The Third Session held on April 14 & 15 2000 in Beit Sahour

The third session was the first of its kind. The group stayed overnight in Beit Sahour where they were hosted by families. Around 25 Palestinians from Haifa and the suburbs came on Friday April 14 to Beit Sahour to have the third session of the Palestinian Youth Dialogue Group which mainly focused about the Relation between the Palestinians in the West Bank and the Palestinians living inside the so called "Green Line". Around 20 Palestinians from Beit Sahour joined the group to have a group

'This group is a core group which many others should join. I think, this group will lead a movement towards unity within the one Palestinian people in all over the world' Participant

of around 45 Palestinians. The session started at the Rapprochement premise at around 6:00 p.m. with discussion groups about this topic. The participants discussed the means to develop the relation and came up with ideas like, creating a society for the Palestinian - Palestinian relations and to have more activities and meetings for this group. Others suggested that the group should grow and become wider. others suggested that there should be Palestinians from the Diaspora and that we should not limit the group to the Palestinians here under occupation.

The Second day was mainly specified for the Palestinian refugees Issue. So, we visited "Badil" Resource Centre for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights in Beit Jala where they listened to a lecture by Mr. Mohammad Jaradat about the Palestinian refugees and their situation in the Refugee Camps in Palestine and Lebanon and Jordan. The group also visited the Deheisheh Refugee Camp; the biggest in Bethlehem Area. There, they visited Ibda'a Cultural Centre where they listened to Mr. Noah Salameh about the Camp itself in terms of area, number and the Political stand of the refugees etc. Salameh, spoke about the Across Borders program that is trying to connect all the Palestinian Refugees camps on the internet whether in Lebanon, Syria, Palestine and Jordan. Then he took the group on a tour in the camp to see the things they have heard about.

Waiting for lunch to be ready, the group visited Solomon's Pools. One of the great historic sites in Bethlehem area. They lay in a very beautiful landscape near 'El Khader" village to the south of Bethlehem. The three great pools talk about an ancient history, around 2000 years.

After a walk around the pools and enjoying the nature there, the group went for lunch and then back to the Rapprochement's office to watch a film about the Palestinian Refugees of West Jerusalem in 1948. The film is called "Youm Ilak and Youm Aleik". Produced by Badil Resource center, the film is based on three years of research on the circumstances of Palestinian eviction from the New City of Jerusalem (now Israeli West Jerusalem) conducted in cooperation with the Institute of Jerusalem Studies. The film covers the events in Jerusalem and the major villages to the south and the west in the period between the 1947 UN Partition resolution and the first truce between the Arab and Israeli armed forces in June 1948. The film is a documentary based on interviews with Eye witnesses of the war in 1948.

The session was concluded in a discussion was held after the film in the group about the material of the film and about the lessons that this film could teach and how can we use this film as a tool in raising awareness about the issues of the Palestinian Refugees and Jerusalem.

At around 7:00 the bus headed with the other half of the Palestinian brothers and sisters to Haifa ending the third session of the Palestinian Youth Dialogue Group in Beit Sahour. The next Session is supposed to be done in the mid of May.