Blog

Cultural and political tours to Israel & Palestine

We Teach Life and Love: Dispatches from Aida Refugee Camp

– by Mustafa Alaraj –30/10/2022 Mustafa Alaraj is a resident and community advocate from the Aida Refugee Camp north of Bethlehem in occupied Palestine. He is one of the directors of the Aida Youth Center and a tour guide. The following dispatch is a transcript of an interview conducted with him by Erez Bleicher, discussing conditions […]

Read More
Cultural and political tours to Israel & Palestine

Peace, Love, and the Occupied Palestinian Territories

– by Erez Bleicher – Israeli military authorities are continuing to develop the legal architecture of occupation into an ever more refined system of segregation. The occupation has always been a system predicated on the separation of people from land, olive trees from farmers, sheep from pastures, and families from homes. The Israeli army has […]

Read More
Cultural and political tours to Israel & Palestine

What is going on with Israel’s strategic foreign policy?

A brief analysis of recent Israeli foreign policy: regional summits a year and a half on from the Abraham Accords, plus staying neutral in face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – by Alexander Jones – Israel’s strategic foreign policy goals have always been numerous and complex, if nothing else. As the first quarter of 2022 […]

Read More
ISRAEL SOLDIERS AL AQSA JERUSALEM

Finding Spirituality in the West Bank

The last thing I expected to discover in a land defined by settlements, segregation, intimidation and a lack of forgiveness – by Peter Marks – I traveled to Israel and Palestine for the first time at age 36, but I’ve dreamed of visiting it for decades. While I do not consider myself a particularly religious […]

Read More
CENTRAL BUS STATION TEL AVIV TOUR

Tel Aviv Central Bus Station

– by Alexander Jones – Stop me if this sounds familiar. You’re newly arrived in a foreign land. You’ve just stepped off a bus in Tel Aviv and need to get outside, eat a meal and find your hotel. The only thing between you and a soft pillow is the daunting maze that is the […]

Read More
Cultural and political tours to Israel & Palestine

Settler violence

– by Yahav Zohar – A group of young men walk down a rocky slope. They are wearing white, their sabbath clothes, moving in loose formation towards a shepherd and a grazing herd of sheep, or a farmer tending his olive trees. As they come closer, some of them cover their faces with makeshift masks […]

Read More
JORDAN VALLEY EXPLAIN TOUR MAP

Jordan Valley explained

– by Alexander Jones and Mohammad Barakat – Chances are you have heard recently that Israeli Prime-Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has plans to annex the Jordan Valley. The idea was given a massive boost from both the 2020 Israeli election results and the ‘Peace to Prosperity’ plan revealed by US President Donald Trump. Annexation is now […]

Read More
Cultural and political tours to Israel & Palestine

South Hebron Hills

The tiny villages of the Masafer Yatta region in the South Hebron Hills are only an hour’s drive from Jerusalem or an hour and a half from Tel Aviv, but traveling here one seems to be going back in time. Here, at the edge of the desert, farmers eek out a meager living growing barley […]

Read More
Cultural and political tours to Israel & Palestine

Movie review – Ajami

– by Alexander Jones – To celebrate the launch of our tours in Hebrew to the Ajami neighbourhood in the south of Jaffa, we’re reviewing the immensely popular 2009 film of the same name. The film tells the interconnected tales of a dozen or so Ajami residents who all battle the various social challenges which […]

Read More
Cultural and political tours to Israel & Palestine

Violence Without Context – a War Update

– by Yahav Zohar – May 2021 Israel-Palestine is in the news again, there are bombs and rockets lighting up the sky, turning homes to rubble and dramatically toppling towers. Heads turn in our direction and people want to know what’s going on. “Israel is bombing us” say Gazans. “Hamas shot rockets first” say Israelis. […]

Read More
Cultural and political tours to Israel & Palestine

Movie reviews – ‘The Present’ and ‘White Eye’

Echoing the 2013 Academy Awards, when both an Israeli and a Palestinian film were nominated for the ‘Best Documentary’ Oscar, in 2021 we again have two films from our the-land-of-Green-Olive going head-to-head. This year, Farah Nabulsi’s The Present and Tomer Shushan’s White Eye are among the five films up for an Oscar in the ‘Best […]

Read More
JORDAN ISRAEL PALESTINE MAP TOURS

Jordan Valley explained

The Jordan Valley and today’s political boundaries – by Alexander Jones and Mohammad Barakat – Chances are you have heard recently that Israeli Prime-Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has plans to annex the Jordan Valley. The idea was given a massive boost from both the 2020 Israeli election results and the ‘Peace to Prosperity’ plan revealed by […]

Read More