Dearest friends, Today is my last day in Jerusalem, in Israel, and outside the US for as long as it takes me to save up money to come back. I’ve had a lot of adventures here, too many to recount online. I noticed that my dispatches began to get longer and longer, so I must [...]
Archive for the 'Israel Trip 2004' Category
Re: Opening Eyes Through Shock and Awe
Shalom, hev’rei, The adventure never ends. Alas, I know it must within two weeks. This past weekend, twelve friends from the University of Haifa came down for a tour of East Jerusalem and Ramallah. We opened many eyes in just two days. They came in after classes on Thursday and housed with my dear friend [...]
Dec 5th, 2004 Israel Trip 2004 0 Comments
Re: Busy Days in East Jerusalem
Shalom haverim, It’s only Thursday and this week has been so busy I missed the deadline for submitting my research project. No big loss, mind you. The research project was going nowhere, whereas I am learning everything I want to learn elsewhere. Problem is, I’m learning more than I wanted to. It began the day [...]
Dec 2nd, 2004 Israel Trip 2004 0 Comments
Re: Arafat’s Funeral – Ben’s Eyewitness Comments
Dearest friends, Guns are violent things. They just sound violent. When a bullet hits the air, the sound punches the ears. After too much, you feel sick. When I was young, I used to be enamoured with guns and tanks, and to be honest they still look cool. There’s just that minor detail that they [...]
Nov 16th, 2004 Israel Trip 2004 0 Comments
Re: Life in Jerusalem – Part 2
Dear friends, I went olive picking for the second time this weekend. It’s a very nice endeavor between Israelis and Palestinians trying to overcome the occupation by bringing Israelis to pick the olive crops that Palestinians can’t harvest due to the security wall. It’s wonderful to do something with my hands, in the sun and [...]
Nov 11th, 2004 Israel Trip 2004 0 Comments
Re: Life in Jerusalem – Part 1
Shalom haverim, hello friends, So I’ve been confronted with the impossibility of explaining life in Jerusalem in one email. I’ve tried starting numerous times and it’s like writing a book. Should one of you wish to fly out here and be my editor, then maybe I could. So I am forced to do this serial-novel [...]
Nov 11th, 2004 Israel Trip 2004 0 Comments
Re: Leaving Haifa for Good
Dear friends, I have some news: I have left Haifa and will now stay the remainder of my trip in Jerusalem , for a number of reasons. The biggest reason is that academics at the University of Haifa leave a little to be desired. Secondly, after paying tuition I would have just enough money left [...]
Oct 26th, 2004 Israel Trip 2004 0 Comments
Re: From Bethlehem
Dear everyone, As I write you, I am in the home of Rishmawi family in Beit Sahour next to Bethlehem . Every Israeli I met told me to be careful in Bethlehem , since it is West Bank territory, home of the infamous Church of the Nativity siege a year ago. I got into an [...]
Oct 12th, 2004 Israel Trip 2004 0 Comments
Re: A Prayer for My Friends
Friends, I received the news that two of the peaceworkers I met in Hebron have been bruttally beaten. At a loss of anything I could do to help, I ask you to offer your prayers for these two heroes. They are members of the Christian Peacemaker Team, who live in areas of world conflict as [...]
Sep 30th, 2004 Israel Trip 2004 0 Comments
Re: Lightening in the Heart
Shalom, haverim, I don’t know what to write you guys about–there too many thoughts for myself, much less to pick some and type out for everyone! I keep a daily journal to keep track of my thoughts, but so many slip away before I can find my pen. Here you’ll find not a concrete description [...]
Sep 26th, 2004 Israel Trip 2004 0 Comments