after skipping a nights sleep, i have arrived in israel without being controlled or checked by the customs.
I had spent at least 10 minutes a day the past month which alternative story i had to tell against the israeli authorities. But nobody asked me anything.
After i arrived we went to haifa, and while speaking to my host i learned his perspective on the conflict. The perspective of a child of holocaust survivors. I could see that israel is a modern and functioning country, clean and well organised.
Fruits of the work of three different jews, the sefardic (from northern africa/spain), ashkenazi (from central europe) and the mizrachi (original to the arab peninsula). They made a modern democratic state in this desert. In which 2 million palestinians also live freely.
They are the winners of many wars against their neighbours and are still besieging them, just like america still holds armybases in germany and japan. Actually the state of palestine can maybe be compared better with eastern germany, which the russians held 40 years before returning it to germany.
Here there is a 3 level system, level one occupied territory is ruled by palestinians themselves (west bank and gaza are predominantly like this) level 2 is a mixed form and level 3 is palestinian territory fully controlled by israel.
While talking to israeli's in their safe and luxurious houses about the palestinians one hears disapointment. Because apparently recently the conflict has sharpened.
So part of the conflict is cultural, and about being able to live the way you want, part is politics of nationalism and pride related with earth and history and part is the dominance of america in the world and the middle east.
The accepted paradigm here is that gaza is taken hostage by hamas and they should stop fighting and building tunnels. They should rather invest in building their society, just like te israeli's do. This is a cultural aspect and a political aspect.
So why isn't palestine a country then? Why doesn't it have its own airport or authority that can manage that? Why do i have to fear for my safety if i bring goods to palestine? This can maybe be put in the corner of america's world empire.
The only islamic country that did allow a separation of church and state was turkey. So it will be really interesting to be in palestine the next weeks and learn about the palestinian efforts to create their state.
In israel the religious minority that is very dominant are seen as an uncontrollable weed by some. And they undermine the democracy and business efforts in many ways. But i guess they also guard a part of jewish identity that is important.
Fact is that the building of a functional democratic state seems so important one more time. Even in europe we are having a crisis of tolerance with the drownings in the medditarenean being the sum of that. So maybe we can learn a frw things from each other?
The hard border that is felt here, and also on the outskirts of europe might br a temporary solution. But at some point i think knowlegde on how to build a succesful country should be shared. So that intolerant forces of nationalism and religion can be held accountable.
Looking forward o my research in palestine
I had spent at least 10 minutes a day the past month which alternative story i had to tell against the israeli authorities. But nobody asked me anything.
After i arrived we went to haifa, and while speaking to my host i learned his perspective on the conflict. The perspective of a child of holocaust survivors. I could see that israel is a modern and functioning country, clean and well organised.
Fruits of the work of three different jews, the sefardic (from northern africa/spain), ashkenazi (from central europe) and the mizrachi (original to the arab peninsula). They made a modern democratic state in this desert. In which 2 million palestinians also live freely.
They are the winners of many wars against their neighbours and are still besieging them, just like america still holds armybases in germany and japan. Actually the state of palestine can maybe be compared better with eastern germany, which the russians held 40 years before returning it to germany.
Here there is a 3 level system, level one occupied territory is ruled by palestinians themselves (west bank and gaza are predominantly like this) level 2 is a mixed form and level 3 is palestinian territory fully controlled by israel.
While talking to israeli's in their safe and luxurious houses about the palestinians one hears disapointment. Because apparently recently the conflict has sharpened.
So part of the conflict is cultural, and about being able to live the way you want, part is politics of nationalism and pride related with earth and history and part is the dominance of america in the world and the middle east.
The accepted paradigm here is that gaza is taken hostage by hamas and they should stop fighting and building tunnels. They should rather invest in building their society, just like te israeli's do. This is a cultural aspect and a political aspect.
So why isn't palestine a country then? Why doesn't it have its own airport or authority that can manage that? Why do i have to fear for my safety if i bring goods to palestine? This can maybe be put in the corner of america's world empire.
The only islamic country that did allow a separation of church and state was turkey. So it will be really interesting to be in palestine the next weeks and learn about the palestinian efforts to create their state.
In israel the religious minority that is very dominant are seen as an uncontrollable weed by some. And they undermine the democracy and business efforts in many ways. But i guess they also guard a part of jewish identity that is important.
Fact is that the building of a functional democratic state seems so important one more time. Even in europe we are having a crisis of tolerance with the drownings in the medditarenean being the sum of that. So maybe we can learn a frw things from each other?
The hard border that is felt here, and also on the outskirts of europe might br a temporary solution. But at some point i think knowlegde on how to build a succesful country should be shared. So that intolerant forces of nationalism and religion can be held accountable.
Looking forward o my research in palestine
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