10 latest experiences http://www.hereorthere.com/members/asa en-us The resistance to the Wall I saw in Jayyous was very encouraging and brave, but what I witnessed in Biddu was nothing less than inspiring. On the 7th of January an olive tree planting action was planned. Several ISM activists came to join in the event which was organised by Palestinians from the area and was also attended by other internationals and Israelis, including a group called Rabbis for Human Rights. Popular committees are very actively resisting the Wall in this area, and have had some successes. Mohammed Mansour (a local Palestinian activist whose court hearing I covered in my first report) told me that the reason for this was that they, the Israelis and the internationals had acted together “as one”. He reminded me that “we don’t hate the Israeli people, only the Israeli government”. Biddū, Palestinian Territory asa Fri, 27 Jul 2007 21:15:18 +0100 http://www.hereorthere.com/members/asa/experience/574 http://www.hereorthere.com/experiences/574 Balata is the largest refugee camp in the West Bank with a population of almost 22,000 (). The camp was founded by the UN for Palestinian inhabitants of Jaffa (now considered a suburb of Tel Aviv) driven out by Israeli forces in 1948. Nablus has several such camps in its immediate vicinity, but Balata is regarded as one of the strongest centres of resistance during both intifadas (uprising against Israeli occupation). I stayed in Balata camp during the ISM's (www.palsolidarity.org) 2005 Olive Harvest campaign. The ISM rented an apartment there at the time. The campaign involved going out into the fields and helping Palestinian farmers to pick their olives. This was more than just voluntary labour, since the farmers are often victims of attacks coming from Israeli settlers in the area. Nablus is surrounded by several settlements, mostly of Jewish fundamentalist nature. The presence of international volunteers often means that these attacks are less likely to happen. It also means tha... Balāţah, Palestinian Territory asa Fri, 27 Jul 2007 16:33:44 +0100 http://www.hereorthere.com/members/asa/experience/570 http://www.hereorthere.com/experiences/570 On Saturday the 22nd of October, an ISM (www.palsolidarity.org) affinity group I was in went into the fields near Salim village to join locals in the olive harvest. A family had contacted us to help them to pick olives in a plot of 100 dunums of land that they had been unable to harvest for the past five years. A small settler outpost had been built very close to their land, which was already close to the larger Elon More settlement. As we drew near to the relevant plot we met the Palestinian family - they were being denied entrance by the Israeli military. At first the soldiers told us to leave or we would be arrested by the Border Police who were about to turn up, and that the family would not be allowed to pick today because they had supposedly not organised it with the DCO (district co-ordination office - the joint Israel-Palestinian Authority civil administration). Their story changed, however, because they also told some of us that it was a closed military zone - of course they... Nābulus, Palestinian Territory asa Thu, 26 Jul 2007 21:46:24 +0100 http://www.hereorthere.com/members/asa/experience/562 http://www.hereorthere.com/experiences/562 The general situation in Hebron really is something else, even within the context of the West Bank. The military occupation there is severe. Palestinians are afraid to walk their streets at night because of the Jewish fundamentalist settlers who dominate the area, but I have also heard many horror stories about violence by the Israeli soldiers and Border Police. They were certainly an imposing presence in the Old City -- their stated mission being to protect the settlers, who are not stopped at checkpoints, are allowed to roam freely and are often armed with M16s, submachine guns and the like. Hebron, Palestinian Territory asa Wed, 25 Jul 2007 21:09:52 +0100 http://www.hereorthere.com/members/asa/experience/545 http://www.hereorthere.com/experiences/545 One of the on-shore excursions during our Red Sea cruise was to Petra, the famous stone city in Jordan. It really is a sight to be seen. If you have ever seen "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade", you'll remember the huge "temple" carved into stone in which the climax of the film takes place. In fact that building, al-Khazneh (the Treasury), is just one of many buildings in this astonishing ancient city. The sheer scale of the place, both in terms of natural beauty and man-made ingenuity is amazing. It leads one to run out of superlatives. It is thought that the city was devised by the ancient Nabataean civilization. The site was discovered by Europeans in the early 19th century. Our guide told us that Bedouin tribes still lived in the caves there up until quite recently, when the Jordanian government "persuaded" them to move out. A lot of them now work selling souvenirs, selling camel rides and so-forth there. It recently made the so-called "New Seven Wonders of the World." The... Wādī Mūsá, Jordan asa Sat, 14 Jul 2007 18:11:00 +0100 http://www.hereorthere.com/members/asa/experience/468 http://www.hereorthere.com/experiences/468 I went with my family on a package cruise around the Red Sea back in December 2005/January 2006. We mostly visited places in Egypt, but