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National Geographic Expeditions’ partner for the Society’s new Holy Land: Past, Present, and Future expedition, MEJDI (Middle East Justice and Development Initiative), has taken first place in the inaugural Intercultural Innovation Awards. The prize, awarded by the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations and BMW Group, recognizes “brave initiatives that dare to think outside the box, rethinking intercultural work and making an important use of new methods to promote intercultural understanding and cooperation.” The award includes a year of mentorship by the United Nations World Tourism Organization to help MEJDI scale up its operations and offer educational tours in new regions.
National Geographic Emerging Explorer Aziz Abu Sarah—a founder, owner and operator of MEJDI, and National Geographic Expert for several departures of the Holy Land expedition—traveled to Doha, Qatar to collect the award last month.
“We were thrilled to get this award,” Aziz told me. “The UN World Tourism Organization will help us grow our business, develop our business plan. We spent last week in Madrid working with the UNWTO’s Secretary General, Taleb Rifai, making a plan for the coming year.
“The plan will include getting to new regions. We’re already running trips in March and April to Egypt. They’ll help set up meetings for us there with government officials. We spoke about Jordan, where we’re also running trips now, and about South Africa, about Northern Ireland, about Turkey.
“In Israel with National Geographic,” Aziz continued, “we present a ‘Dual Narrative’ tour, looking at everything through the eyes of a Jewish and a Palestinian guide. In Egypt, we’ll be looking at Christian and Muslim perspectives, secular and religious, as well as the history and archaeology you’d see on a typical tour. In Turkey, there are Greeks, Kurds, and Turks, and the issues surrounding them. We’re hoping to do a trip where we can combine Turkey, Kurdistan, and Iraq together.
“Our narratives aren’t focused on conflict, but on peace, on building understanding between peoples. That’s our specialty.”
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Book your passage on The Holy Land: Past, Present, and Future.
View “From Revenge to Reconciliation,” Aziz Abu Sarah’s discussion of his experiences in an NG Live program at National Geographic headquarters.
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