Today’s A Journey through Aesthetic Realms will be presented in Arabic and English, with subtitles in Arabic, Aulacese (Vietnamese), Chinese, English, French, German, Hungarian, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Thai and Spanish.

Greetings, culture-loving viewers and welcome to A Journey through Aesthetic Realms. The region of Palestine has been inhabited by ancient civilizations for 1.5 million years. The rich cultural history of Palestine is evident from its architectures, arts and costumes, as well as the way people live.

In an effort to preserve their valuable traditions, the Centre for Cultural Heritage Preservation in Bethlehem was established 8 years ago, and has adopted a holistic approach to rehabilitation by involving the community and promoting a sense of shared responsibility. Today, we’ll feature part one of a two-part program introducing the Centre for Cultural Heritage Preservation in Palestine with director of the organization and architect Issam Juha and architect Nada Al-Atrash.

Historic Palestine is one of the most amazing places in the world. It’s a very small country, however, it has an outstanding history and amazing geography that makes it special in the world. Palestine is a very holy place and we call it the Holy Land for being the home for 3 religions of Christian, Judaism and Muslims. Each religion exists in this land and it’s very important for the religions.

The landscape of Palestine is a very amazing landscape where in 15 kilometer wide, the geography of Palestine changes from a green area to a complete desert area, or semi-desert to desert area.

We have one outstanding lake which is called the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is a lake where it contains a high percentage of salt, this helps make it special because you can float on the sea without moving your hands or doing any effort. And this is one of very important touristic places in Palestine.

Palestine’s architectures are the standing witness of its thousands of years of glory and a part of its rich heritage. Throughout history, numerous masonries, architects and artisans have built into these structures their love for the land, their wish for the world, and their aesthetic values. Therefore, returning them to their original appearance means preserving the cultural roots and identity of modern Palestine.

If you need to understand architectural heritage or your heritage in general, you need to understand why did they do it that way.

The Palestinian culture is very simple and has beautiful architecture that reflects the connection between the human beings and the nature that surrounds him.

Also in Palestine we have very beautiful old towns, we have Nablus which is a sample of the Roman old town. We have Jerusalem which we can refer to the Mamluk period. We have Ottoman Bethlehem. The Nativity Church was built in the year 329 AC. And the second time, in the year 635 AC, which means that this church is more than 1400 years old.

Also we have the Church of Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, one of the most outstanding churches that was also built in the Byzantine time. These two churches are considered two of the oldest churches that exist in the whole world. In addition to these very beautiful churches you can see also other religious-rich outstanding buildings such as Al Aqsa Mosque, and the Dome in Jerusalem.

Also you can see the beautiful monasteries that are constructed on the top of the mountains in the Jerusalem wilderness area. These monasteries are considered as amazing monasteries because they were constructed on the mountains, where they are part of the mountain. And priests used to live in these monasteries from the 4th century.

To preserve the magnificent historical roots that serve as a link to the past for her people, the Centre for Cultural Heritage Preservation was founded. The Centre was authorized by President Yassser Arafat as an extension of the Bethlehem 2000 Project Authority that was created in 1998 in preparation for Bethlehem’s millennium celebration.

The Centre for Cultural Heritage Preservation was established in 2001 and it aims at preserving both the tangible and intangible cultural heritage of Palestine through its preservation projects and rehabilitation projects through the awareness campaigns. It aims at creating the interaction between the community and the center through the community mapping projects that are conducted with school children all around the district and it also aims to conduct research on the subjects of tangible and intangible heritage.

We give more priority for the students’ sectors, for the youth, where we believe that these are the generation that may change things in future and provide better protection for the cultural heritage. That’s why we try to make them part of the project, for example, we involve them in planting activities, in the project where we restore. We give them lectures that inform them about the cultural heritage of the Bethlehem district and the importance of protecting this heritage. Also we arrange for sight visits for these students where they come and see the projects we are doing before restoration, during restoration and after restoration, where they can touch the difference.

