My brother Greg and I have just finished a week on an Extend
Tour (http://extendtours.org/) in Israel and Palestine. The Extend programme was co-founded by a friend
of mine who facilitated with Dorm Room Diplomacy a few years ago. The Tours
were initially targeted at young American Jews coming to Israel on Birthright
or similar programmes – tours that tend to focus on a particular narrative of
Israeli politics and society that leaves out many complex voices of the
conflict. Extend adds in some of those voices, taking people to meet with a
variety of Palestinian and Israeli activists along the peace/conflict spectrum.
After a non-Jewish Marshall Scholar went on an Extend Tour
this February, he suggested to Sam that Extend set up a session targeted at
graduate students – and so a group of primarily non-Jews (mostly American,
though including a few Germans) went around this past week trying to wrap our
heads around some small piece of a very complex situation with a million truths
and no one single obviously accurate narrative.
Still very much figuring out what all I learned. Given previous
study, I certainly knew much of the basic facts presented – but one always
hears things put in a slightly different way, or sees something with one’s own
eyes that is challenging. I got to see some friends I have made online but never met before and other people I have followed through activist channels.
All good stuff. All very mentally exhausting stuff. Greg and I are now en route to Jordan for a few days of good old regular sightseeing tourism.
The sights and sounds of the Old City in Jersualem
A Palestinian non-violent activist points out his father's farmland, now overrun by settlements, near Bil'in
Hebron - Football is, indeed, a universal language.
Less optimistically - these two boys were virtually the only family left in an area, after Palestinians were pressured out violently by a variety of settler attacks. The mother and aunt of the family are deaf, and one of the boys is missing an arm.
Less optimistically - these two boys were virtually the only family left in an area, after Palestinians were pressured out violently by a variety of settler attacks. The mother and aunt of the family are deaf, and one of the boys is missing an arm.
Ramallah - the group meets with Sam Bahour, an American Palestinian entrepreneur and activist
You can buy pretty much anything you like in the marketplaces...
Extend participants gather in the beautiful gardens of the Austrian Hospice in Jerusalem
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