Palestinians lift their glasses at Taybeh's fourth annual Oktoberfest. Could they be toasting better times in the Middle East?
By JIHAN ABDALLA TAYBEH15beer224(photo credit: Jihan Abdalla)Extract from Issue 15, November 10, 2008 of The Jerusalem Report. To subscribe to The Jerusalem Reportclick here.
High in the hills of the West Bank, overlooking the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea, the tiny Christian village of Al-Taybeh has almost 30 times more olive trees (30,000) than people (1,300). And every year for the past four years, in mid-October, it has also had many more visitors than residents. This year, over 8,000 came to enjoy two days of music, folk dancing, food, socializing and, especially, the locally brewed Taybeh beer.
"Every year, more and more people show up," says Nadim Khoury, 49, who opened Taybeh brewery 14 years ago (and whose name in Arabic incidentally means "bringer of drinks.") "Everybody thought I was nuts to build a brewery in a Muslim region," he recalls, referring to the Islamic prohibition of consumption of alcohol. "But I didn't listen to them because I like making beer," he tells The Jerusalem Report.
And as Khoury notes, since Palestinian Christians make up less than 2 percent of the Palestinian population, they are obviously not the only ones drinking Taybeh beer. "Muslims enjoy it too," he observes dryly. Says Nizar Halloon, 22, a Muslim originally from the Galilee in Israel but raised in Jerusalem, who is a student at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, "Drinking was never actually an issue in my family, we all drink openly and moderately."
Perhaps surprisingly for Israelis and others fed on media reports of the increasing Islamization of Palestinian society, Halloon was one of the many Muslims who came to the festival and enjoyed the beer, and not only the latest, non-alcoholic, addition to Taybeh's range of brews. Khoury claims he has never heard any objections from his Muslim neighbors. "Everyone drinks beer," he says.
And residents of Deir Jarir, one of the many Muslim neighboring villages, reject any talk of religious intolerance and say they have no problems with the brewery down the road, he adds.
But it's not as if the West Bank is as "wet" as Israel and other non-Islamic countries. For one thing, it is prohibited to advertise alcohol in the public, Palestinian Authority-controlled media. In the more conservative cities of Nablus, Tulkarm and Hebron, nearly devoid of Christians and foreigners and with very few restaurants and hotels, alcohol is very scarce. And with the ascendance of Hamas in Gaza, the Strip is also dry. But the Khourys hope to start marketing their new non-alcoholic beer in these places, though to sell in Gaza will bring about a host of new challenges in light of the Israeli blockade.
Taybeh Beer is brewed using a 500-year-old German recipe and follows a "purity law" dating to 1516 that dictates that the beer include only four ingredients: malted barley, hops, yeast and pure water. The malt used in Taybeh beer is imported from France and Belgium, the hops from Bavaria and the Czech Republic, the yeast from London, and the water is drawn from the nearby spring of Ein Samia.
"We produce 600,000 liters a year," said Khoury. "Of that, 30 percent sells to Israeli establishments and wholesalers in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Seventy percent of our sales are within the Palestinian Authority." Sales of Taybeh beer, however, "account for only 15 to 20 percent of total beer sales in the West Bank." The majority of beer sales are of the three leading foreign brands: Carlsberg, Heineken and Amstel.
"People have been brainwashed and mouthwashed into drinking inferior beers," says Nadim, "when all they're drinking is mouthfuls of preservatives."
After a 15-minute drive from Ramallah along a narrow, curvy, mountainous road that leads to Taybeh, a huge sign leads visitors to the town center, where local products - olive oil, olive soap, honey, embroidery, antique floor tiles and sweets - are on sale together with a selection of Taybeh beer souvenirs and T-shirts.
Despite the ban on travel by Israeli citizens to the West Bank, the Taybeh Oktoberfest has proven to being quite popular among Israeli journalists and beer lovers. In addition to individual advertisements on the Internet for rides, the festival itself arranged for chartered buses at 195 shekels (just over $56) per person, leaving from Tel Aviv and the Ambassador Hotel in Jerusalem, bringing a cross-section of East and West Jerusalemites straight to Taybeh village and straight back.
Visitors to the festival quaffed the four different varieties of Taybeh beer, at 10 shekels (just over $2) a glass. The original Taybeh Golden has a 5 percent alcohol content; the stronger Dark, 6 percent; the Amber is halfway between them in body and strength; and the latest, launched a few weeks ago, is the alcohol-free, bearing the same logo and name but written in Arabic in addition to English on a green label. Sold only in bottles during the festival, the beers will soon be sold and distributed in kegs.
