Sunday, August 14, 2011

Palestine 2011

On September 6th, I am leaving for Palestine.  I will spend 10 days documenting the Occupation.  All that I witness will be shared here.  I am flying into Tel Aviv and if all goes well, I'll head directly to Bethlehem.  I'll be spending the first four nights at Bethlehem Bible College.  I'm sure this sounds funny to those of you that know me well.  (It is funny)  I met Dr. Bishara Awad & his wife while they were visiting family in the Kansas City area & they invited me to stay in the college's guesthouse.  I accepted.  While in Bethlehem, I will be spending time with my dear friend (and superhero) Kasem and his family.  On the 8th, he is taking me to Hebron. 
After Bethlehem, I will spend three days and two nights in a village called Jifna which is just north of Ramallah.  While there, I have made arrangements to visit Balata which is the largest refugee camp in the West Bank.  It is approximately 2.5 square miles and is currently home to 30,000 Palestinian refugees.  I will also visit Nablus and Ramallah though I do not have definite plans for them, yet.  I will spend Friday, September 9th photographing the weekly demonstrations in Nabi Saleh. 
My last three days will be spent in East Jerusalem.  The morning of September 14th will be spent touring Silwan (believed to be the ancient city of David) with my friend Rotem whom I met in 2008.  The rest of my time in Jerusalem is up in the air right now.  I'd like to focus on the Wall as much as possible, hopefully visiting the villages where the greatest impact is felt.  I will also (of course) be visiting the lovely people at St. George's that took such amazing care of me last time.  I wonder if Father Bob is still there??


Anyway, I'm doing my best to get my schedule in order and have all of my days filled.  As I have updates I will post them here.  Thanks for stopping by.