Home

Blogging Archive

An archive of all the Blogs on the Website

  • Smashed to pieces and literally bled dry
    Sunday, April 13, 2008 - 20:23

    Running up to our time to head in to Palestine, I had a quick sniff round the mainstream Israeli media. Typing ‘Israeli news’ into Google rewards me with a paper called Haaretz, which has got a range of opinions ranging from stuff which criticizes the occupation to stuff that is so right wing that it reads like Noel Edmonds has taken over the country using an army of Teletubbies.

  • Jordan Valley 2008
    Saturday, April 12, 2008 - 10:23

    11th April: Fairly tired after four days of listening to tales of life under a belligerent military occupation so this isn’t going to be my best writing but i promised we’d start our blogs today, so…

  • Resourcefulness and tenacity
    Friday, April 11, 2008 - 23:51

    Our first night was spent in Al Jiftlik, a village with the surreal scenario of being half area B and half area C, meaning half gets electricity and building rights while the other half lives in the 9th Century. (We ate in area B and slept in area C, at least Palestinians still have permission for this.)

  • “The breadbasket of Palestine”
    Friday, April 11, 2008 - 22:40

    Day One It takes a while to fully process what is going on. The past few weeks have been a blur of preparation, meetings, Arabic lessons, lies to parents (sorry mum, I’m afraid this isn’t Turkey), 30+ hour coach journeys, Lonely Planet guides, and border crossings. As such, it is only when we are actually in the taxi with Fathe that it finally hits me that we’re in the Jordan Valley, West Bank, Palestine. Fathe is a rich vein of information, and is truly passionate about the situation the Palestinians of this region have been forced into.

  • Lear
    Friday, April 11, 2008 - 21:18

    Nawaal, the headteacher, leads me out of the glaring sunlight and into the classroom. My eyes adjusting to the relative gloom, I find myself faced with a dozen boys barely younger than me, comfortable, curious, and amused. Minutes before, I and the Brighton Tubas delegation were being shown around the new school of Al Jiflik, a large village spread across one of the many beautiful valleys of the West Bank. It was our first day in occupied Palestine. Before thinking, I pressed my services on Nawaal, suggesting that my native tongue could be of great value in her English lesson.

  • Israeli Occupation Forces raid MA’AN Development Centre
    Sunday, April 6, 2008 - 17:58

    Israeli Occupation Forces raided the Ramallah Chamber of Commerce Building in the early hours of morning today causing major damage to various offices. This attack was part of a larger assault on the city of Ramallah, targeting many public, private, and NGO institutions including the Municipality of El-Bireh.At the Chamber of Commerce Building, an Israeli military unit attacked among others the office of MA’AN Development Center, an independent non-partisan Palestinian development and training institution established in 1989.

  • Amnesty International - Palestinian homes demolished without warning
    Tuesday, March 18, 2008 - 09:03

    Amnesty International: 11 March 2008. The Israeli army demolished more homes in Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday morning. The homes of Palestinian families in the villages of Hadidiya, Jiftlik and Furush Beit Dajan, in the Jordan Valley area of the occupied West Bank, were demolished. Amnesty International’s researcher on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories witnessed the demolitions. Donatella Rovera described the scene: “In all the places, most of the people are children.

  • The Day the Circus Came
    Thursday, February 28, 2008 - 11:32

    Amongst the dust and the chickens, beside the rumble of demolished homes, the circus came to Bedouin village of Al Hadidya in the Jordan Valley. The village of Al Hadidya has had many unwelcome visitations; the Israeli Army has come many times with soldiers and bulldozers, intent on removing the people from their land. So, despite being arranged in advance, the people of al Hadidya were a little wary when a van full of foreigners arrived.

  • Interviews with the people of Al Hadidya
    Monday, February 11, 2008 - 15:17

    The Bedouin village of Al Hadidya was attacked by Israeli forces on the morning of the 6th of February. Over 40 soldiers came in jeeps and two Volvo bulldozers, and destroyed the houses and properties of six families. The village has been attacked many times in the past.

  • Al Jiftlik - a Jordan Valley success story
    Monday, February 11, 2008 - 15:11

    Visiting Al Jiftlik, I met the people who had been involved in the campaign to build the tent school there. They were denied permission to build a school, so they built one out of tents. After a long and ardous struggle they won the right to have a school, and built a new school out of breezeblocks. jiflic new school