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00:00:00We found a suitable solution for our Palestinian people who
00:00:04deserve all respect because they proved in
00:00:08that there is warmth, there is reassurance in my this war that
00:00:09yard, in they are up to the responsibility and that they love life
00:00:13and adore life and do not want to fight
00:00:16anyone, but rather want to establish their state and take their rights.
00:00:20Gaza will remain Gaza, and God willing, it will be rebuilt,
00:00:24God willing. How can I explain about someone who
00:00:27lived 26 years in the same place
00:00:31here? I mean, I'm here. My life is here.
00:00:34I breathe in this place.
00:00:55I put the food in
00:01:16I mean, I walked almost 5 kilometers to get 15
00:01:20loaves of bread for one person. We hope that the bakeries
00:01:23will open and the crisis will be resolved,
00:01:30They came to see and even the details in and normal life will return to Gaza.
00:01:38So we work with very limited capabilities, and there are also missing things
00:01:42that we are not able to provide. They are available, but there are no spare parts
00:01:46for them. This machine is running, meaning, how
00:01:49can I tell you, with different motors and belts
00:01:52than its own. We are patching it up so that we can work because everything
00:01:56we have is worn out, and we are trying to manage our affairs by all means to continue.
00:02:46We agreed on
00:02:58God, we succeeded in this
00:03:14and I continued with this
00:03:22wake up in the mornings for the rooms and
00:03:23and I take care of
00:03:46the governor, and we took it to
00:03:50them. This
00:04:32renovating the rooms,
00:04:38I stood by my husband from the very beginning of this I didn't change anything, of course. I kept it all in
00:05:55Welcome, dear viewers,
00:05:58to a new episode of the Sectors program.
00:06:02In this episode, we will talk about a project idea
00:06:05that started small and simple,
00:06:08but it later carried an idea that embodies
00:06:11civilization, history, heritage, and identity
00:06:15for our people. There are places that we don't just
00:06:18enter, but we feel that we have moved to another
00:06:21time. In this house that dates back to
00:06:241820, its owner chose this place,
00:06:28the Bread House, to give the place a new life
00:06:32by renovating it and transforming it into a different
00:06:34project that preserved all the old details, its belongings,
00:06:38its furniture, its tools,
00:06:41the water. To learn more about the details of this place,
00:06:45please stay with us.
00:07:52My husband and I started the project.
00:07:55I started by cleaning
00:07:58the rooms. I cook. I didn't like
00:08:01having someone else come and cook
00:08:04or clean. I like to work with
00:08:07my hands, and thank
00:08:10matter. We thank God. My food, I don't want to say,
00:08:14I mean, one doesn't say
00:08:17that, but my food was delicious. The group that
00:08:20came to eat Arabic food would say
00:08:24it's very delicious,
00:08:26, and thank God, we succeeded. As for the rooms,
00:08:30I also cleaned
00:08:33I do the cleaning in the yard and everything,
00:08:36the plants and water the plants with my own hands. I don't
00:08:39like anyone interfering with my work.
00:08:42I mean, I feel at peace, and I feel that everything
00:08:46I do is in my hands, and thank God, I succeeded in this matter.
00:08:50They told me to cook
00:08:52and such. The guests who come to sleep with us
00:08:56said, "Do you cook, Um Tawfiq?" I told them, "Yes, I cook if you'd like. I'll cook
00:08:59for you." So in the end, I started my initial
00:09:03work because we usually when we accommodate
00:09:06people,
00:09:09they get a meal with breakfast.
00:09:13So they tell us, "And do you make lunch, Um Tawfiq? Do you make dinner?" So I told them, "Yes,
00:09:17if you want, I'll cook for you." From that point,
00:09:20we started. My
00:09:23cooking project succeeded, thank God,
00:09:26especially during the month of Ramadan
00:09:28and the months of Eid al-Fitr and Eid
00:09:32al-Adha. Many people would come and stay with us
00:09:35and book. So they would have breakfast with us
00:09:39and in the evening they would have suhoor with us and then go to the
00:09:43mosque. So the atmosphere was very nice.
00:09:46And thank God, everything was good. There was a great difficulty when
00:09:51project, regarding the renovation, regarding
00:09:55the cleaning, regarding,
00:09:58everything. So it was difficult for us, but
00:10:01thank God, we got through it. My husband and I, we were
00:10:05hand in hand. Thank God, things became good. They
00:10:09felt like they were in their own home. They didn't feel like they were in a hotel.
00:10:13They say, "We feel like we are at home. We feel
00:10:16comfortable with you." Sometimes,
00:10:20they even complain about their private
00:10:24matters. They tell us about them, meaning
00:10:27they open their hearts to us. They feel
00:10:34the house. And they were happy and said, "We hope
00:10:38to come back again."
