{"id":7965,"date":"2025-06-13T00:30:46","date_gmt":"2025-06-13T00:30:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/on-the-israel-palestine-conflict-visiting-the-west-bank\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T08:55:28","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T08:55:28","slug":"on-the-israel-palestine-conflict-visiting-the-west-bank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/on-the-israel-palestine-conflict-visiting-the-west-bank\/","title":{"rendered":"On The Israel Palestine Conflict – Visiting The West Bank"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leaving the beautiful ancient city of Jerusalem<\/a>, our next stop on the trip was an area here\u2019s a bit of a contentious issue (to put it lightly) \u2013 The West Bank.<\/p>\n

So here\u2019s the thing, arriving into this area, we knew there was a conflict between Israelis and Palestinians however, the true nuances behind why this was the case and the lack of resolution of this thus far was something we didn\u2019t fully grasp.<\/p>\n

\"On<\/a><\/p>\n

We arrived here absolutely aware of the gaps in our knowledge and determined to fill those gaps. This is in large part why we embraced an opportunity to step away from the more shiny, beautiful hot-spots and visit this area.<\/p>\n

\"On<\/a><\/p>\n

More importantly, than that though \u2013 we would actually get to meet with both Israeli and Palestinians living in the West Bank to get a more unfiltered understanding of it. Every single destination has different facets and getting to understand this bit was an opportunity (even if in just a small way) was something we were really than grateful to have.<\/p>\n

 We started off actually with a visit to the Way of the Patriarchs, an ancient route in the bible that was travelled by Abraham, Isaac and Jacob \u2013 checking out the centuries (perhaps even millennia) old Roman milestone used to mark the route back when the Romans used this as a major road.<\/p>\n

\"On<\/a><\/p>\n

We carried on to a 2,000-year-old Mikv\u00e9 (do you remember this 13th-century Mikv\u00e9 we found in Montpellier, France?)<\/a>. A Mikv\u00e9 is a Jewish bath for cleansing prior to going to temple and there were actually two of them there (I think one\u2019s for men and the other for women).<\/p>\n

\"On<\/a><\/p>\n

Then we got to sit down and speak to the locals living in the area \u2013 an Israeli and a Palestinian from The West Bank.<\/p>\n

Typically, their paths would never really cross (Palestinians and Israelis living here live very separate lives) and for the most part, the relationship between both is so far from cordial but thanks to an organisation called Roots<\/a>, there\u2019s a little spark of change happening.<\/p>\n

Roots<\/a> is essentially all about opening a dialogue between both communities in an effort to help humanise \u2018the other side\u2019 and show that behind all of the conflict are actual every day human beings. It\u2019s about mutual respect and recognition built on the idea that it is possible to have more than one truth.<\/p>\n

The Israelis feel they have a claim to the land \u2013 it\u2019s been their ancestors\u2019 homeland and they have every right to be there. The Palestinians also feel they have a claim to the land \u2013 similarly, it\u2019s been their ancestors\u2019 homeland and they have every right to be there. Roots<\/a> recognises both sides and the fact that it\u2019s possible that one side\u2019s story doesn\u2019t have to negate the other\u2019s it\u2019s indeed possible for both truths to exist.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the thing \u2013 Roots<\/a> isn\u2019t looking at creating a solution to the problem. Sure there’s a myriad of many ways this conflict can be resolved \u2013 a lot of which involve mutual respect for both sides but Roots isn\u2019t trying to implement any solution here. They just want to open a dialogue between both sides.<\/p>\n

See, each side sees the other as \u2018the enemy\u2019 and with no actual real-life encounters to actually get to know \u2018the enemy\u2019, it\u2019s so easy for feelings of hate and anger to foster and become stronger. Tearing down these walls and these barriers mean that people get to understand that at the end of the day, we\u2019re all the same. We care about similar things, we are motivated by predominantly similar things and the more we focus on what binds us together than what tears us apart, the more likely a conversation can begin to help ensure both parties can live in peace and harmony.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a relatively small start (all great changes always start that way) but the fact that we were sat there with both parties having an open, frank and perhaps sometimes uncomfortable discussion about this was such a beacon of light.<\/p>\n

*Ridiculously trivial point worth mentioning from our part but we decided not to take photos as some members of the group weren\u2019t keen on being photographed (not for any major reason, more to enable them to do their work unencumbered by any distractions) so we decided not to photograph any of the parties here.<\/em><\/p>\n

