PALESTINE - ISRAEL - JORDAN - SINAI

Off the beaten track tours • Visit sites • Meet locals • Discuss Human Rights & Politics

The Christian Zionist Movement – Friends or Enemies of Israel?

By Miri –  As with most terms, the inflationary use of the word “Zionism” renders its actual meaning(s) more and more obscure. A good example for this is the surprise that the term “Christian Zionism” evokes: “How can Christians be Zionists?” “Don’t you have to be a Jew in order to be a Zionist?”. In […]

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Israeli Cuisine – Beyond Falafel and Hummus

By Miri – Culture is a complicated enough term, but when we talk about a region whose history dates back thousands of years, a region which has been conquered and incorporated into numerous different empires, whose position has always been located at the crossroads of east-west trade routes, and whose current society is made up […]

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Melisende – Queen of Jerusalem

By Miri – His/tory is by and large written by men, and as such, many important female figures are being omitted or not given the credit that they actually deserve. This is especially the case if we are talking about women who dared to challenge the authority of men. One such example is Queen Melisende […]

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The Armenian Community in the Holy Land

By Miri –  The Armenian community in Palestine/Israel is mainly known for their presence in the Armenian Quarter, which constitutes one of the four quarters of the Old City of Jerusalem. The Armenian Church is further known for being part of the custodians of some of the most important Christian sites, including the Church of […]

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The Mar Saba Monastery

by Miri – No tour to Bethlehem is complete without a visit to Mar Saba. Located 10km east of Jesus’ birthplace, the Greek Orthodox monastery of Mar Saba (Arabic for “Saint Saba”) is built on cliffs overlooking the majestic Kidron valley. Its founder Saba was born in Cappadocia (today located in Turkey) in 439. At […]

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The Adyghe – Circassians in Israel

By Miri –  Historical Background Painting of a Circassian Warrior With a history dating back as far as 8000 BC, the Adyghe, commonly known as Circassians or Cherkess, are the oldest indigenous ethnic group of the Northern Caucasus. The original monotheistic religion of the Adyghe, who are subdivided into twelve separate groups, is known as […]

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Leila Mourad – A Jewish Egyptian Diva

By Miri – The singer and actress Leila Mourad appeared in 27 films and sang over 1,000 songs, many of which became classics and reserved her a space among the greatest Arab vocalists of the golden age of the 20th century. Until today she is considered to be one of the greatest Egyptian singers, second […]

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Returning to Jaffa

By Miri –  When I’m guiding tours in Jaffa and Tel Aviv I usually tell the participants that the best thing I can do to further their understanding of what is going on in this region, is by complicating issues. Rather than providing them with a logical or linear version of history, my aim is […]

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Palestinian Bagpipes?!

By Miri – One day I went out to show some friends from abroad the place I live in: Jaffa. That same day the Muslim community was celebrating one of their most important holidays, Eid el-Adha, usually translated as the Feast of Sacrifice. As we were approaching one of Jaffa’s main roads we suddenly heard […]

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Beware of the Jerusalem Syndrome

By Miri – Many people believe that Palestine/Israel is an unsafe place to travel and a lot of foreign embassies and consulates caution about visiting a region that is seemingly always at the verge of a new eruption of violent conflict.Most of the times locals will however tell you that it is completely save to […]

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“We See, We Hear, We Refuse” – Israeli Conscientious Objectors

By Miri –  General, your tank is a powerful vehicleIt tramples the forest, it crushes a hundred men.But it has one flaw:It requires a driver.General, your bomber is strong.It flies faster than the storm, it loads more than an elephant.But it has one flaw:It requires a mechanic.General, man is very useful.He knows how to fly, […]

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Jewish Democracy in Action

by Fred Schlomka –The term ‘democracy’ is used today by so many people from different backgrounds that the word has begun to lose any definitive meaning. In particular the dichotomy between the reality of the ‘Jewish Democracy’ in Israel and the Liberal Democracies of the West seems to be diverging rapidly, resulting in a serious […]

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