RIWAQ to protect cultural heritage in Palestine

The European Union aims at protecting and developing architectural “common heritage” in Palestine by supporting RIWAQ, a Palestinian NGO, with 165,000 Euros on a period of three years. 50 villages are involved…

Badi’a Zaidan - Ramallah, Eurojar

The EU has chosen to support the goals of RIWAQ (a Palestinian Center for traditional architecture), established in the early nineties, particularly the protection of Palestinian historic buildings that are not protected by the laws of archeology, i.e. those which go back to the 19th or the beginning of the 20th century. As announced in the 3rd Riwaq Biennale, efforts of the European Union target 50 Palestinian villages in the West Bank and Gaza, where renovation of historical centers is important to boost life in the area.

Talking about the interest that the European Union has in restoring Palestinian historical buildings, Romeo Carabelli, Head of the “Common Heritage” project, says that the protection of cultural and historic heritage in Palestine comes in the framework of a regional programme that aims at restoring buildings that go back to the Colonial era (European colonialism in the Arab world). Palestine is privileged in this project due to its large registry of historical buildings that deserve to be protected, being part of the world historic heritage. He added that this project falls under the Palestinian-European cultural exchange policy; this is why the name “Common Heritage” was given to it.

Support to Old Palestinian villages
Youssef Farhat, head of the planning and development unit in Riwaq, says:”We work on restoring historic sites in 50 Palestinian villages, which was the main project of the “3rd Riwaq Biennale”. It focuses not only on the restoration of buildings, but also on connecting old districts to other neighboring villages. This was the goal of the Common Heritage project as well.”

Youssef enumerates the villages and districts that were restored by Riwaq in the mohafazat of Ramallah and El Bireh, namely, Birzeit, Jifna, Silwad, Taybeh and Ein Sinia. These 5 townships were connected to the main touristic zones as well as some cultural and educational centers, such as Beirzeit University. Such step will enhance the touristic image of the country and boost its economy.

Youssef goes on to say that such activity has more than one benefit. Yet, these efforts conflict with the Israeli interests that aim at separating the villages with military checkpoints and ethnic walls. Riwaq, instead, is confronting this strategy by giving more importance to cultural heritage in those villages.

Camp and field trips
With the support of the European Union, and in the framework of the “Common Heritage” project, Riwaq was able to organize a camp for 30 individuals to enable them to discover the historic richness of those villages as well as the benefit they could have on tourism in the country. The participants in the camp were foreigners residing in or outside Palestine, as well as students from Birzeit University and employees in Palestinian ministries and tourist associations. Youssef stresses that “the main objective is to revive cultural tourism in Palestine by transforming several old cities into touristic sites.”

Danielli Pene, professor of urban planning and one of the camp’s supervisors, says that the camp was exceptional because it was organized in Palestine, despite all the complex and difficult situation that prevails in the country. The fact that this camp was “mobile” – thanks to the field trips that followed the seminars - made it, according to Pene, an interesting and enriching experience. He notes that he was impressed by Palestine’s cultural and geographical assets that go from the late Ottoman period to the late sixties.

Aya Tahan, a student participating in the camp says:”We were able to discover villages that are close to us, but that we never really explored before. Field trips were of major importance. We felt the urge of preserving the cultural and historic heritage in Palestine in order to benefit from it on the touristic level.”

On the other hand, Ghada Moubarak, coordinator of “Common Heritage” project and engineer at Riwaq’s planning and development unit underlines that “this project stresses not only on the geographic, cultural, architectural and touristic diversity of these villages, but it highlights as well the demographic richness of these villages, where Moslems and Christians live together, as well as villagers and refugees… The target was not only to preserve the outside architectural fabric of those historic centers and buildings but also to strengthen human ties between disparate Palestinian towns and villages.

Riwaq’s “50 Palestinian villages” project was launched in the 3rd Riwaq Biennale, which took place from October 12 to October 16, 2009. Experts, engineers, architects, academic people as well as Palestinian, Arab and foreign officials rounded the 5 townships that constituted a sample to the 50 villages that needed to be renovated. This project is considered Riwaq’s largest project and was viewed by the Palestinian government, headed by Dr. Salam Fayad, as a national project that deserves financial and moral support.