Salam Palestine was created as an expansion to The Excellence Center in Hebron, Palestine, which was originally founded in 2011. 

Our Beginning

In 2011, a group of dedicated Palestinian community servants in Hebron launched the Excellence Center, primarily as a facility for connecting international volunteer English teachers with Palestinian students wanting to learn English. In Hebron, Palestinian students in schools are taught English by Palestinian teachers and have little to no exposure to native or foreign English speakers unless they happen to meet them around the city. As Hebron is not a major tourist destination, this means many Palestinian students have never or rarely met English speakers from other countries. This is something that the Excellence Center endeavored to change. 

Palestinian Students Learn English In School, However…

While Palestinian students learn English in school, the school curriculum in the West Bank has similarities with English curriculums all over the world in that it is often teacher- and grammar-focused with little or no time for speaking practice. In addition, class sizes particularly in public schools can have 40-50 students per class, which makes learning another language that much more difficult. This approach often leads Palestinian students and students all over the world leaving school and feeling like they can’t speak or use English, even though they spent many years studying it. This is a gap that we have strived to bridge since our founding and we continue this important and innovative work today.

We Sought A Different Approach To Teaching English

The Excellence Center sought a different approach, wanting to teach English in a different way, using more practical and communicative methods and bringing native and fluent English speakers to Palestine. By connecting internationals with Palestinian students inside the English classroom, this gives Palestinian students much-needed practice and exposure to English. But not only that, it can also increase their confidence and presents the perfect setting for cultural exchange and building multicultural relationships. 

Our Success Led To Our Expansion

As the Excellence Center became more established and reputable within the local community in Hebron, we began to have more Palestinian students join us for our English courses. We also began to develop our intensive Arabic courses aimed at international students wishing to come to Palestine primarily to study Arabic, whether the local dialect or Fus’ha. True to our name, we continued to provide excellent English and Arabic education to our international and Palestinian students to help them achieve excellence in their own lives.

Furthermore, because we have continued to offer unique experiences, great value and meaningful impact on our local Palestinian community in Hebron, we began to have more international volunteers and our international reputation also grew. Our success with our English teaching programs lead to our continued growth which allowed us to create Salam Palestine to expand into other important fields. 

Community Development With Salam Palestine

While the Excellence Center is focused primarily on teaching English to local Palestinian students and teaching Arabic to international students, Salam Palestine is primarily focused on community development. This includes working with Palestinian refugees, Palestinian children and other members of the local Palestinian community. Salam Palestine runs numerous programs and training services aimed at developing our local community and creating better career and economic opportunities and a better overall future.

Other Aims Of Salam Palestine

Salam Palestine also aims to educate and inform international participants about Palestine in several fields, including human rights, women’s rights, Palestinian culture, laws and legal practices and medicine and healthcare. Today, Salam Palestine offers volunteer programs and internships in a variety of fields including these and more for international participants wishing to come to Palestine and engage with the local community. 

This is very important work as there are many unfair misconceptions about Palestine and Palestinians in the international community and this is an area where we can make a real difference. In addition, it is very difficult for Palestinians to travel abroad due to the restrictions imposed on them by the Occupation, which also limits the tourism industry within Palestine. So Salam Palestine also provides an environment where Palestinians can engage with people from all over the world.

Expanding To New Facilities

Due to our success and expansion, in 2017 we left our original building on Ein Sara Street and moved to new facilities just a few minutes away on foot. Our new facilities, where we are located today, are larger and have more than double the classrooms we had previously. This allows us to teach more English and Arabic classes and also gives us a bigger space to host more international participants. Additionally, we now have more space to offer more workshops, seminars, events and training sessions for internationals and for our local community.

The Covid-19 Pandemic

While the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020 certainly offered setbacks and challenges for most people around the world, including us, we have been busier than ever since 2022. Since 2022, we have hosted larger numbers of international volunteers, interns and students and provided more English classes than ever before. 

The Future?

Our story is not yet finished as we continue to expand and grow both internationally and within our local community. Our commitment to our values, our local Palestinian community and our international participants has led to our enormous success and expansion since our very humble beginning. We will continue to grow and develop our local community as well as our international participants from now until the future. If you wish to engage in Palestine with us, we would be more than happy to welcome you.