians, in a second layer of
seemingly impenetrable walls.
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The stories have been partly collected from publications
and interviews out of the nearby Sumud Story House. Most
of them have been written down by the women groups in
the House. In the future, more stories will become part of
the museum: youth stories, stories of landowners whose
land near Bethlehem has been expropriated or made inac-
cessible; stories of refugees from nearby Aida camp and
elsewhere who lost their land during the Nakba [disaster] in
1948 and afterwards. They together recall the tragic story
of the Palestinian people as a whole as well as its story ofresilience. The personal stories converge into community
stories and into a national story.
It is the texts of the stories but also their context which
make this museum special. The stories are presently at-
tached to the Wall and some to military blocks. In the future
they will be also xed on barbed wire, or, in smaller format,
on the bars of a corridor at the entrance of a checkpoint.
By its very setting, the story is a statement of saying no to
occupation and all the restrictions on the freedom of move-
ment in ones own country.
The Museum is still very much in construction. Its ongo-
ing, with new ideas coming. Some of those ideas will comefrom the community around the museum which already
gave suggestions about the content and place of the posters,
and who encourage us to continue. Others come from visi-
tors or volunteers.
The Museum is not only embedded in the local community.
It is also a community project within an international circle.
The posters are sponsored by individuals and institutions
many of whom are from abroad. We would like to thank
Church in Action, Cordaid, and the many individuals and
groups who sponsored the posters and whose names are
mentioned on the posters themselves.
We further thank Sabeel-Netherlands and Dutch individual
volunteers for their plan to publish a book in 2013 with the
present posters translated in Dutch. We also wish to thank
the Ecumenical Accompaniment Program for Peace in Pal-estine and Israel (EAPPI), a project of the World Council
of Churches, who helped the museum by the very fact of
being present during the xing of the posters.
Arab Educational Institute / Sumud Story House
Bethlehem
October 2012
P.S. In case you yourself are interested to sponsor one or
more future poster(s), please contact [email protected] with a
cc to [email protected]. Thanks in advance!
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SUMUD STORY HOUSE
SumudStory House, www.aeicenter.org
A holy place for Christians, Moslems
and Jews, Rachels Tomb is located
inside Bethlehem town along the
traditional Jerusalem-Hebron road.Although originally the Oslo Accords
included it in Area A (under Palestinian
control), Rachels Tomb at the end
became part of Area C (under Israeli
control).
CONSTRUCTED CONCRETEWALL
CONSTRUCTED CONCRETEWALL
EXISTING FENCECONSTRUCTED CONCRETEWALL
AIDA CAMPRACHELS TOMB
SumudStory House, www.aeicenter.org
During the second Intifada from
September 2000 on, Rachels Tomb
became a focal point of clashes. A wall
and tower were built. In 2003, the Israeli
government ordered the de facto
annexation of Rachel's Tomb in
violation of international law. The tomb
became enclosed within the Jerusalem
municipal boundaries. In summer 2005,the illegal 8-10 meter high Wall was
built around Rachels Tomb and an
adjacent military base. The tomb is now
connected to Jerusalem by a road
isolated from the environment. It cannot
be reached from Bethlehem.
Visitors to Rachels Tomb, early 20th century
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SumudStory House, www.aeicenter.org
During the 1930s, British soldiers making checks
Rachels Tomb in 1944
During the 1960s before the Israeli occupation
SumudStory House, www.aeicenter.org
Rachels Tomb after the Israeli occupation in 1967
During the 1990s
Rachels Tomb area during the building of the Wall, 2003
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