Palestinian Territory Travel Blogs

Masada
Nov 16, 1975 (20 photos)

To the east and west of the Dead Sea are several mountains and rock formations. The most prominent of all is a Roman fortress built by Herod - Masada! In 67 AD, the Jews rebelled against the Romans. It was their last stand, as it was quickly and ...

The Dead Sea
Oct 16, 1975 (13 photos)

Now, down to the lowest point on earth - 1,290 feet below sea level. The Dead Sea is 7 times more salty than average seawater. Too harsh for any plant or animal life to exist. Because the water is so dense, bodies float. I stretched out flat on the ...

Bethlehem
Aug 16, 1975 (23 photos)

For most of the year I lived near the road to Bethlehem. At three kilometers away, it was so close I could see it every day. On Christmas Eve, I made a trip to Bethlehem. Along with thousands of other pilgrims, of course. It's a very popular place ...

Jericho
Sep 16, 1975 (22 photos)

Back in Seattle, a 100-year-old house is old. On the East Coast, 300 years is old. Jericho is 7,000 years old!!! One of the oldest cities in the world. The foundations of stone gates, towers and homes still exist. What brought it down? Joshua and ...

Soil
Mar 18, 2008 (29 photos)

... visited the Church of the Nativity.  First we passed the Bethlehem Peace Center, covered with pictures of martyred Palestinian militants brandishing machine guns (who the Israeli soldiers just killed a few days ago).  The Byzantine-era church is ...

Whose Land is This?
Mar 20, 2008 (12 photos)

... talk about the situation in Hebron. With the help of the Christian Peacemaker Teams, we agreed to assist with a group of Palestinian journalists.  Our first mission was to photograph the site of the perpertrator of the 1994 Cave of the Patriarch ...

The Tabri Sisters
May 11, 2007 (1 photos)

  The Tabri Sisters Last night I met with Salwa and Fadwa Tabri, two sisters who have retired from the Ramallah Friends Boys School (FBS).  Salwa is a pianist who played accompaniment for student products, chapel and chorus.  ...

An Izmekneh Engagement Party
Apr 21, 2007 (8 photos)

An Izmekneh Engagement Party   It was Thursday night and I was off with the Izmekneh family to a Muslim engagement party for their cousin.  I was supposed to go to an engagement party for Hussain's brother last Friday but I was ill and didn't ...

Border crossing
May 29, 2009 (7 photos)

... us we could not leave Egypt to enter Gaza, had the secret police follow us and threaten the family members of our Palestinian friends from another delegation, when they delayed and delayed and delayed our entry even after they were told multiple times by ...

Dressing Up in Palestinian Clothes
Mar 27, 2007 (4 photos)

... , by myself and then with Asma's father. Next I dressed in the traditional red and black embroidery with the traditional Palestinian black and white checked scarf.  I felt right at home in this dress. There were many children there enjoying ...

springtime flowers
Mar 10, 2007 (6 photos)

I left snow on the ground, gray skies and cold weather.  But they are all banished here. The skies are mostly sunny, the windows are open for short times during the day and flowers are blooming.  Check out some of the flowers from the ...

Goodbye, Gaza
May 31, 2009

... intifidas, and most recently, John Ging, the head of the UN Relief Works Agency, a humanitarian organization founded to support the Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war. We also heard from a professor from the Islamic University of Gaza, and had a ...

Carter Book Forum
Mar 7, 2007 (1 photos)

... . "It identifies steps to take related to international law" to gain peace. The second speaker, Jonathan Kuttab, is a Palestinian attorney. He stated that apartheid in South Africa does not describe the separation policy of Israel based on Zionism. The ...

Music Day at Friends Girls School
May 13, 2007 (8 photos)

... soon had the place packed, with crowds standing in the back and the aisles filled with people sitting there.   There was a Palestinian ballad about losing the land to the Israeli's sung by a 4th grader (I think-the program was in Arabic so I ...

The book is started!
Apr 23, 2007

I went to the Ramallah Friends Meeting Sunday morning.  As I sat in the peaceful silence, I felt a sense of all the Palestinian Quakers who used to go to the meeting (it's down to a handful now) and all the Friends School children who attended.  ...

