Off the beaten track tours • Visit sites • Meet locals • Discuss Human Rights & Politics
By Miri – Shay Agnon, one of the central figures of modern Hebrew fiction, was born as Shmuel Yosef Halevi Czazkes. He adopted his surname from his first published novel “Agunot”, meaning “the Chained” and referring to Jewish women, who were abandoned by their legal husbands and left without a writ of divorce. Those […]
By Miri – Kabbalah Celebrities wearing the red wristband against the “Evil Eye” With celebrities like Madonna and Britney Spears sporting red wristbands, and news headlines such as “the exposure of the great Kabbalah con”, Jewish mysticism has created quite a buzz in recent years – both among Jews and non-Jews. But what is really […]
By Miri – Until the end of the 1960s Palestinian space in Israel was pretty much neglected by the government and left to the processes of urban disintegration. With the realisation of the high value of real estate, coupled with a growing interest of national-religious settlers to reinstate the Jewish character of the “mixed cities” […]
By Miri – The whirling dervish, with his right arm directed to the sky, ready to receive God’s beneficence, and his left hand turned toward the earth is but one of the many and diverse manifestations of Sufi rituals. While commonly defined as as “the inner, mystical dimension of Islam”, Sufis themselves define it as […]
By Miri – Since their forced displacement from Palestine in 1948, the scattered Palestinian refugee community has been severely affected by pretty much all of the major conflicts that have been shaking the region, many times leading them to flee their newly established homes yet another time. Escaping the violence in their host countries, be […]
By Chema Arraiza – Winter is the time to fly South. I make a small trip to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Am lucky enough to enjoy the company of Mohamed Barakat from Green Olives and other knowledgeable persons who help me learn more about the region. During the few days am there am […]
By Miri – Yiddish refers to a primarily Germanic language containing elements of Romance, Slavic, as well as a mixture of Hebrew and Aramaic, which is written in the Hebrew alphabet. The language is thought of as having originated in the tenth century in the German Rhineland and from there spread through Bavaria towards the […]
By Miri – The concept of “aid” usually invokes a whole lot of positive, altruistic and humanitarian associations, yet after decades of money flowing from the global North to the South, international aid to so called “underdeveloped” countries has come under increasing criticism. Many claim that rather than serving its alleged beneficiaries, international aid primarily serves […]
By Miri – The myth that people with disabilities travel less than the general population is slowly being dismantled as the demand for accessible travel services globally steadily increases. Research shows that the value of the inclusive tourism sector in 2008 was at no less than 11%, and should now be even higher. As such, […]
By Miri – The iconic Fairuz Music from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East is commonly subsumed under the label “world music”, a category created by media and record industries to diversify the Euro-American market in order to sell more music. In recent years, the Western music market was in fact at least […]
By Miri – Much of Palestine’s/Israel’s appeal to tourists stems from it constituting the claimed historical site of many of the stories of the holy scriptures and tourists come in flocks to see the numerous excavation sites, many of which seem to confirm the narrative of the bible. But can the material remains that archaeologists […]
By Miri – According to Messianic Jewish believers, a Messianic Jew is “a person who was born Jewish or converted to Judaism, who is a genuine believer in Yeshua [Jesus], and who continues to acknowledge his or her Jewishness.” While most Jews and Christians would agree that the belief in Jesus as the Messiah constitutes […]
