Short-term (2 to 4 weeks) "study/educational" projects in Palestine

Youth Development Department (YDD) in cooperation with the African Community Society.

Cleaning the Historical Corners of the Old City. Organizing activities for the African Community children.

The Youth Development Department (YDD) was founded to work with a development perspective, and to work as a professional and technical umbrella for the youth sector in Jerusalem, through the existing youth bodies in Jerusalem, locally, regionally and internationally.

Jerusalem is a very important city not only for religious reasons, being important for all the three main monotheistic religions, but also for its strategic position as a very vital commercial crossroads. Currently Israel is persisting in the Judaization of the city.
To force Palestinians to leave Jerusalem and move to the West Bank or to other countries, Israel’s authorities use several ways, one of this is that for Arab Jerusalemite there are problem of crowded housing conditions, ever worse with the influx of the “illegal residents”. In general they were concentrated in a few neighbourhoods or spread throughout East Jerusalem.
The actions of Israel - the new colonies, the construction of the Wall, the demolitions of houses, a system of rigid limitations to the concession of permissions of house building and the continuous closing of the Palestinian institutions determine an increment of the Jewish presence in East Jerusalem, deteriorate the Palestinian community in the city, hinder the city development of the Palestinian of Jerusalem.

The program has different forms of work finalized to maintain the Old City that volunteers can participate in. The workcamp is aimed to underline the importance of Jerusalem and particularly the Old City for the Palestinian.

The work will be divided into different sessions, such as:
- Working on cleaning the historical Walls of the Old City.
- Cleaning the corners of the Old City.
- Cultural exchange through interaction with the local community (experience, dance, culture).

- Documentary films.
- Field visits in the areas surrounding East Jerusalem (Refugee Camp, destroyed villages, Historical Wall of East Jerusalem, villages separated from Jerusalem by the Isolation Wall, but traditionally part of the city).
- Meeting and testimony with Palestinians affected from house demolition and revocation residence and also with political prisoners.
- Cultural Events in East Jerusalem.

With the spread of Islam and the conversion of African in Africa, more and more black people participated in the Haj. However there were also migrations from Arabia to Africa and later back to Arabia to perform the Haj. The Palestinian historian Al Aref reported that some people trace the historical presence of contemporary Africans in Jerusalem back to Arabia. The origins of the African community go back to pure Arabic roots. The majority of the members are derived from the Arab Muslim tribe called Al Salamat. The tribe was living in Jeddah, Hijaz (now in Saudi Arabia), and then migrated to Chad and Sudan with Hijaz, especially Mecca and Medina for the Haj, and after the pilgrimage they went to Jerusalem to continue their worship in Al Aqsa mosque, the place of the nocturnal journey of the prophet Mohammed to the seven Heavens.

Settling in the Old City of Jerusalem

Most contemporary members of the African community came to Jerusalem as pilgrims. They also came to Jerusalem to defend the local Muslim holy shrines. Moreover, the Africans living in Jerusalem are proud of their historic role as guardians of the Islamic holy places since the time of the Mamluk in the 13th century. They occupy the Mamluk buildings of either side of Alaá Ad-Deen Street leading to Al Aqsa mosque. On one side are situated the Ala'Ed Deen Busari buildings, completed in 1267 and named after the Mamluk founder of the quarter. On the other side are situated the Al Mansouri buildings which were completed in 1282. Originally the two ribats were hostels for pilgrims worshipping at Al Aqsa Mosque. During the Ottoman period the Ribats were occupied by Africans who worked as guards of the mosque and Waqf properties. Because of their honesty these Africans held the key of the gates of the mosque and were responsible for preventing non-Muslims from entering the mosque area. Towards the end of the Ottoman era the Ribats were converted into prisons, Ribat Ad-Deen became Habs Ad-Dam while Ribat Mansouri became Habs Ar-Ribat.
Men who came from Africa to Jerusalem during this century married local women, many of whom were of African descent themselves. Ties with different Palestinian cities and towns where many African communities exist are particularly strong, like Jericho, Acre, Ledda, etc. Other married Palestinian women who have no ties with Africa. Although African Palestinians of Jerusalem are a separate community from the black Bedouin, some inter-marriages occur.

Old City of Jerusalem.

Volunteers will be hosted in two apartments in the African Quarter in the Old City (gender separated).

200 Euros, to be paid on arrival.

IPYL + Nablus Association for Social and Community Development (Darna).

Peace in the Middle East remains one of the major challenges to be solved for the international community today. After years of Intifadah, peace agreements and ongoing occupation, young people are the part of the population most affected by the stalemate. International voluntary service is a way to express solidarity and transmit hope, energy and creativity for young people to construct their citizenship under difficult circumstances through day-by-day cooperation among people of different backgrounds. We are therefore happy to host you for two weeks in Nablus City, were you will have the possibility to make a change!

Today almost half a million Palestinian refugees are living in overcrowded refugee camps in the West Bank. Most of the families left their homes in today’s Israel during the Nakba in 1948 and since then never had the opportunity to return to their property. While the Israelis call this the "war of independence", the Palestinians talk about "the disaster", which is also the meaning of the word "Nakba" in Arabic. For more than 60 years these families have been living under harsh conditions in refugee camps all over the region.

International Palestinian Youth League (IPYL):IPYL aims to empower Palestinian youth through non-formal educational programs, intercultural learning, training, media literacy and youth leadership activities. Since its inception, IPYL has implemented hundreds of activities, including international voluntary workcamps, exchanges, cross-cultural study trips, leadership seminars, think-tank groups and community meetings. By undertaking these activities, IPYL has developed strong alliances with a wide network of individuals and organizations. For more information about IPYL, please visit - www.ipyl.org

Nablus Association for Social and Community Development and its project “Darna”:The Association is considered as a house of civil institutions, and the foster of youth talents, skills and innovations. The Association was able through its project “Darna”, to build a strong relationship between Nablus associations and institutions through the cultural and social services to the community. The association used to be the partner of Zajel Youth Exchange program for the last five years.
Some of its services are to provide training rooms, fax services, projectors and LCDs to more than 86 associations in Nablus without distinction of ethnicity, sex or religious believes.

There are a number of different forms of work that volunteers can participate in, which will be based in the New Askar refugee camp and in the city of Nablus. The work program has been designed to best suit the needs of the people living in such hard places, as well as to effectively utilise the talents we anticipate volunteers will bring from abroad. The work will be divided into different sessions such as Farming; Painting; Art; Working with the Disabled; Music and Sports.

The afternoons will be used to give volunteers an inter-cultural learning experience, with a focus on showing the international volunteers Palestinian culture within the context of the occupation and hopes for the future. This will involve visits to refugee camps in Bethlehem, visiting the associations in the city, tours of places of interest, lectures, and most importantly interaction with the local people. The volunteers will be able to visit the different associations and centres where they can watch documentaries about the situation in Palestine and the Middle East. They will also have the opportunity to speak with the Palestinian politicians and authors to open the space for them to find the answers for all the questions they want to ask.
The volunteers will also have the opportunity to visit other cities in the West Bank, Ramallah, Hebron etc.

more detailed program will be sent to the placed volunteers one month before the camp starts.

Nablus City.

200 Euros to be paid on arrival.