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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