Travels in Palestine Ramallah and Bethlehem

Its been a three long days of fast paced meetings. On Sunday we spent the day traveling around Jerusalem meeting with the production, stage and lighting companies who produced the Pope's recent visit in Israel and Paul McCartney's recent concert. On Monday Sami picked us up in the morning and we traveled to Ramallah, about 30 minutes away from Jerusalem. We got to see his marketing communications office...a thriving operation of about 17 people. Traveling into the city its apparent there is a tremendous amount of new construction and business development going on...everywhere you look new business buildings and homes are going up. We had meetings all day with potential cash and in-kind sponsors including: Hotels, Telecom, Broadcast, Security, Media partners, and one of Palestine's largest Real Estate developers...very very promising interest. We will meet again with the big Telecom multi-conglomerate on Thursday. We traveled from Ramallah back to Jerusalem to pick up our luggage and travel onto Bethlehem about 20 minutes away where Marc and I would checked into the Jacir Palace Inter-Contiental, a stunningly beautiful hotel of about 250 rooms. On Tuesday morning Sami picked us up early in the morning and we traveled only a couple of miles to meet with the Minister of Tourism of Palestine. She is a remarkable, bright and caring person who is very excited about supporting the Project-Peace on Earth concert. Immediately thereafter we drove on to downtown Bethlehem to meet with the Mayor of Bethlehem. Dr. Victor Batarseh was a warm distinguished figure who turned out to be from Sacramento, CA....A retired Eye, Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor. He is absolutely committed to promoting peace and to supporting our concert. Dr. Batarseh turned out to be Sami's childhood doctor. It was his first time to reconnect with him since childhood. We were joined in the Mayor's meeting by the Director of the Bethlehem Peace Center - Jihan - who, after our meeting with the Mayor, gave us a detailed tour of the center and committed to allowing us to use this facility as a Press Conference, a Production center, and host VIP gatherings during the concert. Jihan, the Director of the Center proudly placed our peace concert poster on the wall for all to see. She is a wonderful and warm person clearly committed to promoting peace in the world. We met again with the local Palestinian/Bethlehem producer of the Pope's Manger Square event, George, who had assembled Palestine's largest vendors of stage, lighting, sound, and broadcast equipment. Later in the evening Marc and I attended a beautiful choir concert of about 130 singers who were in from London at a local art center. Tomorrow we meet with local Religious leaders, the management of the Jacir Hotel, and the manager of teh Bethlehem Media Center.