PALESTINE - ISRAEL - JORDAN - SINAI

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

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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Unrequited Sympathy – The Case of the Maronites in Israel

By Miri –  Obviously the Arab – Jewish divide is by far not the only one in the area and there are way more ethnic or religious groups whose relationships are rather complicated, whose identities have been mobilised and played out against each other during the manifold conflicts that have been shaking the Middle East […]

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الحرم القدسي الشريف‎ / הַר הַבַּיִת / The Temple Mount

By Miri – It is a common mistake to see the root of the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis as grounded in the different belief systems. Obviously with the expansion and strengthening of fundamentalist movements on both sides during the last decades the conflict that is essentially about control over land is more and more […]

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Visit Sebastia!

By Miri –  When we think of the abundance of historical and religious sites in Palestine/Israel, we usually think of the majestic cities of Jerusalem or Bethlehem, while other places, especially the smaller ones in the West Bank (not to mention those in the basically inaccessible Gaza region) are by and large ignored. The lack […]

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Germans in the Holy Land – The Temple Society

By Miri –   Thinking Israel and Germany usually ends up with thinking Holocaust. However, Germany’s connection to historic Palestine precedes the Second World War by quite a few centuries. Like many other Christian leaders in Europe, Germany’s emperors also had an interest in “liberating” the Holy Land from “infidels” and at the same time in […]

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The Nativity Trail 2012

By Miri – If Mary and Joseph were to embark on their journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem in 2012 their experiences would obviously be very differently. Let’s trace their trail and see what they would discover today and which obstacles they would have to overcome in order to reach Bethlehem. The Separation Barrier around Jenin […]

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On Route to Rediscover the Great Women of the Holy Scriptures

By Miri – A lot of people would agree that the three Abrahamic religions, Islam, Christianity and Judaism, if not read in a new and progressive way, are very patriarchal in character, and women are usually minor characters in the stories of men.The Old Testament, the very basis of all three religions for instance features […]

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The Exodus of Palestinian Christians from the Holy Land

By Miri – Palestine/Israel is unquestionably the birthplace of Christianity. Documentation of pilgrimages to the Holy Land dates back to as early as the 4th century and still today Christians make up the majority of visitors to Israel. Since tourism constitutes one of the major sources of income of the Israeli state, the government is […]

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Celebrating Life – The Taybeh Oktoberfest

By Miri –  Every year at the end of September, millions of people visit Munich, the capital of Bavaria in Germany, to attend the famous Oktoberfest. The world’s largest fair was first held in October 1810 to celebrate Germany? Nope. Oktoberfest in Blumenau, Brasil. the wedding of Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese and was […]

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Cousins – the Muslim-Jewish Connection

By Miri – These days it is way more fashionable to emphasise the distinctions and the conflicts between Judaism and Islam, as well as between its respective followers. There are however way more similarities between the two religions and its communities than is acknowledged in these days of “clashes of civilisations”. Since both religions, their […]

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Bethlehem’s Church of Nativity – Beyond Holiness…

The Church of Nativity in Bethlehem is unquestionably one of the top tourist sites in the region, and obviously any holy land pilgrimage, any Bethlehem tour, but also other West Bank tours usually include a visit of the supposed birthplace of Jesus of Nazareth.The relevance of the site to pilgrims is obvious, but also architecturally, historically, […]

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