Brief Historical Background
Bethlehem University opened its doors on 1 October 1973 to 112 enrolled students. The idea of establishing a university eventually emerged from the visit of Pope Paul VI to the Holy Land in 1964. In fulfillment of the Pope’s desire to help the Palestinian people, the then Apostolic Delegate, Archbishop Pio Laghi formed a committee of some educational and community leaders in 1972 and asked them for suggestions in order to follow up and implement a project. In 1973, Protocols of Accord were signed between the Vatican and the Superior General of the Brothers of the Christian Schools so they could run and administer the University. In the same year of 1973, Bethlehem University became the first registered university in Palestine and a founding member of the Palestinian Council for Higher Education in 1978.
نبذة تاريخية
فتحت جامعة بيت لحم أبوابها للدارسين في الأول من تشرين الأول عام 1973 إذ التحق بها 112 طالبًا وطالبة. وكانت زيارة قداسة البابا بولس السادس للأراضي المقدسة عام 1964 قد أدت في نهاية الأمر إلى فكرة تأسيس جامعة. وتحقيقًا لرغبة البابا في مساعدة الشعب الفلسطيني، شكّل القاصد الرسولي المطران بيو لاغي عام 1972 لجنة من بعض التربويين والقيادات المحلية طالبًا منهم تقديم الاقتراحات لإنجاز مشروع ما ومتابعته، فأدت تلك المناقشات إلى فكرة تأسيس الجامعة.
وفي عام 1973 وُقّعت بروتوكولات الاتفاق بين الفاتيكان والرئيس العام لإخوة المدارس المسيحية لكي يتولوا مهام إدارة الجامعة.
وفي عام 1973 ذاته أصبحت جامعة بيت لحم أول جامعة مسجلة رسميًا في فلسطين وعضوًا مؤسسًا في مجلس التعليم العالي الفلسطيني في عام 1978. Bethlehem University, the first university established in the West Bank, and can trace its roots to 1893 when the De La Salle Christian Brothers opened schools in Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Jaffa, Nazareth, Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt. During the historic visit of Pope Paul VI to the Holy Land in 1964, Palestinians expressed their desire to establish a university in their homeland. After consultation and study, and in the midst of the post-1967 war era which resulted in the West Bank and Gaza being under Israeli military occupation, it was in 1972 that the Apostolic Delegate, Archbishop Pio Laghi, formed a committee of local community leaders and heads of schools in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, to establish an institution of higher learning which would offer a broad and practical university education in arts and sciences to meet the needs of the Palestinian society. With the support of local educational leaders and the cooperation of the Vatican’s Congregation for Oriental Churches and the De La Salle Christian Brothers and their colleagues who have conducted schools in over 80 countries of the world since 1680, conducting universities in the United States since 1853 and schools in the Middle East since 1893, Bethlehem University officially opened its doors on 3 October 1973, becoming the first university in the West Bank. The University’s story is one of people committed to pursuing their higher education – perseverance and courage in the face of adversity and injustice – working together in hope with an ever widening international circle of colleagues to build a better future.