Turkish Baths
Mar 25, 2007

... out I was from the US they were very interested in me.  Next thing I know, the other group is singing and dancing, Palestinian style, to welcome me. Then they started trying to give everyone a turn - including me having my first lesson in a form of ...

I Met Peter Yarrow
Mar 26, 2007 (3 photos)

I received the phone call about 11 am from the Director of the Ramallah Friends Schools, Joyce Ajlouny.  "I have your first interview for your book. Do you remember "Peter, Paul and Mary," she asked.  What a silly question as they are one of my ...

Sabeel
Jun 2, 2006

... up before I got here because at this point I am ready to go home. This afternoon we went to visit a Palestinian Christian organization called Sabeel. This is an organization that is dedicated to ministering the justice and peace of Christ. Being ...

Friday the 13th
Apr 16, 2007

Friday the 13th   As Pogo would say, "Friday the 13th comes on Friday this month."  It brings back wonderful memories of my journalist father who every month on the 13th would say, "Friday the 13th comes on (whatever day of the week it was) ...

Eventually one gets used to everything
Oct 19, 2009 (1 photos)

On the way to the Dead Sea with my friend Yaniv (who i met last month in Sinai and who has become to be at the top of the list of "What I like Best in Israel") played an Israeli song by an unknown-to-me singer Dudu Tessa. It is called " ...

81 Students Graduate in Ramallah
May 28, 2007 (5 photos)

81 Students Graduate in Ramallah    Hope for the future was evident as 81 students graduated from Ramallah Friends Schools in Palestine on May 27, 2007.  The ceremony was in Arabic except for one speech by one of the ...

Independence Day in Israel
Apr 24, 2007 (5 photos)

... coming on Sunday when I'll see them again at Ramallah Friends Meeting!)   Alan had had a hard day because a 15-year-old Palestinian boy in a village just west of Ramallah was killed by the IDF. When I read the news report today, it said he was shot ...

Bethlehem
Oct 4, 2008 (24 photos)

... the church was held hostage in a month long siege. To protect the church, the Christian priests would not leave. The Palestinian soldiers honored the significance of the church and the place was spared by the Israelis. It's amazing what a place can ...

Ramallah Friends Meeting
Apr 30, 2007 (6 photos)

Ramallah Friends Meeting   Yesterday I attended worship at Ramallah Friends Meeting.  The meetinghouse has been restored and an International Peace Center has begun there also.  Kathy Bergen from the United States is directing its ...

Palestinian Territory
Feb 10, 1998

Jericho

Herodion
May 25, 2008 (7 photos)

... it's possible to see Bethlehem, Jerusalem and the Dead Sea on clear days.  Scattered below are flat-roofed Palestinian villages and Jewish settlements with their characteristic red peaked roofs.  Standing in the ruins of the upper palace, ...

E1-settler outpost
Dec 17, 2007 (1 photos)

Aunt Jen said it was high time for my political education to begin. She and a journalist friend of hers took me to a place that has recently been the center of controversy called "E1". E1 is near the settlement of Maale Adumim and the settlers there are ...

Jericho with the Al Jundis!
Dec 23, 2007 (24 photos)

Today was Eid al Adha, a Muslim holiday. Aunt Jen told me we were going to Jericho, with the Al Jundis, my adopted family in Jerusalem. Apparently Aunt Jen always had traditional "Al Jundi" days with Sami and his brothers, Azzam, Mazin and Riyad, their ...

Gaza
Jan 6, 2008 (9 photos)

Aunt Jen and I were asking ourselves: what do you bring to people living under siege? She has a big backpack and we figured we'd fill it up with rice, sugar, coffee, stuff like that. So we were kinda surprised when she called her friends in Gaza to ask ...

Open Day at FBS
May 1, 2007 (5 photos)

... is raising children and youth to become compassionate people.   The day ended with Debka dancing, which is traditional Palestinian folk dancing.  There are several groups of dancers, from the less experienced to the more experienced.  Here ...