Our program on the Centre for Cultural Heritage Preservation in Palestine will continue after these brief messages. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television.

The architecture is the tangible heritage. The intangible heritage of Palestine are the maxims and traditions that we inherited from our parents, grandparents, and grand-grandparents that’s reflected in our life.

It’s not only the Palestinian culture that is a welcoming and peace-loving culture; it’s the whole Middle-Eastern people and the Arabs. They love to welcome their guests and take care of them.

Welcome back to A Journey through Aesthetic Realms on Supreme Master Television, as we continue our interview with director Issam Juha and architect Nada Al-Atrash of Palestine’s Centre for Cultural Heritage Preservation. Since its establishment, the Centre has implemented numerous focused programs to restore historical buildings and rehabilitate several old quarters in Bethlehem, which greatly improve the living conditions for the local residents. Integrated with these projects are field research and training activities, as well as public awareness campaigns about the importance of Palestine’s cultural heritage.

All our projects are conducted through grants and proposals that are introduced to the World Bank USA, the governments of Sweden, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Austria, Australia, SEDA (Swedish International Development Agency).

Usually when we start rehabilitating buildings, we do a documentary work that covers several aspects such as social survey, architecture survey, structure survey, we do survey about oral history, and then we start working on the rehabilitation project, on the plantation works.

Recently, we’ve started a pilot project in the Palestinian Territory, called the Bethlehem Area Conservation and Management Plan. This project aims at bringing up the importance the cultural heritage and introducing ways of how to conserve it through conducting studies that will come up with conservation plans for the cities of Bethlehem, Beit Jala and Beit Sahour.

Also through a management plan that will explain how to manage the cultural heritage of Palestine. After finishing the Conservation and Management Plan for Bethlehem, Beit Sahour and Beit Jala, we are hoping to be able to prepare a nomination file to enlist Bethlehem on the UNESCO World Heritage list.

We have also been able to set several training courses for engineers, architects, laborers to train them on how to deal with the conservation techniques and to increase the capacity in this field.

The Centre is not only concerned with architectural and structural preservation but is dedicated to promoting the ancient traditions of Palestinians as well.

Now with the complications of life, the economical situations and the influence of the globalization, people are tending to leave these habits and start living the modern way. But we still need to preserve them to know what was happening. Why are we forgetting the songs that our grandparents and grandmothers used to sing? This is the intangible heritage that we need to revitalize because it is the link to our past, it is what made us what are we today.

The intangible heritage of Palestine includes its beautiful arts, customs as well as her culture of living. Palestinians’ warm and inviting culture of hospitality stems from their traditional nomadic heritage.

It's a simple way of life. It's a way of life that shows love and friendship between people, and between families, between neighbors. It's the culture that used to bring people together and we hope, by showing this culture, that we can explain to everybody and to the world, that we are loving people, and you can see it through our architecture, through our heritage, through our maxims, through our traditions. We are loving and caring people, and we have to continue being that way.

We used to live in communities that used to move. And then when we settled, we still knew what it means to be moving from one place to another and we took it as our responsibility to take care of people who are coming from outside, and provide them home and shelter until they can find their way. This tradition has developed into a maxim, that whoever is coming as a guest to our country, a researcher, a visitor, a relative who has been living away, it is our responsibility to make them feel like they are home. Because this is the only way that we can reflect our feelings to the people.

To fully experience and appreciate the rich traditions, values and heritage of Palestine, it is important to be immersed in the atmosphere of her peaceful and friendly people.

It’s simple to explain the tangible architecture because its something you can see and touch with your hands. But in order to understand the intangible heritage, I think you need to come here to Palestine and live the experience. It’s easy to live the experience in villages, with the Bedouins, with the locals, with the farmers. This is the only way you can understand the intangible heritage.

Please join us for part two of this enriching program next Monday on Supreme Master Television’s A Journey through Aesthetic Realms.