also went to parts of Jordan too. It was a trip we had been waiting to take for ages and it certainly did not disappoint. A package holiday is not the type of trip I normally take, but after the extended stay in Palestine that I had just come back from at the time, just chilling on the boat and not having to plan anything was a refreshing change. I'd definitely recommend it, but I would not want to stay for longer than the week I did (I would have got bored). Although we spend a lot of time relaxing on the boat, we managed to go on several of the excursions ashore too. We visited a lot of tourist attractions in Egypt, a lot of the places you would typically associate with the country. We went to the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities in Cairo, which is absolutely amazing and contains some truly astonishing stuff, but unfortunately you are not allowed to... Cairo, Egypt asa Sat, 14 Jul 2007 00:04:12 +0100 http://www.hereorthere.com/members/asa/experience/467 http://www.hereorthere.com/experiences/467 After Budpest, we moved onto Italy since neither of us had been there and be both wanted to see it. It was one of the original places on our plan. We wanted to visit Rome and then take a ferry from Bari over to Greece, since we learned that the ferry was included in our InterRail tickets. Originally, we intended to visit Venice. In the end, settled on Trieste instead. This was for various reasons, not least of which was that the train went through Trieste on the way to Venice anyway. But mainly it was go that we would have more time in Rome and still not miss the ferry to Greece. In the end, Trieste was brilliant. Venice has a reputation of a bit of tourist trap. Trieste in contrast was nice and relaxed, clean and good fun. A very beautiful port city, we had a nice night there. When we made a rough plan of our trip around Europe before we left, we figured out that the ferry from Italy to Greece was actually included in the price of the InterRail ticket. Which was nice. So we plann... Trieste, Italy asa Thu, 12 Jul 2007 18:36:00 +0100 http://www.hereorthere.com/members/asa/experience/463 http://www.hereorthere.com/experiences/463 We came to Rome for a couple of days after Trieste. The Italian train was much more fast and modern, must less private and hence much more expensive (we had to pay a supplement) than the cheap and cheerful eastern European ones. Rome is of course a city of many faces. It is a large modern city, which reminds me of London in some ways, not least of which because it’s quite dirty. Much older than London, turning any given corner of the city is likely to lead to some huge, astonishing ancient monument or building that looks like something out of ancient myth — and it’s not just the famous ones, they seem like they are everywhere! The Vatican Museum is somewhat like the British Museum, except much huger (well, it seemed bigger anyway). It’s fantastic and seems to never end. It’s got about a million and one statues and paintings, including “Laocoön and his Sons” the ancient Greek statue pictured above. Rome is also, inevitably, a very Catholic city. There are religious... Rome, Italy asa Thu, 12 Jul 2007 18:13:22 +0100 http://www.hereorthere.com/members/asa/experience/462 http://www.hereorthere.com/experiences/462 As part of our trip around Europe on the trains, and on our way to Istanbul, my brother and myself ended up in Rome. A fantastic city, it just demands to be visited. Of course, we saw a lot of the cultural things (and there are lot) but I'll cover those in another experience, because there was another aspect of Rome we found quite interesting. Even before we set off from the UK, we decided to make one of our goals to find and photograph as much political graffiti and general street art as we could find. Rome was the place where we found the most. It seemed to us that the authorities there must have a more relaxed attitude to it than in London, because it was everywhere -- either that or Roman graffiti writers are just more prolific! Not long before we were in Rome, George W. Bush had been visiting the city, which had understandably brought at lot of people onto the streets to protest against his visit and the war in Iraq. So there was a lot of anti-Bush slogans sprayed up on the wa... Rome, Italy asa Thu, 12 Jul 2007 17:50:28 +0100 http://www.hereorthere.com/members/asa/experience/461 http://www.hereorthere.com/experiences/461 My brother Jonathan and I went on a trip around eastern Europe in 2004. We took a cheap flight to Prague and from there used InterRail tickets to travel to Istanbul via Rome and Athens. It was not a conventional route at all. The upside of which was that we saw a lot of unusual stuff and covered a lot of ground. The downside was that we lost a lot of time to travel on the train. At a few points -- mainly from Thessaloniki to Istanbul -- the train was actually slower than the coach. Still, we did manage to take some sleeper trains, cutting down on both lost time and the need for hostels. Istanbul was probably the best and most fun part of the trip. We spent about 3 days there and saw a decent amount of the sites. Best of all, we made some friends on the train and we mostly stuck together throughout. That was fun. Istanbul, Turkey asa Tue, 03 Jul 2007 20:39:24 +0100 http://www.hereorthere.com/members/asa/experience/395 http://www.hereorthere.com/experiences/395