Now, They're Teaching Them Heritage Preservation

This past week, I was informed that the Ambassadors Fund, a PACE partner, is engaged in training Arabs "to protect Palestinian heritage in West Bank".

Seems that in 1996, a group of Arabs decided to dedicate themselves to preserving a "Palestinian" cultural heritage. They formed the Palestinian Association for Cultural Exchange (PACE) [that link has a country notation of "ps", btw]. It is engaged in more than 20 projects of heritage highlighting.

And now,

For its latest project, PACE has partnered with the U.S. Department of State’s Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation to preserve and protect cultural antiquities in three West Bank villages: Aboud, Al-Jib and Beitin [I think I reported on this a while back].

The Preservation and Protection of Palestinian Cultural Heritage in Rural Areas project aims, in part, to raise awareness among the residents of the three villages about the relevance of protecting, preserving and presenting the historic areas.

Along with natural deterioration of ancient sites, illegal digging and sale of antiquities is a widespread phenomenon [that last bit about thievery refers to Arabs, mainly. Remember how we had to buy back the stolen Dead Sea Scrolls?]in the West Bank as a whole. In particular, the three villages in the project have been targeted because of their rich cultural resources. Among these are ancient dwellings currently occupied by residents. Aboud is a Roman-Byzantine site while villages Al-Jib and Beitin have been continuously settled from the Bronze Age forward and contain biblical sites. ["biblical sites"? not "Jewish"? not"Hebrew"? not Israelite?]

In addition to the project’s goal of raising awareness among the local population, two other aims focus on heritage protection training and generating jobs through training and support for traditional crafts.

To achieve these goals, PACE is coordinating an education program that utilizes classes, on-site training and workshops...Classroom discussions focus on what constitutes heritage and how to present it to the public, how to assess local and socioeconomic conditions to determine the future of cultural resources and how to effectively communicate the values and history of cultural property...

Could it be that the US is involved in stealing away some other people's cultural heritage?

Jib is Giv'on. It's from where, after the taking of Jericho and Ai, the Hivites sent ambassadors to trick Joshua and the Israelites into making a treaty with them. The Gibeonites presented themselves as ambassadors from a distant, powerful land. Without consulting the high priests, Israel entered into a mutual pact with the Gibeonites. Joshua realized he had been deceived, but he kept the letter of his covenant with the Gibeonites to let them live; however, he cursed and enslaved them as woodcutters and water-carriers (Joshua 9:3-27). See also 2 Samuel 21:2 about Saul pursuing them. The city is also the place where God made the sun stand still during the Israelites' war with the Amorites. (Joshua 10:12) and the fight between the soldiers of Joab and those of Abner took place beside the Pool of Gibeon (2 Samuel 2:12).

Beitin is Bet-El. It is mentioned several times in Genesis. The best-known instance is Genesis 28 when Jacob, fleeing from his brother Esau, falls asleep on a stone and dreams of a ladder stretching between Heaven and Earth with angels ascending and descending. God there promises Jacob the land of Canaan and again, at Genesis 35. Bethel was an important cult-centre for the northern Kingdom of Israel following the break-up of the united kingdom of David and Solomon.

Aboud is not Biblical that I know. It includes in its boundaries a number of churches, monasteries and mosques built on foundations belonging to the Byzantines, Ottomans, and crusades empires built during the fourth, seventh and 11th centuries. They include Messieh Church, Knnasieh Church, Simon's Church, Saint Todros Church and the Virgin Marry Church, built on the foundations of a 5th century church and has been renovated in the 11th century. There's also an ancient monastery one kilometer to the West of Aboud village. Dr. Yoel Elitzur told me he found an Aramaic inscription there.

Well, thanks to Uncle Sam, the Arabs are discovering a "Palestinian" heritage.

What will they do next (can I hear an echo of Helen Thomas)?


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