"It tastes delicious," says cousin Philip Khoury, as he pours a Taybeh Golden draft for a thirsty couple, who raise their plastic glasses in the Arabic toast to good health - saha. Most people are opting for the Golden, he explains, because it came out first and people "got used it. Taybeh Dark is more popular in the winter as it contains more alcohol and it is more warming," he adds.
Amiable-looking Nadim is a very generous host, pouring many free glasses from the tap into cups bearing the Taybeh beer label as he works the crowd. His mission, he says, is to "educate people's taste buds" and have them enjoy a better class of beer. "I cannot say we have our own country, but I can say that we have our own beer," he declares.
"It's a way to boost the economy of Al-Taybeh and help fight unemployment, which is close to 50 percent," says David Khoury, who also serves as the local mayor. He estimates that last year's festival revenues for the village as a whole came to 250,000 shekels (about $72,000). "All the people who participated in the festival, such as civic organizations, the private sector, restaurant owners, even the young boys you see walking around selling popcorn - all profited."
A notable event during this year's festival was a concert by Cultureshoc, a Jerusalem-based newly-emerged Palestinian rock-rap-blues and jazz-influenced band. They performed Saturday night, and despite the chilly weather, young people from Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Ramallah, Taybeh, Haifa and Nazareth swayed and waved to the melodious voice of Amira Dibsi, the strong voice of rapper Suleiman Harb and the original tunes played by the guitarist Ahmad El-Shariff, Rami Bajjali and Amer Yaghmour. They sing in both English and Arabic to songs they have written words and music for. "We wanted to add something new to the Palestinian music scene," says El-Shariff.
Adding to the German flavor of the occasion, a Bavarian band, Hans Seidel Stiftung, came especially to perform. "They work in different fields in Bavaria," said David. "Some are farmers, some lawyers, some council members in municipalities. They live in small villages like ours and were supported by the Hans Seidel Foundation, a German non-profit political organization with the motto 'in the service of democracy, peace and development' to come and perform at our Oktoberfest."
Located 9 miles (14 kms) northeast of Ramallah off the road to Jericho, and 12.5 miles (20 kms) northeast of Jerusalem, Al-Taybeh sits 3,000 feet (930 m.) above sea level, near the highest mountain of the West Bank, Tel Asur. According to tradition, the village was originally known as Ephraim, and Christians believe that Jesus stayed there with his disciples before his passion (John 11:54). The name was changed to Taybeh by the Islamic leader Saladin around 1187. The local version has it that Saladin visited Ephraim and found its people very hospitable and generous. He stated that they were "taybeen" people, "good" and "kind" in Arabic. Since that day Ephraim took the name Taybeh.
Today, while still famous for its olive trees, pickled olives and olive oil industry, the village is better known for the family-owned microbrewery, the Taybeh Brewing Company, (TBC). In 1994, brothers Nadim and David Khoury invested their life savings, some $1.5 million, in the project, with state-of-the-art equipment imported from Canada, Italy, the United States, Germany, Japan and France.
Nadim is production manager and CEO; 52-year-old brother David is financial manager; and 45-year-old and mother of two, Grace, is marketing manager of TBC. All of them hold degrees in business administration and David and Grace are also professors of finance and business administration at nearby Birzeit University.
The father of four, Nadim had long been a keen home brewer and, while living in Boston, was a frequent visitor to the annual Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany. He discovered his passion for beer while studying business administration at Hellenic College, a Greek-Orthodox liberal arts college in Brookline, Massachusetts. "I was always reading about beer and home brewing," he said. "I used to go to exhibitions, beer fairs and tasting events." Nadim took brewing studies at the University of California at Davis, one of only two universities that offer such an academic program in the United States.
One of Nadim's children, daughter Madees, 23, is following in her father's footsteps. She, too, graduated in business management from Hellenic College and has taken a beer-making course in China, where she learned several new techniques. "She wakes up everyday at 5 a.m.," boasts Nadim. "She has quickly learned the trade and will take over the business once I am gone. Madees is the first, and only, Palestinian woman 'brewmaster' and I am so proud of her."
Extract from Issue 15, November 10, 2008 of The Jerusalem Report. To subscribe to The Jerusalem Reportclick here.
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