For more about the Centre for Cultural Heritage Preservation, please visit

Caring viewers, thank you for your presence today. Up next is Vegetarianism: The Noble Way of Living, right after Noteworthy News. May love and harmony prevail on Earth.

Today’s A Journey through Aesthetic Realms will be presented in Arabic and English, with subtitles in Arabic, Aulacese (Vietnamese), Chinese, English, French, German, Hungarian, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Thai and Spanish.

Greetings, culture-loving viewers and welcome to A Journey through Aesthetic Realms. The region of Palestine has been inhabited by ancient civilizations for 1.5 million years. The rich cultural history of Palestine is evident from its architectures, arts and costumes, as well as the way people live. In an effort to preserve their valuable traditions, the Centre for Cultural Heritage Preservation in Bethlehem was established 8 years ago, and has adopted a holistic approach to rehabilitation by involving the community and promoting a sense of shared responsibility. Today, we’ll feature part two of a two-part program introducing the Centre for Cultural Heritage Preservation in Palestine with director of the organization and architect Issam Juha and architect Nada Al-Atrash.

Palestinian architecture is simple architecture, mostly in the villages is simple, vernacular architecture that is built in simple techniques, the arches and the vaults, the cross vaults, using the local material just to serve their purposes and to fulfill their needs.

Very close to each other, in harmony with each other, and also in harmony with the nature surrounding them. Because mostly the people who lived in the villages were the farmers and they always have this special connection between them and their land. So it's easy to notice, like in any urban settlements, that people gathered on top of the hill and have their farms surrounding them.

Ms. Al-Atrash is currently co-authoring a book on the cultural heritage of Palestine and the means to preserve it. The book is a collaborative effort with three other architectural heritage preservation institutions in Palestine, namely, the Hebron Rehabilitation Committee, Riwaq Institute from Ramallah and the Welfare Association in Jerusalem.

This is an aerial photo of Bethlehem of the year 1937, which is the earlier photo, the historical archived photos that we have are one of the elements that helped us understand the methodology of the town or village and how did they develop throughout the years, especially that lots of data related to the buildings in Palestine is lost. And we have the stories told by the older people to understand what is happening and figured out the reasons that caused the architectures to look that way.

The book will offer a significant window into the colorful history of Palestinian culture and lifestyles through extensive research conducted over the years.

Because of the difference in weather and temperature in our land between the summer and the winter; we used to build with hard cut stone from our local quarries. And if you can notice, the thickness of the walls is massive because this can prevent the chill, and cause the house to be cold in the summer days.

It's also connected with their living style. They had managed to gather all the facilities they need to live in one room. They had what is called a mastaba which is a platform in the room where they used to sleep. And then in one of the walls you would find a niche where they used to keep their sleeping pillows and blankets, bring them out in the night to sleep and then put them back in to use the space for living. So they adapted themselves to minimum space in order to be able to keep the most area of the agricultural lands. Also in order to live closer to each other.

They used to work in summer, collect their crops, keep them in the houses for either drying them or pickle them or get the olive oils.

In summer, they used to sleep on the roof or in the hosh which is the courtyard in the middle of the house. This is one other feature that you can find in almost all the Palestinian architecture or vernacular architecture. The hosh can gather the family to live together in this space and provide them privacy from their neighbors. Yet they have that connecting door to the neighbors they're living next to. This used to be the fabric that constituted the historic town.

After these brief messages, A Journey through Aesthetic Realms will resume our program on the preservation of the beautiful Palestinian heritage. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television.

This is a Palestinian traditional house. You can notice the color of the stone and how is it matching the nature around, the rocks and everything. This is the complex of rooms. If you can see the difference between this, which is in the cities, and they are caring about the aesthetic appearance about the building, while here, this is in the village, all they're trying to do is fulfill their needs where they only needed rectangular openings to go inside the room.

