The Jerusalemite Youth Cultural Forum: An Oasis of Hope for Jerusalemites

Between the narrow alleyways of the Wadi Hilweh neighborhood, close to the ancient ‘Ayn Silwan Spring where tourists from around the world cross paths, notes of musical instruments and children’s laughter surprise and delight the passerby.

At the heart of a place heavy with narratives and history and only meters from the southern wall of al-Aqsa Mosque sits the Jerusalemite Youth Cultural Forum (JYCF): a small oasis of hope for the Palestinian Jerusalemite community that aims to preserve Palestinian identity and heritage in the city. It welcomes children, youth, and women to participate in an array of art, storytelling, and educational experiences amid a reality that grows narrower around them each day.

Jerusalem Story visited the JYCF earlier this month.

Upon arriving at the forum's location, visitors approach a gate that leads to two doors: one takes them into the forum, and the other opens into the ‘Ayn Silwan Spring. The historic spring is surrounded by the JYCF’s headquarters, a kindergarten, and a mosque.

Jerusalem historian Ihab al-Jallad shared his views on the historical significance of the site. He noted that during the Byzantine era, a church was built in its location to commemorate the miracle of Jesus Christ. According to the story, a blind man came to Jesus, spat on the ground, mixed his saliva with soil to form mud, placed it over the man’s eyes, and instructed him to wash it in the waters of ‘Ayn Silwan.1

The blind man regained his sight after washing in the water, and a church was built due to the miracle of his healing. The site remained sacred in subsequent Islamic periods until the reign of the Rashidun Caliph Uthman ibn ‘Affan, when the site, with its water and structure, was turned into an Islamic endowment (waqf).

Over time, the structure seen today became the product of continuous archaeological layers—from the Byzantine period, through the Rashidun Caliphate, the Umayyad, Abbasid, Crusader, Ayyubid, Mamluk, and Ottoman eras.

Jewish settlers also consider the spring’s water sacred and are keen to immerse themselves in it as a mikveh. It was distressing to see settlers completely naked during the tour, submerging themselves in the pool for purification before dressing again, while Jerusalemite children at the forum overlook the pool and share the same entrance with it.

Without asking anyone, we understood that such scenes are among the daily dilemmas that the center’s staff faces, and they are unable to shield the children from them.

Upon entering the forum, we saw a small room in which a student was receiving an oud lesson from the young Jerusalemite instructor Razan al-A‘war. Ahead of us was also an inner courtyard filled with students waiting quietly in an orderly fashion for their music classes.

We attended some of the musical sessions during the tour and met Larin Qara’een, 12, who studies qanun with music teacher Zeina al-Khatib.

When we asked Larin what the place meant to her, she revealed that she had been learning to play the piano and the qanun for five years, and to draw for eight, at the forum.

Larin also shared that the forum serves as an outlet for Jerusalem’s children, especially those who live in places that don’t offer such activities. She especially enjoys playing music and drawing when guests visit the forum, allowing her as well as other students to delight them with the pieces they are learning to master.

Larin performed Lebanese singer Fairuz’s Kan al-zaman wa kan along with Zeina, who joined the forum’s team in 2018.

Zeina spoke about her work with Jerusalemite children as a qanun teacher and academic supervisor of the music curriculum at the forum where she oversees ensembles, workshops, and local and international performances, as well as other activities.

For seven years, Zeina worked in planning and architecture with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Once she began working with children, she said, “I discovered that planning should begin with a four-year-old child. They are the ones who inspire the appropriate planning for a country, not the kind of work we do when looking at cities from above.”2

Impact, she believes, begins with the teachers who work with this age group, especially in institutions that constitute a support system alongside the schools where children receive formal curricula. Zeina said:

We spent hours at the forum during the tour and moved around its three floors. The ground floor houses the reception courtyard where children gather before dispersing into rooms. The lower floor, which sits below the ground level, is parallel to the ancient pool. There are three halls where students engage in various programs. Moreover, an old mosque once occupied the central hall, and two carved prayer niches remain visible in the structure, even after the mosque was relocated to an upper floor. The forum’s administration also transformed an upper floor into a small play area for younger children where they can spend their free time between activities.

On the middle floor, we met with JYCF’s director general Mohammad Awar. He shared his views on the forum’s main goals and provided a comprehensive overview of the institution, which has flourished and expanded its activities for more than two decades.

We asked Mohammad about the message that the forum seeks to instill in Jerusalemite society. He shared that a group of educated, pedagogically minded young Jerusalemites founded it in 2005. They recognized the importance of preserving the heritage of Palestinian people in the face of difficult political and social conditions affecting the Palestinian territories in general, and Jerusalem in particular, due to the racist policies aimed at Judaizing the city.

Mohammad describes the forum as a cultural, social, and educational institution that is based in the city of Silwan, south of Jerusalem’s Old City. From there, it reaches various parts of Jerusalem, driven by a belief in providing equal and appropriate opportunities to Silwan residents and those in Jerusalem.

The forum’s projects aim to develop the skills of Jerusalemites and offer them a space of hope despite the harsh realities they continuously face that target every aspect of their life.

The forum serves all segments of the Jerusalemite community with particular focus on marginalized or targeted areas such as Silwan, al-‘Isawiyya, Sheikh Jarrah, al-‘Izariyya, Abu Dis, and Nabi Samwil.

Arts programs are delivered through schools, and they offer music, dabke, drawing, photography, and ballet classes. The forum also provides educational programs such as an English language club, engineering and robotics courses, as well as chess and mental aptitude programs.

It additionally provides supplementary educational courses and organizes activities that engage the local community, including summer and winter camps, tours, workshops, seminars, artistic evenings, and competitions.

