Ibdaa Cultural Center

The Ibdaa Cultural Center is a grassroots community-based project in the West Bank's Palestinian Dheisheh refugee camp. The name, "Ibdaa," (ابداع) is translated from Arabic as "creation" or "creative ability". Since being founded in 1994, the Ibdaa Cultural Center has served more than 1,200 children and youth annually and provides employment and income for more than 70 families in the refugee camp.

The mission of the Ibdaa Cultural Center is to create a positive atmosphere for children and youth in the refugee camp to assist them in developing competence, creativity and leadership skills through a range of social, cultural and educational activities.

The Ibdaa Cultura Center strives to empower children and instill the confidence and discipline necessary for them to overcime the obstacles of their difficult conditions while simultaneously educating the international community about the Palestinian refugee issue.

Activities

Ibdaa's programs and activities are constantly changing due to "the unpredictable situation of living under Israeli military occupation." Since the beginning of the Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000, the Dheisheh Refugee Camp has spent several months under military curfew imposed by the Israel Defense Forces.

During the curfews,

• • Ibdaa's guesthouse hosts international human rights observers who document what Ibdaa refers to as "Israeli military atrocities."
  • Ibdaa's library becomes a distribution center for sending books to children's homes to help them cope with the alternating terror, boredom and fatigue of living under curfew.
  • Ibdaa's tatriz (embroidery) project for women serves as the sole source of income for many households.
  • Ibdaa's computer center with its Internet connection becomes a media outlet for the youth on staff to send photos and reports to the media and international contacts.

After the Israeli military withdrew from the Dheisheh Refugee Camp in July 2003, Ibdaa's educational programs were able to restart, Ibdaa's dance troupe began training a new crop of dancers and Ibdaa's girl's basketball team was finally able to practice after missing one year.

Documentary Film

A thirty minute documentary released in 2002 and entitled "The Children of Ibdaa: To Create Something Out of Nothing" focuses on the Ibdaa Cultural Center's children's dance troupe. The children's performance expresses the history, struggle, and aspirations of the Palestinian people, specifically the right to return to their homeland.

The documentary producer, S. Smith Patrick, interviews the dance troupe's refugee camp children, ages 12 to 14, to explore the history of displacement from their villages in historical Palestine, the physical and emotional stress of life in a refugee camp, and how they mix politics and dance.

The video documents the dance troupe during their United States tour and in Dheisheh refugee camp. The video culminates in a visit by the children to their grandparents' demolished villages from which they were expelled in 1948. The members of Ibdaa bring the Palestinian story to Western audiences through performance of the traditional debke dance, preserving Palestinian culture in a creative and non-violently method while addressing the brutal political reality of their lives in a refugee camp.

The Arab Cultural Center in San Francisco applauded the film, describing it as a "visionary documentary film" and "an exceptional expression of the lives of the heroic and talented refugee children of Palestine."

In May 2002 Smith returned to Dheisheh Camp to shoot the follow-up video, "Greetings From Palestine."

External Links

• Ibdaa Cultural Center
• Children of Ibdaa movie review