We spend a couple of hours here just asking quite frank questions about the more recent history of the conflict, the sentiments that exist between both groups, how they live their lives, how the area is divided, daily working lives and so much more – way more than I could fit into this post. <\/p>\n

Make no mistake, it\u2019s a hard reality here in the West Bank (in a lot of ways, it\u2019s cut off from the rest of the country \u2013 there\u2019s even security and almost like a wall for the major thoroughfare in separating things so this is a really tricky spot for people to call \u2018home\u2019 but \u2018home\u2019 it is to them and the people involved in Roots are doing their very best to help to, I guess, get neighbours to talk to each other.<\/p>\n

We learnt so much that afternoon, more than we had in years of watching the news about it on the TV, and I was so grateful for the opportunity to get to understand the situation a lot more (like I felt so much more clued up leaving than I even expected) but that wasn\u2019t all.<\/p>\n

Next, we went to Taghyeer<\/a> (which translates to \u201cchange\u201d in English); a Palestinian grassroots national nonviolence movement founded by peace activist Ali Abu Awwad.<\/p>\n

\"On<\/a><\/p>\n

^ That’s Ali on the left.<\/em><\/p>\n

Here we got to find out more about life in Palestine and Ali\u2019s incredible, poignant and rather moving story of how he got started with Taghyeer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ali told us about how his mother had always been an activist as was he and how they got arrested and jailed for this. He said about how wanted to visit his mother in her own and was refused and rather than rampage, he went on a hunger strike which eventually led to the prison backing down and allowing him to visit his mother.<\/p>\n

He mentioned how he learnt so much from many other scholars in prison with him (he even learnt how to speak fluent English while in prison).<\/p>\n

He mentioned how that hunger strike was one of the early signs that there were so many ways to stand for something you believe in and even to protest that didn\u2019t involve violence.<\/p>\n

He told us about how he lost his brother to an Israeli soldier and how incredibly awful it was for him. His first instinct in the past would have perhaps been to look for revenge but he knew it would be an empty path to follow as it would never bring his brother back. He did know however was that things had to change. Someone had to break the cycle of violence and he was ready to do this.<\/p>\n

With that, he set up Taghyeer<\/a> to help drive (and foster) positive change in the community and indeed with relationships between Palestine and Israel.<\/p>\n

Taghyeer is all about mutual respect, having a dialogue and most importantly, showing what you want in a nonviolent way. There\u2019s work that\u2019s being done at the community level with activities based on the needs of the community, women\u2019s empowerment, education and youth leadership programs… to mention but a few.<\/p>\n

They also work on initiatives to open a dialogue with Israel and foster a positive relationship in the hopes of bridging the gap and building peace between both sides.<\/p>\n

The work they do is so inspiring and it\u2019s amazing to see people both in Taghyeer and Roots who chose to not be defined by what\u2019s going on around them but instead choose to re-write the story and hopefully change the course of history for the next generation is just incredible.<\/p>\n

Before we left Taghyeer<\/a> though, Ali invited us to stay for dinner \u2013 which we promptly obliged (didn\u2019t even realise how hungry we were until just then). For dinner, we had Makloubeh, a spiced rice, chicken and vegetable dish which is served upside down.<\/p>\n

\"On<\/a><\/p>\n

It was absolutely delicious and went down a treat with fresh salads, warm bread, hummus and other dips.<\/p>\n

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\"On <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"On <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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And with that, we left the West Bank, and headed back to Jerusalem, grateful for the opportunity to meet all the locals in the West Bank we had today.<\/p>\n

For more information on both organisations, I’ve left their official website details below:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Roots:<\/strong> https:\/\/www.friendsofroots.net\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Taghyeer:<\/strong> https:\/\/www.friendsoftaghyeer.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leaving the beautiful ancient city of Jerusalem, our next stop on the trip was an area here\u2019s a bit of a contentious issue (to put it lightly) \u2013 The West Bank. So here\u2019s the thing, arriving into this area, we knew there was a conflict between Israelis and Palestinians however, the true nuances behind why … Continue Reading<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7966,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,396],"tags":[724,399,736,737],"class_list":["post-7965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel","category-travel-journal","tag-israel","tag-middle-east","tag-palestine","tag-west-bank"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justpaste.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}