Welcome back to A Journey through Aesthetic Realms on Supreme Master Television for our program featuring the efforts of the Centre for Cultural Heritage Preservation in Palestine in the restoration of historical architecture.

So through our adaptive re-use of buildings, we are trying to create a new lifestyle in the middle of the towns and use the architectures that we have in the middle or centers of the historic towns of Bethlehem area. Both the villages and towns, we are revitalizing these centers in a modern way.

In the year 2005, we have been able to establish a program named Job Creation through Cultural Heritage Rehabilitation. In this program, we have selected several buildings to be restored and to be reused for current purposes or for new purposes. This program aims to achieve 4 important objectives. First, in this program we have been able to protect the historical buildings from collapse. Second, we have been able to create jobs.

As you may know, this conservation project includes intensive labor, where 40% of the total budget of the project goes to direct employment. Also, after the project, there is a chance for permanent job opportunities. The third goal was to enhance the role of public institution through providing these old buildings to offer their services. And fourth, also we have been able to make use of this historic building and this can decrease the need of land in the time where there is no available land. So these were the goals of this project. We have been successful to meet our ends and goals and we are still continuing with these projects.

Under the center’s leadership, renovation projects have successfully met their objectives. Not only is the tangible heritage of Palestine found in its historic buildings preserved, but the restored buildings offer residents a higher quality of life.

This project is for the Anatrah Quarter, a quarter which is located next to the Nativity Church. This quarter used to be in very bad condition. We have been able to upgrade the infrastructure and provide better living conditions and safety conditions for people there. These are some photos for the Old Core of Beit Fajar, or historic center of Beit Fajar. Also there we have been able to improve the living condition for people living in that area. About building renovations, this is Mar Aphram Children’s Library, this is how it was before, and now after being rehabilitated it is now used as a children’s library.

With education being a highly valued in Palestinian culture, the Centre for Cultural Heritage Preservation also applies its efforts in restoring buildings to provide schools and facilities for students.

This is Dar Abu Eid - Beit Jala, one of our outstanding projects. It is a 3-storey building constructed 150 years ago. It was abandoned for more than 20 years. We have been able to restore the building, and to adapt it to be used as a musical academy for teaching to children music. Also, these are some photos. This one of our projects that was started in a village 5 kilometers to the south of Bethlehem. This building had almost collapsed and people in that village never believed that this building can be used once again. We have been able to restore the building and make it available as a culture center.

This is one of our projects in Al-Jaba’a village, a village 15 kilometers to the south of Bethlehem, and after rehabilitation this building was used as a kindergarten. You can see that we have different treatment for these buildings according to the use. Here the colors used are colorful, that fits with the new purpose of the building. This is one very important palace that was constructed in Bethlehem in the year 1914, and later it was transferred to be a school.

Through the dedicated and loving efforts of the Centre for Cultural Heritage Preservation living conditions of local Palestinians have greatly been improved. Their significant work has also ensured the continuation of their beautiful culture, one in which the same universal values of peace and respect are shared.

All people are born equal and everybody has the right to live equal to the other. So, I hope that peace will come one day to this land and we can live all in peace because we are all humans and we all deserve a peaceful life.

I think the culture is one of the aspects that may help in building trust. Being a specialist in the protection of cultural heritage, I think we should start with this point, to make cooperation between both sides in order to protect the cultural heritage.

Our deep appreciation to Mr. Issam Juha and Ms. Nada Al-Atrash for sharing their expertise and devotion in preserving the tangible and intangible Palestinian heritage. May the important work of the Centre for Cultural Heritage Preservation continue in fruitful success.

For more about the Centre for Cultural Heritage Preservation, please visit

Optimistic viewers, thank you being with us for A Journey through Aesthetic Realms. Up next is Vegetarianism: The Noble Way of Living, right after Noteworthy News here on Supreme Master Television. May the light of love and harmony shine in every corner of our shared planetary home.

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