00:10:40Even if they didn't come back to sleep, if they passed by
00:10:44, they would knock on my door and come in, "We want to drink a cup of coffee
00:10:48from you, Um Tawfiq." I mean, this is worth the world
00:10:51and everything in it. There is love, there is
00:10:55familiarity between us, not just, for example, "Go to sleep
00:10:58and leave." No, no, it's a matter of them feeling
00:11:02warmth with us, like a family. They feel, they say,
00:11:06the place, especially in the mornings when we drink a cup
00:11:09of coffee with the chirping of birds,
00:11:13we feel like we are in our home. Thank God.
00:11:17When I cook,
00:11:20the old pots or dishes because we
00:11:23preserve heritage.
00:11:28My kitchen is small and
00:11:31I cook traditional dishes that are known all
00:11:35over the world. I mean, I cook dishes like
00:11:38Maqluba, Mulukhiyah, Mansaf,
00:11:41Mahashi, Shishbarak.
00:11:44These are the traditional dishes that are well-known.
00:11:48So when a customer comes, they enjoy these
00:11:50dishes with their taste, because
00:11:55they feel the old times. I wish
00:11:58to build another room,
00:12:01to make another room and a kitchen, because we have space to
00:12:05make another room, kitchen, and bathroom. But may God
00:12:08help us. You know, the
00:12:12time we are in is difficult.
00:12:30The house, my dear lady, we live here.
00:12:34My wife, my children, and I. This house was about
00:12:38to be sold. Many people came to buy it,
00:12:41but they couldn't because they saw it as a ruin
00:12:44and neglected.
00:12:47It was abandoned and closed for over 40 years.
00:12:50This house was abandoned. We searched for people to
00:12:54buy it. Because I couldn't buy it because
00:12:57the tenant was there. In the end, my dear lady,
00:13:00they came. I told
00:13:03my friend who mortgaged it to me, I told him, "If I mortgage it to you,
00:13:07will it work?" He said, "Yes, my man, the mortgage will work with you."
00:13:11a certain mechanism, thank God, and we bought this whole house.
00:13:14We bought it. It took 13 years for me to
00:13:18renovate it while I was working as a school bus driver.
00:13:22Every month, my car was destroyed during the invasion.
00:13:2540 days it was crushed during the invasion of the
00:13:28Church of the Nativity. And thank God for everything.
00:13:32We kept renovating it every three months. I would go to schools and buy
00:13:36two bags of cement here, two bags there. I would renovate little by little.
00:13:39My friends would come and help me with it. When I was afraid to open them,
00:13:43I went to the governor and told him, "I bought a house, and it's
00:13:47legal, but I can't enter the rooms. I'm afraid there might be something
00:13:51in there, something you can't know about,
00:13:55like insects or
00:13:57something." And these are the pictures. Look
00:14:01at them. He came with the inspection, but he said, "No, you are not allowed
00:14:04to open it. The civil defense must open it."
00:14:07He gave me a letter from
00:14:11the civil defense. The civil defense came, all respect to
00:14:15was when we first bought it,
00:14:19in 2000. The civil defense came, and thank God,
00:14:23we started. We cleaned everything with the help of the Bethlehem municipality,
00:14:26of course. We sent them a letter, and the Bethlehem municipality inspection
00:14:30came and inspected the site, inspected everything. They brought a municipal truck
00:14:34and closed the street. This is a public nuisance; it's
00:14:38not right. And thank God, they took
00:14:41it all away. All respect to the Bethlehem municipality.
00:14:44At that time, little by little, we started with one room, two rooms, three rooms.
00:14:48We started them little by little, and thank God, we fixed all
00:14:51the issues. We filled them and everything. Then we started
00:14:57the windows. We fixed the windows as much as we could.
00:15:02the original, old heritage. Everything was good.
00:15:05I thought maybe the children would live in it. When I saw tourism booming in Bethlehem,
00:15:09we had strong tourism, I thought, "Why don't I make a guesthouse
00:15:13and an Arabic restaurant, a traditional
00:15:16Arabic restaurant, because this is our heritage?" So, by God, I took it
00:15:19and opened it. I started doing it little
00:15:23by little, and thank God, it opened. Even I
00:15:26made it,
00:15:28and we made it, and we thank God. But may God bring peace and
00:15:32work, because we haven't enjoyed it yet, because the Italians
00:15:36from the Franciscans came to buy the house and made it a guesthouse.
00:15:40We told him, "We want to work with you. I mean, you benefit, and we want
00:15:43to work." He said, "My man, breakfast and food are with you." We told
00:15:47him, "Keep us in mind." We started providing breakfast for anyone who comes
00:15:51to them, tourists. We provide breakfast for them. Groups come
00:15:54for lunch and so on. We provide lunch for them. So these are affiliated
00:15:58with the Franciscans, and we started with them. Thank God, but
00:16:02then came the story of Corona.
