Palestine International Festival 1996

This year the 4th Palestine International Festival is enveloped in an aura of culture. From Nazareth to Ramallah, from Egypt to Tunis and across Europe and America, culture in all its artistic forms, transcends the borders of geography, politics and time to reemerge and embrace the present. This year's festival will illuminate the past, bringing to life the culture of our anscestors which, over the years, has endured attemps of dismantlement and destruction.

The festival will unite Palestinian culture from all regions. Al-Funun Al-Shaabiyeh from al-Bireh will bring to its audience the vivacity of Palestinian folklore while the voices of the Nazareth based Yu'aad will seranade us with the enchanting lyrics of Palestinian and Arab poets.

The beauty of culture is its ability to inspire and grow beyond physical borders. Not only is Palestinian culture rich and embedded in Palestinian soil but is also linked with and bound to its Arab brethren.

The festival will host singers and groups from the Arab world such as the Tunisian singer Lutfi Boushnaq and the National Folk Troupe from Egypt which will reinforce the entirety and unity of Arab culture within the framework of art.It will also host participants from Europe such as the Mangrove Steelband from the UK , Al-Andalus Flamenco Dance Troupe from Spain and Chico and the Gypsies from France.

A new addition to the festival will be a film program in which films from different parts of the world such as Tunisia, UK, Greece, Egypt will be shown, along with the annual children's program which will be part of the Festival's activities.

This year the Palestine International Festival held in First Ramallah Group between June 21 and July 4 promises a rich mixture of Arab, western and resurgent Palestinian culture. The variety of nationalities participating in this year's festival under the umbrella of culture is evidence of the similarities between peoples and their urge for the intermingling of their different cultures.