Stories from Palestine

Kristel

1 Creator

Listen to lively stories and inspiring interviews about the history and cultural heritage of Palestine and the ongoing Palestinian struggle for justice and equality. Every Monday a new episode. Subscribe to the mailing list for a weekly update so you never miss an episode. All social media links (facebook, instagram and youtube) and to subscribe to the mail chimp are in one place, easy, on the website www.storiesfrompalestine.info The music for this podcast was made by Zaid Hilal, Palestinian musician, you can find him on Soundcloud, Spotify, Facebook and Instagram.

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Top 10 Stories from Palestine Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Stories from Palestine episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Stories from Palestine for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Stories from Palestine episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

Banksy's Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem

Stories from Palestine

03/06/22 • 31 min

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 monotheistic religions.
There is also an Israeli military army base in that area, right on the spot that used to be the ancient entrance to Bethlehem and which was a commercially busy street until it was blocked off by the Wall.
The Hotel's name is also a play on the famous and expensive high class Waldorf Hotels.
There are eight rooms in the hotel that are designed by Banksy and other artists. The Hotel also has a museum that highlights the political reality for the Palestinians and gives an introduction to the geo-political history.
There is a lot of art to be seen in the Hotel. Both in the lobby and the bar as well as in the gallery upstairs. You can see work by Banksy himself and art work by more than sixty Palestinian artists. The work in the art gallery is also for sale.
Check out the website : https://walledoffhotel.comConnect to Stories from Palestine podcast on social media, sign up for the newsletter and support the podcast with a donation. All the links can be found here: https://linktr.ee/Storiesfrompalestine

Connect to Stories from Palestine on social media, sign up for the newsletter, read more about traveling to Palestine and if you can, please support the podcast on Ko-fi. All the links can be found here: https://linktr.ee/storiesfrompalestine
Support the podcast with a donation: https://ko-fi.com/storiesfrompalestine

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The history of Tel Megiddo / Tel el Mutaselim (Armageddon)

Stories from Palestine

02/27/22 • 30 min

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 is a corruption). This is the site of many ancient battles because of its very strategic location. If you controlled Megiddo, you controlled the most important trade route of that time, the Via Maris.
The most famous battle is the battle of Tuthmose III, the Egyptian Pharaoh, who led his army through the very arrow Aruna pass (Wadi Ara) to surprise the Canaanite vasal kings who were preparing for a rebellion.
In the 20th century the British army general Allenby, who read the stories of Tuthmose III, used the same strategy in World War I and he defeated the Turkish army at the same location, by coming through the same narrow pass.
If you want to connect to Stories from Palestine on social media, see the videos, photos and support the podcast with a donation or sign up for the email list, use the linktree:
https://linktr.ee/Storiesfrompalestine

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From Holland to Palestine by bike

Stories from Palestine

02/06/22 • 61 min

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. How did they plan and carry out this trip, where did they sleep, what was their daily routine and what were some of the beautiful, fascinating, touching and crazy experiences they had on their way!
This bike trip was a life changing experience for Salah and for Nynke. And this story may inspire YOU to change some things in life. If there is one lesson to learn from Salah then it is that fear is only an idea. And if you can realize it, you can control fear and that will change your perspective on life.
If you want to watch the videos that Salah made go to his YouTube channel :
Salah Hanoun on YouTubeYou can also follow Salah on Instagram: https://instagram.com/salahonbikeAnd Nynke's stories on Instagram: https://instagram.com/tirhaal.on.bikeIf you want to support the podcast with a donation you can do that on the Ko-fi platform.
You can also buy merchandise from the Redbubble webshop.
Click this linktree to find all the links (including social media and Youtube)
https://linktr.ee/Storiesfrompalestine

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'Khazaeen' Palestinian archive

Stories from Palestine

06/12/22 • 48 min

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 documents to Khazaeen, gets its own box, its own cabinet, to store the documents. Through interviews, stories are collected and published on the blog of Khazaeen's website and on social media. The items are digitized and the owner can decide to take them home or to leave them in the cabinet. In the process of collecting and bringing documents to Khazaeen, many Palestinians have learned about the life and circumstances of their own ancestors. Often this has helped them to understand their own family history and the generational trauma that has been passed on, especially through the experiences of the Nakba in 1948 and the Naksa in 1967.
"It is very important to write our own history and to collect our own archive, rather than having our history stored in the colonial archives of the State of Israel", says Eman Alyan.
"It is also important to collect brochures, pamphlets, posters, photos and art work of today, so we can save it for the future. "
If you want to visit the website of Khazaeen you can use this link: https://khazaaen.org/en

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The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, an introduction (part 1 of 2)

