Hebron: A British volunteer shares her experience of visiting the city of Hebron in the West Bank
In a region with no shortage of tensions, the city of Hebron exceeds anywhere else in the intensity of its conflicts. It is the site of the most ideologically extremist Israeli settlers, dubbed the ‘ultra-Zionists.’ They believe that Biblical Israel in its entirety – including the West Bank and Gaza Strip – have been promised [...]
Qalandia: The thoughts of a British volunteer in the West Bank
Ramallah is about 9 miles north of Jerusalem. The journey to the holy city should be a short one. In the last few years, the construction of the Israeli Separation Wall has meant that the opposite is true. Jerusalem has been physically cut off from Ramallah, and most Palestinians cannot reach their holy city unless [...]
Egypt’s best double-agent
The recent demise of Hosni Mubarak will maybe usher a new era in relations between Egypt and Israel. Thirty-three years after the signing of the Camp David Accords, it can be useful to look back at an aspect of the Yom Kippur War that is often neglected: the Egyptian deception campaign that enabled the Israeli [...]
Israel’s dead: Should Israel Start Composting?
The biblical description of the Land of Israel as one which “eateth up the inhabitants thereof” is very much liked by Israelis today. Generally used as though we Israelis live in a deterministic void, this account from the Book of Numbers has been proven to be a very useful catchall phrase. With it, one can [...]
Shirin Ebadi: The role of women in promoting peace in the Middle East
This is a review of a lecture given by Iranian lawyer, human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi. It took place at the School of Oriental and African Studies on 2 February 2011. When she came into the room, Shirin got a rapturous welcome from the crowd, packed into the stairwells, in the [...]
Gaza: One small step towards the breaking of the siege
Exactly one year after the “Operation Cast Lead” in December 2008, where 1400 Palestinians were massacred by Israeli war crimes, 1400 international peace activists from more than 40 countries gathered with the one common aim to break the siege of Gaza in a non-violent freedom march against the ongoing blockade, which forces the 1.5 million inhabitants of [...]
