Stories from Jerusalem / Al Quds

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 Reve...

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 Stichtin...

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 sett...

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...

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 audie...

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 bui...

Hisham's Palace and the mosaics were very recently renovated and the mosaics are now covered and protected by a special shield and that's why there has been quite a lot of attention for the place, even from the world media, because the mosaics are one of the largest mosaic carpets in such a good shape, in the world. The mosaics cover an area of about 900 square meters. In this episode yo...

This episode has a transcript so that you can read along. You can find it on the Buzzsprout site if you click on Transcript (next to Description) Or find it on the website: https://storiesfrompalestine.info/2022/01/12/al-aqsa-and-dome-of-the-rock/ I recorded this interview after I visited the Dome of the Rock and Aqsa mosque on the Haram al Sharif (the Nobel Sanctuary) in the old city of Jerusalem...

This is the second part of the food tour with Izzeldin Bukhari from Sacred Cuisine in the old city of Jerusalem. In this episode we continue after the falafel and humus breakfast at Abu Ahmad, to have Arabic coffee and traditional Palestinian sweets in the Cotton market. We visit Abu Yahya to try some sesame nuts protein bars, still handmade, with real honey. Then we continue to visit the only tah...

This is the first of two episodes that were recorded during the food tour with Izzeldin Bukhari from Sacred Cuisine in the old city of Jerusalem. We talk with the women from Bethlehem who sell vegetables in the streets, we eat manakeesh (oven baked flat bread with zaatar), we buy all kind of pickled veggies and different kinds of old city sweets and we visit the oldest still functioning ka'ek...

In this podcast episode you can listen to Marcelo Marzouka, a third generation Palestinian living in Chile. His grandfather was the first one to move to South America in the 1950s and his children spoke Spanish. The grandfather returned to Bethlehem but his children moved to Chile where they build a new life. Marcelo was born and raised in Chile but he grew up, just like most Palestinians in Latin...

Every year on the 29th of November it is the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people.  (The day of release of this episode) This was decided in the United Nations in 1977 when the General Assembly adopted resolution 32/40B It was not a coincidence that they chose this date. It is the dame date of the United Nations Partition Plan, resolution 181, that was adopted exactly 30 yea...

Five foreign women from Europe and the United States got together on a Tuesday morning in October for a traditional Palestinian breakfast and to share their experiences as spouses of Palestinian husbands.  They talk about how do they experience life in Palestine and what are the difficulties they face in order to stay with their husband and children in Palestine. Each of them has their personal st...

In the most northern part of historic Palestine is an archaeological site, now within a National Park, that has remains of the Bronze Age city of Laish and of the iron age city of Dan. In Arabic the location is called Tel el Qadi, the hill of the judge. This archaeological site has two very impressive city gates that were excavated. The Bronze Age gate was built by the Canaanites who called their...

This is the last episode of a series of four about the work of Handmade Palestine and the artisans that they support. In this episode I take you to an olive soap factory in the old city of Nablus where Amjad tells us about this family business and how they are developing new products that include goat and camel milk and very soon also dead sea mud. Morgan, from Handmade Palestine, visited the wome...

This is the third episode in a series of four about Palestinian artisans and their work. I made these episodes to support Handmade Palestine with their online crowdfunding and online Bazar. They invited me to come to the first physical Bazar held in La Vie Cafe in Ramallah since the Corona pandemic started. It was a lovely day with wonderful conversations. The artisans are very passionate about th...

For Handmade Palestine, an initiative that promotes the sales of handicrafts made by local Palestinian artisans, I am producing a series of podcast episodes about the artisans and their work. In this episode you can listen to two interviews with artisans in Bethlehem. At Ma'an Lil Hayat we speak about the felted wool items that they produce, with local wool from sheep in the Bethlehem area. A...

Handmade Palestine is an initiative by Morgan and her husband Saleh, who run the La Vie Cafe in Ramallah, and Majdi, to support the sales of handicrafts of local Palestinian artisans. As they do not have a budget for marketing, they decided to start a crowdfunding and online Bazar. The crowdfunding and Bazar will be released on 22nd of October 2021. On Saturday 23rd of October there will also be a...

New tour guides, who finished the tour guide program at the Bethlehem Bible College with me this summer, organized a day trip to Nablus and Sebastia. There were about 35 Palestinians on the bus that took off from Beit Sahour early in the morning. After 2,5 hours we reached the Jacob's well church in Nablus. This church is a very recent building that was built on the location where several chu...

 Psychology and health care in Palestine In this podcast episode I speak with Jumana Kaplanian about psychology in Palestine and the stigma about mental health that still exists in the Palestinian society. Jumana  holds a Bachelor’s degree in Social Work and Psychology from Bethlehem University in Bethlehem and an MSc in Psychology from Oxford Brookes University in Oxford. Mental illness is consid...

Diana Al Shaer has a Palestinian father and a Russian mother. Her grandfather was the first Palestinian ambassador in Russia and her father followed him in his footsteps. Diana grew up in Russia and by the age of 25 she started to become more and more connected to her Palestinian identity. She is an international Grand Prix dressage rider and sports diplomat and she was asked by the Palestine Eque...

On 6 September 2021 six Palestinian political prisoners freed themselves from the high security Gilboa prison in Israel. Two weeks later they were all found and brought back to prison. One of the six men, Zakaria al Zubeidi, was one of the founders of the Freedom Theater in Jenin. In this podcast episode I speak with Mustafa Staiti, who is from the Jenin refugee camp, but currently lives in Hollan...

After spending all summer in the Netherlands, I have returned to our home in Palestine. It was a wonderful summer full of family, friends, biking, walking, fun activities for the kids, swimming, cinema and theater. But also it was full of goodbyes and nostalgia, because I had to give up the house I was still renting in the Netherlands in my hometown Utrecht. This summer I finally officially emigra...

Stories from Palestine podcast was first launched on 15th of August 2020 as a direct result of the Covid19 pandemic. As I was studying the tour guide program at the Bethlehem Bible College and I had no opportunity to share the stories I learned with tourists, the idea to start a podcast was born. I had no experience and spend weeks watching tutorials to learn everything I needed to know about prep...

They call them the Hanging gardens of Haifa. Since 2001 you can visit the Bahai gardens and see the shrine of the 'Bab' on Mount Carmel. The gardens are created with great care and were designed by an Iranian architect called Fariborz Sahba. There are 19 terraces, one in the middle with the shrine, 9 terraces going up hill and 9 terraces going downhill, another 18. Both numbers have sign...