Stories from Palestine

09/18/22 • 26 min

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). This translates as the place of the Skull. The location, on the cliff overlooking a stone quarry, where Jesus was nailed to the cross. The last 5 stations of the Via Dolorosa are inside the church.
In this episode you can learn more about the crucifixion and why emperor Constantine and his mother Helena decided to build the first Church commemorating this event on this exact location.
In the following episode I will take you into the Church for a guided audio tour.
To connect to Stories from Palestine podcast on social media or to sign up for the weekly newsletter click : https://linktr.ee/Storiesfrompalestine

Visit Palestine this October with Saleem & Kristel

Stories from Palestine

07/20/22 • 31 min

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 that we will need to understand throughout the visit.
The first nights we will stay in Beit Sahour in a family hotel and we will discover Bethlehem area, Battir and Jerusalem. Then we will go towards Jericho and on our way we will visit several of the desert monasteries and of course Hisham's palace! Of course we won't miss out on the experience of floating in the Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth.
The next two days we will be in Abud, a small village north west of Ramallah. The people of Abud will welcome us in their homes and we will get a chance to connect with the local families. On Sunday there is a full day of olive picking including a nice brunch on the field.
In Taybeh we have the opportunity to visit the famous Taybeh beer brewery as well as a local distillery.
In Nablus there is so much to explore, the Turkish bath, the olive soap factory, the spices shop, the Ottoman clock tower, the Green Mosque and of course we will eat Knefeh Nabulsiya.
On our way back to Bethlehem we pass by Mount Gerizim and we will visit the Samaritan community and learn more about their relation to the land and their claim that the true Temple was not in Jerusalem but on Mount Gerizim.
There is a free day in Bethlehem that you can use to rest and relax, to go shopping, to discover more in Bethlehem or in Jerusalem and we can strongly advice to take the Sacred Cuisine food tour in the old city of Jerusalem.
The last day we head to the West towards the Mediterranean Sea and we will visit the city of Jaffa.
For more information about this program visit the website and request the PDF file
https://storiesfrompalestine.info/travel-to-palestine/

International day of solidarity with the Palestinian people

Stories from Palestine

11/29/21 • 26 min

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 years before in 1947. And most of you will be aware that the partition of Palestine by the UN gave the Zionist movement the push they had been waiting for to establish their Jewish homeland in Palestine. And that happened with a lot of force and violence. Most of the Palestinian villages, towns and cities were partially or completely depopulated and destroyed. And until today families from these towns and cities can be found living in refugee camps in the Westbank, Gaza and neighboring countries with the fourth generation being brought up under very difficult circumstances.

In the meantime the State of Israel was created in 1948 and then in 1967 this new country took its chance and military occupied the Gazastrip, the Westbank, Sinai and Golan Heights. It started moving its own population into the territory it occupied, mainly in settlements built on Palestinian agricultural land, but in Jerusalem and Hebron also inside the city.

For this podcast episode I asked several Palestinian friends to send me an answer to the question: What do you think that people can do in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

I also asked my friend Anwaar, who is from Hebron and lives in Shuhada street, the infamous street that is closed off by military checkpoints, to tell us a bit about life in the old city of Hebron. This is the street where the Israeli settlers are protected by the army and the native population is struggling to stay.

Here are some links to websites that can help you to get more involved!

Www.grassrootsalquds.net

www.handmadepalestine.com

https://eappi.org

https://bdsmovement.net
Connect to Stories from Palestine on social media, follow the YouTube channel and sign up for the weekly e-mail. You can find all the links in the linktree: https://linktr.ee/Storiesfrompalestine

Guided visit to Jacob's well in Nablus and Sebastia archaeological site

Stories from Palestine

10/10/21 • 40 min

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 churches were built around a water well that is said to be the well that Jacob dug on the land of Shechem. Jacob was the grandson of Abraham who came from Mesopotamia and is considered the founding father of all three monotheistic religions.
In this podcast episode you can learn more about the relevance of this water well also in the New Testament of the Bible when Jesus met a Samaritan woman at this well with whom he had a very important conversation about the location of the Temple. Samaritans believed that they should pray to God in the Temple on Mount Gerizim while the Jews prayed in the Temple in Jerusalem. Jesus reveals to her his true nature and tells her that the time has come when the location of prayer is not relevant anymore. The woman goes to her village and tells everyone about Jesus. She is considered the first female evangelist.
After our visit to the Jacob's well church you can hear more about the archaeological site of Sebastia, a city that was established in the Roman time under emperor Vespasian. We visit the ruins of the forum and basilica, the theater and the Hellenistic tower. Up on the hill are the stairs that used to lead to the Temple for Augustus and behind it a big structure that is often indicated as an iron age palace for the Israelite kings Omri and Ahab, but some archaeologists date the site to later times. And the Byzantine church ruins are also interesting as they give access to a crypt where John the Baptist is said to have been buried, his body that is, after he was beheaded by Herod Antipas.
You can hear all about these historical sites in this podcast episodes. With thanks to Ibrahim Khair, Elias Khair, Nayif Gharib, Waffa Sabat and Saleem Anfous.
If you want to sign up for the mailinglist, connect on social media or contribute to the podcast you can use the following link: https://linktr.ee/Storiesfrompalestine

