Total Number of Participants Registered for Summer '08 so far: 42! Register Now!

Travelers participating in the third session of PSE (July 17th to August 14th) will have the opportunity to participate in the 2008 Home Rebuilding Camp during the last two weeks of their stay (August 1st through the 14th). This means that participants will serve at their regular volunteer opportunity the first two weeks and then switch over to the Home Rebuilding camp for the last two weeks of the session. Participants will also need to be an additional $420 fee to participate in the Home Rebuilding Camp (this fee will be spent on materials and equipment needed to rebuild the home). For more information, please refer to the Home Rebuilding listing on the Middle East Fellowship website:

http://www.middleeastfellowship.org/home_rebuild

The cost of the Palestine Summer Encounter program depends on which session you choose (see the table below). We strongly recommend that you participate in the program for two or three months but several one month options are also available.

Dates:

3 Month Option
A	May 22 — August 14

Two Month Options
B	May 22 — July 17
C	June 19 — August 14

One Month Options
D	May 22 — June 19
E	June 19 — July 17
F	July 17 — August 14

Fill out the online application and submit your $150 registration fee to register for the Palestine Summer Encounter program.

June 21st, 2007 The first session of the 2007 Palestine Summer Encounter (PSE) has come to a close. Seven participants have packed their bags, said goodbye to their new friends and departed for home. Seven other participants will be staying to attend the second session. With ten more internationals soon to arrive, the second session will host a total of 17 participants from around the world: the United States, Russia, Bulgaria, Canada and Switzerland.


       (Above: PSE participants at the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem)

Not convinced yet that a trip to the Holy Land is for you? Here''s eight great reasons to come to Palestine this summer.

Pay online or by mail for the "Palestine Summer Encounter" program.

by Daphna Berman (Note: This article was published by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz in July 2005).

Most days, Lee Gargagliano of Brooklyn hitchhikes and then takes the bus from his hosts'' home in a small village outside Beit Sahour to Bethlehem , where he volunteers at an orphanage. A participant in the Palestine Summer Encounter (PSE), he then spends the rest of his day learning Arabic, taking day trips around the West Bank and getting to know his host family, who compel him to consume unimaginable quantities of food and hot tea. Gargagliano, like some of the other PSE students, could have chosen the birthright program that offers all Jewish college students a free trip to Israel and saved a few thousand dollars in the process. But the 20-year-old college student finds the idea of being able to travel for free, simply because of his Jewish heritage, "appalling."