Bethlehem Calling: Stories of young women of Palestine

Pupils from the Terra Sancta Girls School in Bethlehem. Their diary entries are compared to girls from the same school 20 years ago.

Their diaries painted a picture of daily life in the West Bank for young women; talk of boybands, friendship and future aspirations interspersed with checkpoints, curfews and violence.

Now, just over 20 years on, the stories of Palestinian girls growing up in the backdrop of the Second Intifada, a major uprising against Israeli occupation from 2000 to 2005, are being revisited.

Mixing theatre and music, Bethlehem Calling at this month’s Celtic Connections festival creates a link between Palestinian and Scottish artists and shows where the girls of St Joseph’s Catholic School have ended up, while also sharing diary entries from pupils at the school today, still living with the restraints of occupation.

Rehearsals for the show. — Rehearsals for the show in Glasgow.

“It’s sad that the circle returns back to the same destruction, the same feelings, the same unknowing,” said Palestinian director Raeda Ghazaleh, who created the original project.

“We need to revisit this and understand that it can’t keep going like that. Sadness is much stronger than light right now in the world. I hope this show can just be a drop of water in a sea that could spread and make other people start thinking about change.”

Bethlehem Calling

The show doesn’t shy away from the impact of war on young people, but is driven by a sense of hope, something that’s diminishing when the 2024 diaries are compared to their predecessors.

“The entries from the early noughties were full of possibility – they’re listening to Backstreet Boys, chatting about friendship groups, the local boys and dreams of what they want to do as adults,” the new production’s director, Ben Harrison, said.

“The tone of the entries from 2024 is very different. Things like tanks and F-16 jets are described like you and I would talk about the number 9 bus or a train strike.”

Zoe Hunter (right), Ben Harrison and Raeda Ghazaleh on screen via zoom.

Producer Zoe Hunter said: “Harking back to my own teenage years, it was just a given that you had hopes, dreams and big plans.

“Twenty years ago, despite the fact that they’re commenting upon a pretty grim situation, all of that inherent teenage effervescence and hope is still there. Now it feels like, although they’re really striving to hold on to hope, they can’t see their future because it’s being obliterated continually.

“You should have the right to talk about boybands, daydream and gossip among your friends. The lightness to our lives is as important as your education, but all of these things are interrupted.”

Raeda had lived through occupation herself, and when she opened a new chapter in her life, studying in London, she decided to tell the world what was happening through the girls’ testimonies.

In 2023, Zoe, who was part of the cast of the original Bethlehem Diaries play, suggested revisiting it.

Returning to the project

“It laid to rest but Raeda and I have stayed friends,” Zoe said.

“After the events of October 7, it struck me that there was a range of misunderstanding about what Palestinian culture is, who the Palestinians are.”

This version includes music from Scottish artists with a soundtrack co-created by the former Franz Ferdinand drummer Paul Thomson.

It also includes a Palestinian pipe band, whose formation dates back to 1924, when the Scots Guards were in the area during British rule.

Zoe said: “I realised that arts organisations were too apprehensive to do anything Palestinian-connected. I thought, who isn’t doing that? The music industry. People are putting on concerts, raising money.

“This is giving hope, which there is so little of. You often get projects supposedly about people that don’t really involve them. Here, everybody is involved from the get-go to make sure we’re not speaking for them, we’re speaking with them.”

The diaries from the young women in the early 2000s formed the basis of the original project.

Some of the original diary writers are part of the show, with the girls’ stories providing a beacon of hope.

“One of the diaries talks about a girl, Christine, who was killed,” Raeda said. “I tried to contact her sister, Marianne, and I found out that she became a social worker, and now a doctor.

“She was in the car when her sister was shot in front of her. All this trauma, but she succeeded.

“Sometimes I wonder how we’re going to deal with all this sadness, children in the West Bank and Gaza who have lost everybody. I can’t even start imagining.

“But talking to Marianne, who made herself strong and made her future, maybe means we still have the hope. We don’t want this destruction and killing any more.”

A jigsaw of artists

A jigsaw of artists in Scotland, Ireland and Palestine rehearsing remotely finally come together for the performance next Saturday.

The show happens at a time where a ceasefire deal in Gaza comes into place but oppression continues.

Performers from the West Bank join for rehearsals this week. Three had their UK visa applications rejected, which the creative team said was “frustratingly harsh”.

“We have this lively connection in art that means that we can build beautiful bridges between people,” Raeda said.

“I hope this combination works out and melds together. I’m sure it will because of the willing of everybody who’s part of this puzzle.

“It comes from love and a feeling of responsibility.”

Bethlehem Calling: An Evening Of Stories, Music And Pipers From Palestine, Tramway Theatre, Glasgow, Saturday, 7.30pm.