Hebron James

Despite having some sort of kooky stomach-flu like thing, I went (stuffed to the gills with Immodium) to Hebron on Friday. What a messed up place. 600 settlers, 450 soldiers and 35,000 Palestinians who are not allowed to walk or drive down the main market street. We were given a guided tour by an Israeli leftist organization called Sons of Abraham who are affiliated with Breaking the Silence, a group of former soldiers who served in Hebron who have come out with their stories of what actually goes on out there. As a surprise added bonus we met and talked with Baruch Marzel (google him) who is one of the most bonkers settlers in the whole bunch. All in all a very interesting day out.

Nablus

Finally got myself together and did a little touristing this weekend. Went up to Nablus, a town about an hour north of Ramallah famous for its olive oil soap, sweets and Israeli incursions. My Arabic teacher lives there, so we had a really nice lunch together. I walked around the old city and checked out the Turkish bath which dates back to 1480. Beautiful. I also met the olive oil soap king of Nablus who was lamenting the decline of his sales. Not resting on his laurels, he is currently working on a liquid version of his soap (no, don't just grab the bottle from beside the stove) and also reshaping his soap blocks into more user-friendly bars.
One of the hardest things about going to Nablus is the Huwara checkpoint, about 10 minutes outside of town. This checkpoint controls all movement in and out of Nablus to the south and is well known as being a nasty one. I saw the first example of wanton cruelty by the Israelis (besides the normal cruelty of making people wait for no reason) and was really saddened by how inhuman the checkpoints make the guards and the people waiting. The occupation is really taking its toll. On both sides. More pics on Flickr.

Cottaging

Spent 10 days in Canada visiting with my Mom. The first 8 were at a cottage that she and Al (my step-father) had rented on lovely Georgian Bay. Just fantastic. Even had the added benefit of Rachel's company for the first weekend.
Pictures on Flickr tell the fuller story. Suffice to say that much canoeing was done and it was just great to spend some quality time with my Ma.

I'm fine

Dear All,
I'm fine. Things on this side of the conflict are pretty calm these days and Ramallah is far far away from any real problems.
So please don't worry about me, but feel free to drop me a note to say hi...
Mike

Jordan Rocks!

Good news - a ton of new pictures on Flickr.

Bad news - I am wayyy too lazy to tell you all about everything that we did and also managed somehow to upload a bunch of the pictures without describing what they are of, so you'll just have to figure it all out for yourselves.

Sabr

Means patience in Arabic. Also means cactus. Interestingly, the Israelis who are born in Israel are called Sabras.

All this to say apologies for not having updated for a while. Rachel is in town and I am on vacation. Still posting pictures on Flickr, so please go and check them out...

Paris

Woe, woe is me. I have to leave Israel every three months in order to renew my visa. Tough life that I lead, I decided to head over to Paris this time. Coincidentally, my Dad and Stepmother, Brother and a bunch of my friends were all in town at the same time. We had a wonderful 5 days of walking, eating, eating, walking, eating and walking. Yum. Not sure how I came out on the caloric intake balance, but I certainly sampled some of the best sights and tastes of that lovely city. A whole bunch of pictures over on Flickr (link to the right).