Off the beaten track tours • Visit sites • Meet locals • Discuss Human Rights & Politics
By Miri – In a previous article on this blog we already outlined the historical roots of the socio-economic marginalisation of the Mizrahi (lit. “Eastern” Jews, stemming from Middle East, North Africa and the Caucasus) communities by the dominant Ashkenazi (usually understood as European Jews) elite. The subordination of the Mizrahim also included the forced erasure […]
By Fred Schlomka – Green Olive Tours selected the location of the International YMCA of Jerusalem as a convenient central departure point for most of our tours. However our affiliation with the organization goes much deeper and reflects our endorsement of YMCA’s philosophy of inclusiveness in this divided city. Every morning, while waiting for their […]
By Miri – The other day I randomly got into a conversation with two guys. It turned out that they were Bedouin, working for the Ministry of Defense and living in Tel Aviv. Soon our discussion turned political when I referred to Israel’s Arab population as Palestinians. “They are living in Israel, why do you […]
By Miri – The city of Nazareth hardly needs much of an introduction. According to the New Testament it is the site of the Annunciation, i.e. the place where the Angel Gabriel announced to the Virgin Mary that she would conceive and become the mother of Jesus Christ, the son of god, and it is thus […]
By Miri – A common image of South Tel Aviv Israel and its supporters were shocked by a recent report which qualified the Jewish state as the one with the highest poverty rate among all OECD nations. Poverty in Israel is however not a shared reality for all, instead it is very much concentrated in […]
By Miri – Throughout the last weeks, I’ve been finding it very hard to not get distracted by all the good news coming in from Turkey, and to focus instead on the as usual not too positive updates from Palestine and Israel. I therefore decided to write about the rather complex relationship between Turkey and […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
