I re-discovered Palestine – around the West Bank in 6 days, on a bicycle.
This summer (27 September through 6 October 2012), I and a small group of people signed up for a special tour called Bike Palestine. We all went for our own reasons, and everyone wanted the same thing: to meet the people and see for ourselves this beautiful and bizarre country.
Though this was taken the 2nd or 3rd day in Israel, this photo is from the first day on the OTHER side of “The Wall” (We’d already spent a day or two on the Israeli side, Tel Aviv and Haifa). It was the first time I’d seen The Wall for myself, already 10 years in the making.
It is a shock to my system and I hardly know what to think or feel.
Even so, I am very glad I came because, as the motto of the 400-year-old Royal Society for Improving Natural Knowledge reads, “Nullius in verba” which means “take nobody’s word for it”. In other words, “See it for yourself”.
More information / Related Posts
- Bike Palestine tour is organised twice yearly (April and September) by Siraj Centre, Beit Sahour and artist/filmmaker George Snow
- While in Palestine, I visited a few exhibitions, and this one was particularly compelling:
Wonderland – Israeli and Palestinian Artists – Political Conflict in Art, Chagall Artists House, in Haifa, Israel - An article by Ferrari Sheppard for Huffington Post “I Traveled to Palestine-Israel And Discovered There is no ‘Palestinian-Israeli Conflict’‘” – 10 February 2014
kelise soixante-douze 