Those who know a bit more about the place would also say that in 1948, Abu Ghosh was one of the very few villages that helped the Hagana, Irgun and Stern Group in their struggle to build an independent home for Jews.

But very few Jews regularly enter the heart of the village, beyond the main street and the commercial centre where the restaurants and bakeries are located.

In a small and colourful alley, which lies on a steep road above the old mosque and Benedictine monastery, there’s a house surrounded by flowers and trees that has a magical and pastoral scenic look.

Besides a small A4 paper sign pointing at the door, no one would guess that in this old building there’s a unique Arabic school.

Chen Kupperman, the founder of Blend.Ar — an NGO that promotes social cohesion through language learning (the name stands for ‘blend Arabic’) — said that when he studied Arabic, he felt that studying in class with a teacher writing on a whiteboard misses a big chunk of language learning.

“During my university studies, I had a job as a mathematics teacher in a school called Meitar in Haifa,” the 31-year-old said.

To read more on this story, subscribe to our new e-edition. Go to E-edition.jewishtelegraph.com.

If you have a story or an issue you want us to cover, let us know - in complete confidence - by contacting newsdesk@jewishtelegraph.com, 0161-741 2631 or via Facebook / Twitter