On Friday, September 11, 2015, the Youth Exchange Programme (Zajel) of the Public Relations Department at An-Najah organized a field trip to the Galilee for its international volunteers.

The trip aimed at introducing An-Najah Zajel volunteers as well as the internationals to Galilee’s history and the political conditions it went through before, during and after the 1948 Palestinian Catastrophe (Nakba).

The volunteers started their journey with Ein Hod village which is located at the foot of Mount Carmel. In July 1949, immigrants from Tunisia and Algeria settled in the depopulated village, renaming the village Ein Hod, and most of the Palestinian inhabitants were expelled during the Nakba. The village was kept from being demolished and became an artists’ colony in 1953. Ein Hod is now a communal settlement where many Israeli painters, sculptors and musicians live and maintain studios and galleries that are open to the public. The village mosque was converted into a restaurant-bar and the olive press into a museum.

The volunteers also visited Wadi Nisnas, an Arab neighborhood in the city of Haifa, which has a population of about 8,000 inhabitants. They were in touch with the local residents who recited Palestinian poetry and told their stories of Nakba.

Their last stop was to Acre City where they were introduced to its history and the challenges it encountered during the Nakba.