Bogota / PNN – With events for the celebration of “Jerusalem as Capital of Arab Culture 2009” not relegated to the occupied city, the Colombian capital of Bogota is host to a week of Palestinian heritage events.

An exhibit of traditional Palestinian embroidery, clothing, fashion and shawls is scheduled to make stops in several universities as part of events planned by the Colombian Academy of Fine Arts and the Palestinian embassy.

At the Academy itself a six-day series of artistic and cultural activities is underway. Lectures on the heritage and the arts of Palestinian are part of the celebration, along with the documentary “Palestine: eyes of the artist.”

Visual art and electronic displays are in the gallery this week, including pictures of Jerusalem’s most important historic sites.

The Palestinian embassy opened “Jerusalem as capital of Arab Culture” events yesterday in collaboration with the Colombian Academy of Fine Arts, the Palestinian Youth Association and the Society of Colombian Women.

Representatives of the Colombian Ministry of Culture, university professors and students, members of the Palestinian community, the embassy and artists attended the opening.

Speeches touched on determination to revive heritage, the relationship between Colombia and Palestine, and the Israeli occupation.

The host said, “The attempts to Judiaze Jerusalem and change its Arab character, the excavations carried out by the occupation at the most important historical sites, and the policies against the Arab population including depriving them of freedom of worship, military checkpoints, home demolitions and forced evictions, and the dismembering taking place by the building of the apartheid wall is the worse kind of racial discrimination.”