Bethlehem University of the Holy Land is a Catholic Christian co-educational institution of higher learning founded in 1973 in the Lasallian tradition, open to students of all faith traditions. Bethlehem University is 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 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 run schools in over 80 countries of the world since 1680, (including universities in the United States since 1853 and schools in the Middle East since 1893), Bethlehem University officially opened its doors on October 3, 1973, becoming the first university in the West Bank.

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I uploaded a YouTube video -- Bethlehem University Mission http://youtu.be/i_wkrbKCzOw?a
BU_News (Bethlehem University) Wed, 23 Dec 2009 12:35:10 -0000
I uploaded a YouTube video -- Bethlehem University Mission http://youtu.be/i_wkrbKCzOw?a

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