Training Program on Jerusalem – Culture, Heritage and Identity

Building on its longstanding work in and on Jerusalem, PASSIA is organizing this training seminar to increase the level of young Palestinians’ understanding of the rich Palestinian heritage and culture of Jerusalem, raise their awareness of the challenges and threats facing preserving the Palestinian identity and culture of the city, and enhance their capacity and effectiveness to successfully design tools and approaches and engage in strategies to protect their culture and identity against the backdrop of those challenges and threats.  Based on the notion that local stakeholders and the community play a vital role in protecting national heritage and identity, the course will provide participants with knowledge on Jerusalem’s identity-shaping cultural and religious heritage and equip them with skills to preserve and promote this heritage at local and international levels.  This training is part of the “Protecting Islamic and Christian Cultural Heritage in Jerusalem” project which is jointly implemented by PalVision, PASSIA and ACT, and funded by the EU.

Course Outline

• Preparation. Selected participants will be provided with preparatory material and are required to complete a brief writing assignment on a subject related to the seminar. .

• Intensive Seminar. During the four-day seminar, key issues, concepts and practices on the importance of preserving, protecting and promoting Palestinian heritage in Jerusalem will be introduced, including:

• Heritage as a Reflection of History

• Jerusalem’s diversity of cultural & religious heritage sites

• Heritage and Identity

• Human and natural threats on cultural & religious heritage

• Heritage promotion and preservation

• Jerusalem – A mosaic of identities and ethnic communities

• Heritage & sustainable cultural tourism

• Case studies & field visits

• Conclusion. Certificates will be awarded to participants who successfully completed the program.

Procedure

Candidates interested in the training seminar had to complete and return PASSIA’s application forms by the given deadline. Upon selec­tion, participants had to confirm their com­mitment to full-time participation in writing.

The PASSIA Training Program itself took place from 5-8 April, 2021. Due to the situation caused by the Coronavirus pandemic, the course was partly conducted online, i.e., those participants, who could not make it to Jerusalem in person, joined via Zoom. There were no costs involved for the participants.