Young Palestinians: bringing history to life
“The collaboration with CREA made me realize that a museum for Palestinians can be much more than a place of preservation: it can become an open and accessible space for everyone.”
With these words, Yazan Jaber, a palestinian educator and illustrator from the Hakayet Turath Team, captures the spirit of a process that is redefining the role of the museum in East Jerusalem — transforming it from a place of memory into a space of participation. Hakayet Turath, which in Arabic means “stories from heritage,” is a group of young Palestinians born from the collaboration between the NGO Pro Terra Sancta and CREA at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart. Architects, artists, archaeologists, and educators work together to make the museum a living place, capable of telling history through shared experiences.
The Museum in the Heart of the Old City
The Terra Sancta Museum, promoted by Pro Terra Sancta and curated by the Franciscans of the Custody of the Holy Land, is located along the Via Dolorosa, in the heart of Jerusalem’s Old City. For over eight centuries, the Franciscans have safeguarded the Holy Sites, preserving and studying the historical memory of Christianity through archaeological research. The artifacts on display, the result of excavations and studies conducted since the 19th century, are now organized into a museum itinerary inaugurated in 2016. The exhibits reconstruct the presence of Jesus and the early Christian communities in this region. Jerusalem, a city that has been destroyed and rebuilt seven times, presents itself as a crossroads of peoples, religions, and cultures. As Giulia Colaluce explains in the article “Terra Sancta Museum: When History Becomes an Opportunity for Encounter,” the museum is shaped as a space for connection and shared knowledge, where history becomes a tool for mutual understanding.
A Palestinian educational Hub for East Jerusalem
In 2024, a new phase began for the Terra Sancta Museum with the launch of the three-year program “Heritage Education Hub for Palestinian Youth,” funded by the European Commission. The project aims to create a permanent education department within the museum, offering activities for schools, workshops accessible to visually impaired individuals, and new employment opportunities for young Palestinian professionals. It also emphasizes teaching and preserving Palestinian history for future generations. This is the second initiative supported by the European Union for the museum, building on the legacy of “Terra Sancta Museum: A Living Museum for Young Palestinians,” the project recounted by Giacomo Pizzi in April 2020, when the idea of an inclusive museum within the local community began to take shape. Today, the museum is evolving into a true educational center for a community increasingly in need of new spaces for expression and dialogue. Driving this evolution is the collaboration with CREA, the Research Center for Education through Art and Cultural Heritage Mediation at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart. “With CREA, we have reimagined the museum as a space of freedom and participation, capable of giving voice to the community in a context of identity oppression like East Jerusalem,” says Morgane Afnaim, project manager of the team. The courses and workshops provided by the university are training a new generation of museum professionals, and online lessons have also fostered the creation of a regional network connecting museums and cultural spaces across the Palestinian Territories and Jordan: from the Palestinian Heritage Museum in East Jerusalem to the Palestinian Museum in Birzeit, and the Pro Terra Sancta office in Amman. In a territory marked by restrictions and impassable borders, digital tools are creating a new form of social cohesion.
Intercultural education
On July 12, the vision of the project began to take shape: as reported by the Custody of the Holy Land in the article “Heritage Comes to Life: An Open Day for Families and Students at the Terra Sancta Museum,” the museum’s archaeological section welcomed dozens of students and families for an afternoon of discovery and creativity. The event, promoted by Pro Terra Sancta with the support of the European Union, transformed the museum galleries into a space for gathering, where Muslim and Christian children explored the history of Jerusalem together through art workshops and theatrical activities. “The main goal is to bring the Palestinian community of Jerusalem closer to this space, building bridges between the Franciscan archaeological tradition and the local population,” says Afnaim. Through education and the rediscovery of identity, the collaboration with the Catholic University is giving new life to the museum, where the Franciscan tradition intertwines with the stories and dreams of the new generations of Palestinians. In a territory deeply marked by war and humanitarian crises, the museum serves as a space for cultural encounter: it not only preserves the past but returns it to the communities. Because culture can and must become a language of peace, and heritage can become a symbol of a new shared belonging.