Palestine

2-3 homes were demolished in the village of Al Khader, outside of Bethlehem, yesterday [more info here and there is another article which mentions the demolition here].
One of the statements in the letter from the Presbyterian group that I intend to address states, as a fact, that “…since house demolitions have ended in Israel…” and [...]

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This is the small village of I’billin, just about 20min outside of Haifa. This is the view from the balcony of the flat I’m staying at. I’m staying on the grounds of the Mar Elias Educational Institutions. Basically I’m using these days to stay up late, sleep in, rest, do some blogging, thinking, and processing [...]

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On one of the last evenings of my time in the West Bank, a few of us gathered on the back porch area to smoke some arguila and eat peanuts. As it got later and later, the group continued to get larger and larger, and at one point we had about 16-18 people sitting around [...]

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We spent Saturday in Ramallah, the same day that Condoleeza Rice met with Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, and we met with a couple human rights organizations, including Addammer and Defence for Children International-Palestine section (DCI/PS) (which also has an Israel section). They were the kind of presentations that kind of leave you feeling sort of [...]

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[During this post, I will be having some quotations from Melissa (a pseudonym); while I did not have an audio recorder with me, and I don’t remember the quotes word for word, my paraphrases below certainly reflect the messages she was trying to get across to me. I will also be putting some words in [...]

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A friend of mine gave me this link a week or two ago. It is to a blog entry written by Jim Berekley about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the role of the PCUSA. He lifted up a letter written by a group called Presbyterians in Dialogue for Peace as the example of an “evenhanded, reasonable, [...]

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The Israeli Defense Forces. Many in our group have talked about the need to be sympathetic and understanding to the soldiers. These are kids. Little boys. Little 18 year old boys and girls who are walking around, and feel the power of their M-16s slung over their shoulders. So, there is a certain amount of [...]

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After finally getting through the checkpoint, both groups rendezvoused at the An-Najah National University (Old Campus) in Nablus. An-Najah is the 2nd largest university in the West Bank, and about 16,000 students attend school there on one of their two campuses. We were met by some of the students and they gave us a tour [...]

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I feel conflicted in writing this post – part of me thinks that it’s okay, while the other part of me is kind of sick that I feel this way. So, what’s the confession you ask?
I am Western…
…and I like that.
I have loved traveling for around the past 6 weeks. I have met some amazing [...]

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