Ramadan reflections about my life in Palestine

Stories from Palestine

04/17/22 • 71 min

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 meditation.
During my walks I listen to spiritual podcasts. At the moment I am listening to the podcast "The Way Out is In" produced in Plum Village in France, about the Buddhist Zen tradition of Thich Nhath Hahn. It gives a lot of practical tools for being mindful, being in the present moment and allowing for feelings and emotions and suffering to be acknowledged and accepted as part of life.
During my mediation and calm and quiet moments this month, I have also been reflecting on my life in Palestine and the big decision I took to get married to a Palestinian and move here. Last summer I gave up the house I was still renting in Holland and now I have all my life in Palestine and I raise my children in this place.
In this podcast episode I share my reflections on the life in Palestine, focusing mainly on the cultural differences I experience and comparing how my life would have been different if we had decided to raise our children in Holland.
In this episode I used some soundbites I recorded in the last year of typical street sounds that we hear around us in the Bethlehem area.
Follow Stories from Palestine on social media and YouTube to enjoy photos and videos. Sign up for the weekly e-mail with a link to the latest podcast episode. And check out the webshop where you can order logo merchandise! All links on the linktree: https://linktr.ee/Storiesfrompalestine

A house in Jerusalem, interview with filmmaker Muayad Elayyan

Stories from Palestine

10/05/24 • 62 min

Recently the kids and I watched the film 'A house in Jerusalem' by filmmaker Muayad Elayyan who happens to be a far cousin and friend of my husband Tariq. Although he told me that he had a small role as an extra in this film, which he's had in all Muayad's films, I did NOT recognize him. Turns out the policeman in the scene when Rebecca wanders off from the summer school activity in Jerusalem and ends up with the Palestinian puppeteer, is MY husband!! We only realized at the end of the film when we saw his name in the end credits, that we had missed out on recognizing him. It was a hilarious moment when we played it again and then figured out the policeman was Tariq!
Muayad visits Singer Cafe regularly so it wasn't hard to catch him for a podcast interview. After his earlier films: 'The reports on Sarah and Saleem' and 'Love Theft and Other Entanglements' this film 'A House in Jerusalem' is the latest. It came out in January 2023 and it is still being shown at film festivals around the world.
In this film a British Jewish girl named Rebecca comes with her father to Jerusalem after her mother has died in a tragic car accident. Her grandfather has a house in West Jerusalem where they can live. They are both overwhelmed with the trauma of losing the mother, but the father is trying to make things work in their new environment. Rebecca explores the garden, finds an old well, manages to open it and finds a traditional rag doll in the well. This leads her to connect with the ghost of the young Palestinian girl Rasha. What follows is the story of what happened to this girl Rasha during the 1948 Nakba when the family was forcibly displaced from their home.
In the podcast interview with Muayad we touch on many aspects of the film and on Muayad's personal family history. His both grandparents were displaced from their homes. The theme of intergenerational trauma both on an individual level as well as on the collective level are very present in the film.
Muayad could never have imagined that his film would come out just months before the 7th of October and before the ethnic cleansing campaign in the Gaza strip. "There are many parallels to what happened in 1948 and what is happening in Gaza."
If you want to follow up with news of screenings of the film then this is the facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ahouseinjerusalem

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FAQ

How many episodes does Stories from Palestine have?

Stories from Palestine currently has 118 episodes available.

What topics does Stories from Palestine cover?

The podcast is about Arabic, Culture, Islam, Places & Travel, Society & Culture, Cultural, History, Middle East, Podcasts, Muslim, Israel, Travel and Christian.

What is the most popular episode on Stories from Palestine?

The episode title 'Banksy's Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem' is the most popular.

What is the average episode length on Stories from Palestine?

The average episode length on Stories from Palestine is 41 minutes.

How often are episodes of Stories from Palestine released?

Episodes of Stories from Palestine are typically released every 7 days.

When was the first episode of Stories from Palestine?

The first episode of Stories from Palestine was released on Aug 21, 2020.

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Comments

Kristel

@storiesfrompalestine

Feb 5

I am new to Goodpods, but not new to podcasting. With 70 episodes about history and heritage in Palestine! A podcast interesting for people who love history, traveling, culture, heritage, people and social justice!