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Seeing Palestine

Since the first day we arrived in Jerusalem, there was always Palestine looming in the background, but I couldn’t imagine what it was like and imagined some anachronistic country with pre-modern economy and unstable government that can easily be taken over by Islamic fundamentalists. Supporting the statehood of such country would be disruptive to the […]

Stepping Into Their Shoes

Every time I sit in front of my computer and think about my experiences thus far in Jerusalem, I am repeatedly humbled and grateful of the opportunities that I have had to listen to the narratives of locals, politicians, research organizations, peers, and anyone who has generously taken the time to pass their knowledge onto […]

“History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it” – Winston Churchill

I’ve never been particularly fond of museums. It’s always made me somewhat uncomfortable to see exhibits constructed of materialistic representations of lives and eras because throughout my experience as a visitor, I maintain the sense that I entered this space in response to either an educational or personal motive and in observing the collected materials […]

Benifiting the Palestine-that-is and the Palestine-to-come

When fighting for full international recognition and national liberation, a common front makes things easer. The representatives of the four organizations, who spoke with us on Monday, in Bethlehem and Ramallah, Alrowwad, Bethlehem Bible College, the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions, and the Palestinian Authority, certainly were unified in their Palestinian nationalism and desire […]

The disturbing comfort of language

The Holocaust Museum was, of course, fraught with emotion, but not for the reasons genocide-related museums usually are. Justin had described the museum as giving the visitors the feeling of being in an historical event that they had no control over and couldn’t escape. The way it is designed, even if you don’t read the […]

The trade-off for security–in response to Daniel Gordis’s memoir

edited: 05/30, 05/31

If anyone has not read the selections from Daniel Gordis’s Coming Together, Coming Apart uploaded on Moodle, I strongly encourage you to do so. Here’s why.

We have been exposed to the rationals and emotions from both Israelis (left and right) and Palestinians on the wall/security obstacle/fence (I’ll call it the “barrier” […]

Happy to Suffer

Yesterday we met with a woman from the Israel Religious Action Center and discussed the state of ultra-orthodox women in Jerusalem. I was struck by how miserable their lives sounded to me — breadwinner, housekeeper, married by 18.5 (average) in arranged marriages, mother of 5+ children, hyper-aware of modesty, unable to participate in activities available […]

ITEK

Before heading to the West Bank yesterday, Angela Godfrey-Goldstein came to the student village speaking to us about Areas A, B, and C, East Jerusalem’s extent, the wall and its controversy, and Israel’s undertakings in colonialist enterprises.Towards the end of her briefing she mentioned current environmental issues and the need for indigenous traditional ecological knowledge […]

East Jerusalem

On Thursday we toured East Jerusalem, making stops at the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs (PASSIA), Rashidiya Secondary School, and Just Vision. During his short talk, the director at Rashidiya, the secondary school for boys said that he wished that his school could devote more time to teaching Hebrew rather than […]

A few days ago, we visited the Haredi sector in Jerusalem where all the ultra orthodox Jews lived in. In her introduction before entering the neighourhood, our tour guide makes a very interesting point that while ultra orthodoxy is an attempt to return to olden ‘pure’ Jewish roots as a reaction to the two traumas […]