About 300 Bedouins live in what is called ‘the Pope’s Hill’, near Bethany, east of Jerusalem.
The land was a gift from King Hussein of Jordan to Pope Paul VI, on the occasion of the Pope’s visit to the Holy Land in 1964.
This group of Bedouins, considered part of the nomadic Arab people, was transferred from the Negev desert to the so-called ‘Pope’s Hill’, in the mid-twentieth century. This area, which is located in the vicinity of Bethany, to the east of Jerusalem, was given this nickname as a result of King Hussein’s gift to Pope Paul VI, during the Pope’s visit to the Holy Land in 1964.