An-Najah Holds the International Conference on Archeology and Tourism
On Monday, July 10th, 2017, the Faculty of Humanities at An-Najah in cooperation with the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities in Palestine held the International Conference on Archeology and Tourism.
The conference was over two days from July 10th – July 11th, 2017 and took place at the Zafer Al-Masri Auditorium in the Old Campus.
In the opening speech, Professor Maher Natsheh, Acting President of An-Najah mentioned that the conference aims at spotting the light on archeological sites and encouraging tourism in Palestine. He also stressed the importance of the cooperation between the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and the other Palestinian ministries.
Dr. Abdul Khaliq Issa, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and the conference Rapporteur referred to the importance of the conference in preserving the Palestinian identity and history. He also thanked the European and Arab participating researchers and the university administration for supporting the conference.
Mr. Ibrahim Al-Hafi, Representative of the Minister of Tourism and Antiquities talked about the mutual cooperation the ministry has with An-Najah to preserve the archeological sites and tourist attractions in Palestine.
In turn, Ms Anan Atteereh, Deputy Governor of Nablus\ and Director General of the Governorate talked about the difficulties that encounter tourism in Palestine and offered a number of suggestions to develop the tourism reality in the region.
At the end, Ms Muna Al-Qassem from An-Najah briefed the attendees on the tourism and archeology World Bank funded project which was one of the conference outcomes.
The conference resulted in a number of recommendations, most important of which are holding the conference annually, rehabilitating the archeological sites and tourist attractions in Palestine and using modern techniques in archaeological studies such as geographic information systems (GIS) and aerial photography. The conference also recommended putting the Old City of Nablus on the preliminary list of the UNESCO World Heritage sites.
Notes:
- The conference was also attended by Dr. Mohammad El-Amleh, Vice President of Academic Affairs; Mr. Jihad Yaseen from the Ministry of Tourism and Drs Tom Selwyn, Francisco Caramelo, John Lewis and Rami Ishaq, researchers from the U.K, Portugal, Spain and Holland respectively as well as Prof. Zeidan Kafafi, Mr. Yousef Al-Zoubi, researchers from Yarmouk University who joined the guests on Skype.
