Modern Magi journey for peace
I met Robin and Nancy Wainwright in Jerusalem in 1993. They were newly married and full of excitement about a project they thought would bring attention to the Arab peoples of the Middle East. Long before anyone had thought of millennium celebrations, the Wainwrights were looking ahead and thinking of ways to use the end […]
Fasting frustrations
Every year during the month of fasting our office tries hard to get together for an iftar dinner. The entire staff – both Moslems and Christians – enjoy a hefty meal as the sun sets. Many who don’t normally fast try and abstain from eating or drinking this day in solidarity with the devout Moslems […]
Negotiations, settlements, and resistance
One of the recent disputes between Israel and the Palestinians sounds like the discussion about what came first – the chicken or the egg. The Israelis insist that before negotiations can commence and before the international fact finding commission can begin its work, Palestinians must cease their resistance. The Palestinians insist that the resistance is […]
The burden of sirens in the PA
My friend Khaled Batrawi is a civil engineer working in Ramallah. I went to see Khaled on Tuesday night and found him frustrated with the weak internal response to the current situation. Among other things, Khaled is angry because he feels local officials of the Palestinian Authority are not doing enough to prepare Palestinians for […]
Settlements must go
My brother in-law Labib runs the Palestinian Bible Society. With its main office in east Jerusalem, the Society works in Bethlehem, Ramallah and Nablus, and has an office and a bookstore in the center of Gaza City. Due to the current situation, the manager of the bookstore has been back home in the West Bank […]
My Ramallah diary
It is 8:50 a.m. on Tuesday, November 14, and the phone is ringing off the hook. My cell phone reads 6 missed calls. I must have overslept. I was up late the night before working on the script for a documentary about how Palestinian children and adults are trying to cope emotionally with the violence […]
The need for international observers
Hearing on the news this week the Palestinian Authority is demanding an international protection force for the Palestinian territories reminded me of a day in 1988 when I wished there was such a force. I was returning home from a day covering the intifada in Gaza. Soldiers on patrol near the Kalandiya refugee camp, located […]
The electronic intifada
It is almost 9 p.m. on Tuesday, October 31, and TV host Hamdi Farraj is interviewing Yacoub Qesieh, one of the Palestinian residents from the town of Beit Jala whose house had been shelled the previous day by Israeli tanks. Qesieh explained that they had had absolutely no warning about the shelling, but had been […]
Inside Beit Jala
Beit Jala is a special town for me. I went to the Hope School at the top of the hill there, and a number of my relatives and in-laws still live in this predominantly Christian town, west of Bethlehem. Many of the original citizens of Beit Jala have emigrated to Chile and other Latin American […]
Might Vs. Right
RAMALLAH, West Bank –– When I passed by the bombed out police station in the center of the Palestinian town of Ramallah, I felt sad. What has happened to the peace process, that Israel has to use U.S.-made Apache helicopters to shell one of the few signs of peace with the Palestinians? The Palestinian Authority’s […]