00:16:05It set us back. Then came the story of the war in Gaza. Also,
00:16:09we didn't breathe properly. And now we have the story
00:16:13of Iran. I mean, until now, we don't know when
00:16:16we will be able to taste this grape, because we all want to taste
00:16:20it. We want to taste it. We've been 13 years and we haven't
00:16:23tasted it. I mean, since 2000, we haven't even been able to
00:16:27taste a single grape. I mean, when he came and said, "There
00:16:31is, there is lunch for 15
00:16:34priests." The Franciscans. We said, "Welcome
00:16:37to them." I said, "These priests will surely bring other
00:16:41people." And we work. They came
00:16:44for lunch. He said, "What do you want to cook?" I told them, "Whatever you want." They
00:16:47themselves asked for Maqluba.
00:16:51They themselves asked for Maqluba. We made them
00:16:54Maqluba with salads and everything arranged. They sat and enjoyed it.
00:16:58They started taking pictures, and taking pictures of me, and taking pictures of them.
00:17:00Um Tawfiq. They were happy. After
00:17:04two weeks, two more priests came.
00:17:07the place
00:17:10from over there. They came to see the place because of what they heard from their
00:17:14colleagues about how the place was. And thank
00:17:17God, we started. Omar ibn al-Khattab Mosque
00:17:20is here. Listen to the beautiful sound of the
00:17:24Adhan. The Church of the Nativity.
00:17:28What more blessed place could there be? The market
00:17:31is next to you. The municipality is next to you. The police are next to you.
00:17:35Taxis are next to you. Manger Square is next to you. Everything
00:17:38is available. Everything is around you.
00:17:41To leave this area and go live, for example, in
00:17:45an area outside Bethlehem, that would be the biggest mistake.
00:17:48We are in the holiest place. Come
00:17:51just for Ramadan. My friends whom I haven't seen all
00:17:55year, I wait for them for the Taraweeh
00:17:58prayer. They come, they finish the Taraweeh prayer, and they come
00:18:01to me. We sit
00:18:05and talk, we have fun, and they have suhoor with me.
00:18:08And from my place, they go to their work
00:18:12and their homes. The best atmosphere. We wait for Ramadan.
00:18:15We wait, we wait for Ramadan,
00:18:18especially because I miss my friends.
00:18:21All this time, no one sees anyone. We are all busy with our work.
00:18:25In this ,
00:18:28there is a feeling, by God, we are used to it.
00:18:31Yes. Tell us about it, and they love to come
00:18:35to me. Why? Because it's only a second between us and the mosque. We also
00:18:39have a mosque for women, and we have a mosque for everyone. Everyone
00:18:42knows it, of course. You understand? How close it is.
00:18:46They wake up in the mornings, go for the dawn prayer, go pray in the mosque,
00:18:49and come back. It's just a few seconds.
00:18:53This is also something nice. We also had people from Morocco
00:18:56who wanted to
00:18:59prayer. I would prepare coffee for them here, a piece
00:19:02of biscuit. They would go and come back and
00:19:05continue their sleep. And thank
00:19:08God. And thank God.
00:19:27As soon as the tourist enters, by God, he feels
00:19:30safe by himself. He feels that he is
00:19:34safe.
00:19:36It's like, by God, there's something about this place,
00:19:39because he just entered. He
00:19:43entered the yard. He sits down.
00:19:45We receive him with hospitality, with everything.
00:19:48He is psychologically comfortable. He doesn't even ask about the rent,
00:19:52and he doesn't ask about anything. I mean, he sees
00:19:55everything with his own eyes, and we explain to him, and he sees and sees
00:19:58the situation and sees everything. The tourist comes to us.
00:20:02Thank God. But I
00:20:06rely mostly on our people in the North. These are our people
00:20:10who remain in the North. We do for them. When a foreigner comes
00:20:13to us, he stays for a night or two and leaves. But we are concerned
00:20:17about the people of the North. As you say, whenever there are closures,
00:20:21whenever there are holidays, whenever anything happens, they come to the city of
00:20:24Bethlehem. We love the people of the North to come to us in Bethlehem.
00:20:28Of course, they also have special prices for the people of the North, and we take care of them because
00:20:32our people, our people of '48, also suffered what we suffered.
00:20:36Oh, poor Palestinian, from your blood.
00:20:40He remains from you and in you. The foreigner
00:20:43remains a foreigner. I mean, a foreigner comes for two days,
00:20:47a week, then packs up and leaves.
00:20:50Unlike the Palestinian, who comes whenever there are holidays, whenever there
00:20:53are parties, whenever there are events in Bethlehem.
00:20:57You find him there. You don't find him absent. This is us.