Mr. Hani Al-Hayek, Mayor of Beit Sahour pointed to the fact that Palestine was credited the first prize thanks to the municipality efforts and to CCHP for their intensive efforts in maintaining and preserving the historic town as major part in the development plan of the city, where the rehabilitation and reuse of the traditional buildings and monuments in the daily life is implemented within a scientific studied plan and based on the highest specifications with the support of the local community in the city.

The nomination file for the project was prepared and submitted through the Beit Sahour Municipality in cooperation with the Centre for Cultural Heritage Preservation (CCHP), Bethlehem presenting the various projects that were implemented in the historic centre of the town, including the urban rehabilitation projects, building conservation projects such as Dar Qumsieh and Dar Dakkarat, the on-going project of Dar Abu Sa'da, the Emergency Plan of the Revitalization of the Historic Town and the Bethlehem Area Conservation Management Plan (BACMP).

Engineer Abdel Rahman bin Khalifa bin Abdel Aziz Al-Thani, Minister of Municipality and urban planning of Qatar and the chairman of the Award, handed over the Award to Mr. Hani Al-Hayek as Mayor of Beit Sahour Municipality and Arch. Issam Juha as the Director of the Centre for Cultural Heritage Preservation (CCHP).

The Arab Towns Organization is a non-profit charitable organization that aims at enhancing the creativity and renewal in methodologies which is based on the Arab Islamic style in modern architecture, preserving the identity and heritage of Arab towns, the maintenance of the cultural and historic monuments and the adaptive reuse of these elements to serve the modern life.

The Organization as well encourages the Arab architects, engineers and town planners to commit to the traditional art and architecture and promotes them to follow up comprehensive plans to preserve the environmental aspects in the city.