Female activities are also an important part of the forum’s work. Its Women’s Center organizes economic empowerment programs for Jerusalemite female entrepreneurs through exhibitions promoting their products, handicrafts workshops such as soap and candle-making, and health and sports awareness activities.

Mohammad further discusses how the forum’s philosophy is rooted in protecting Palestinian folk heritage from racist policies seeking to erase it, while also developing working mechanisms in the fields of heritage, culture, and folk arts to preserve this civilizational legacy for future Palestinian generations through its programs.

The forum, however, faces immense challenges. Mohammad noted that one of the greatest difficulties is the forum’s location in Wadi Hilweh near the Silwan Spring, a site facing fierce attacks from settler groups that are seeking to impose control over the area to expand the settler tourism project, the City of David.

“There’s nothing left here to reflect the Arab character and Jerusalemite identity of the place except the forum, the ‘Ayn Silwan Mosque, and the Muslim Child Kindergarten,”3 Mohammad said. “Settler groups have imposed their control over the surrounding environment entirely.”

Another challenge facing the JYCF, like other Palestinian institutions, is the scarcity of funding and the difficulty of obtaining financial support. “There is no doubt that Israel’s practices in Jerusalem have intensified since the war on Gaza,” Mohammad said.

Israel’s harsh policies have become a form of imposed control over Jerusalem, with attempts to suppress any expressions of Jerusalemite culture or civilization. Like other institutions, the forum was banned months ago from staging a musical performance under the pretext that the Palestinian Authority (PA) was funding it (see Palestinian Jerusalemite Children Are Deprived of “Dreams under the Olive Tree”). Mohammad revealed that the forum’s administrative and executive staff were subjected to interrogation at the time to halt all work within the Jerusalem context.

Despite the ongoing pressures and challenges, the forum continues to organize and host its programs “because of its belief in the right of the Jerusalemite community, and for marginalized communities, to access these programs amid the difficult economic and social conditions of the city, the absence of clear governmental policies, and Israel’s continuous restrictions,” Mohammad shared.

Mohammad also discussed the obstacles that impact children’s ability to access activities on certain days due to closures imposed on Silwan during Jewish holidays, forcing them to reschedule programs in ways that ensure the safety of the beneficiaries and guarantee their ability to reach the forum and return home safely.

Last April, the forum received the award for “Best Jerusalemite Institution.” Mohammad, however, shared that the real prize is not the award; instead, it is the impact that the JYCF leaves on the surrounding community. “Awards crown this work and affirm that the institution is on the right path; it amplifies the responsibility resting on our shoulders as individuals working in this institution to ensure its continuity and achieve one success after another,” he said.

The forum strongly believes in supporting the steadfastness of Jerusalem society, which requires every possible means to strengthen its endurance in the city. “Today, the challenge has reached very difficult and harsh levels. Homes in Silwan are threatened with demolition or confiscation, and the community suffers from instability and a loss of direction, reflecting the encroachment that Israel is carrying out,” Mohammad added.

Thus, the cultural activities that institutions implement strengthen and restore social bonds within the community. They also reinforce shared values and project a distinctive image of the Palestinian people in Jerusalem—an image that Israel constantly attempts to distort and destroy.

Mohammad addressed the city’s children and youth with this message: “However great the challenges grow, hope remains alive through you. You are the future, and we are working to pave the way for you to become a thriving future for Jerusalem, its identity, and its culture.”

As for what it means to work with children and youth in a challenging environment, Mohammad said that it is very important to never surrender because there is a tremendous responsibility to protect the younger generation and provide every available opportunity to strengthen and build their character so they can become the foundation of Jerusalem’s prosperous future.

It also means creating success stories every single day by providing a safe and healthy environment far removed from the social, economic, and political hardships surrounding children and youth, and providing them a chance to simply be children, even for a few hours, away from a harsh reality that has forced them to grow up far too soon.

As the tour came to an end, we left the forum listening to the beautiful sound of renowned singer Umm Kulthum’s song Alf layla wa layla, led by the forum’s piano and percussion instructor Mu‘tasim Uweisat.

The moment we went outside, we encountered settlers entering the ‘Ayn Silwan Spring while others emerged from it after “purification,” in a scene that tarnished the beauty of a visit to a place that belongs to Jerusalemite children, gathered inside rooms where they perform intoxicating melodies. Perhaps one day they will play the melody of their homeland’s freedom upon those very strings.

Mohammad shared the different groups that comprise the forum’s community, clear evidence of its outreach and overall impact:

• Around 500 male and female students enroll annually in the arts school programs.
• 300 children participate annually in the summer and winter camps.
• 150 male and female students join the artistic groups annually, such as the Palestinian dabke and the choir, which are established and trained within the Palestinian government schools in Jerusalem.
• 35 male and female students with special needs benefit from music and handicraft programs in Abu Dis, in partnership with the al-Ri'aya School for special education.
• 1,000 male and female students benefit annually from educational tour programs.
• 1,500 male and female students from Palestinian public schools in Jerusalem participate in art performances, virtual reality encounters, and community initiatives carried out inside those schools.
• 150 male and female students engage annually in various educational programs such as engineering for children, robotics, mental aptitude, and English language.
• 100 Jerusalemite women participate annually in handicraft training, skills development, sports, and exhibitions to market their products.
• 250 children and youth participate in the forum’s cultural competitions each year, such as the photography competition “Jerusalem Through the Eyes of Its Children” and the “Jerusalem Cultural” competition.
• 10,000 Jerusalemites attend the art events, exhibitions, and concerts organized by the forum annually, with free admission.