Subscribe:
RSS feed
Browsing All posts tagged under »politics«
Around the World in Street Art: My 7 Super Shots
April 24, 2012
Last week the Kit from the lovely Seek New Travel blog tagged me to participate in HostelBookers 7 Super Shots. So here are mine. I’ve chosen a bit of a street-art/graffiti theme and stuck to the suggested titles in only the very loosest of ways. 1. A photo that…takes my breath away This shot was […]
Alternative Athens: Air BnB and Exploring Exarchia
April 18, 2012
At first glance, Athens’ off-centre neighbourhoods do not look particularly enticing. Beyond the hubs around Monastiraki and Syntagma squares, neo-classical architecture quickly gives way to a mishmash of concrete buildings, narrow laneways and uneven pavements. Add in persistent strikes, protests and the occasional burning building and it’s perhaps understandable that tourists tend to hole themselves […]
The Ahava Protests: A Victory for BDS?
April 23, 2011
On the sunny April afternoon I’m invited to check out the fortnightly protest against Ahava’s Covent Garden store, it’s clear that this week – perhaps more than most weeks – emotions are running high. It is just one day after the body of peace activist Vittorio Arrigoni was found by Hamas forces in an abandoned […]
Separation, Settlements and Guerilla Graffiti: The West Bank in Pictures
April 8, 2011
With construction beginning in 2003, the Israeli authorities erected the 8m concrete wall with incredible speed. It’s aim, they say, is to help stop Palestinian suicide bombings on Israeli soil. Since then, the number of attacks has declined by more than 90%. However, the wall makes life for many Palestinians even more difficult. For a […]
Four Ways Israel and Palestine Defies Expectation
February 26, 2011
Having escaped the bustling streets in favour of nursing a strong macchiato in the wonderful Educational Bookshop in East Jerusalem, I got talking to a girl on the next table who, it turned out, worked for the Palestinian News Network. Mentioning this blog, we got talking about the challenges of writing about the conflict here in […]
Cautious optimism? What Egyptians are saying about the revolution
February 16, 2011
I have spent the past 5 days in a quiet, peaceful corner of Egypt, where the only real signs that a revolution has occurred is the fact that is very little money left in any of the cash machines. It seems the country pretty much ground to a halt over the past three weeks, and […]
The Reut Report: Why criticising Israeli policy just got tougher
April 16, 2010
Those of you following the Israel-Palestine situation closely will have noticed the development of a new conflict in recent months – that between the Israeli thinkers (in the form of the Reut Institute think tank) and the prominent author and Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) activist, Naomi Klein. The debate centres on the fundamental issue […]
Top 5 Videos on Israel-Palestine
August 4, 2009
This documentary and video material has been selected to help you get to grips with this particular conflict. Some of the videos I’ve been directed to by my wonderful I-P course tutor, and some of them I’ve found myself. Where possible, I’ve embedded the videos into this article. 1. For getting a good overview: The Promised Land? (Al Jazeera […]
Try Talking About Israel-Palestine
July 28, 2009
Given that this conflict is at the centre, or at least near the inner edge of most foreign policy decisions across the world, no one knows anything about it! It's like Fightclub. The first rule of Fightclub is...you don't talk about Fightclub. And why don't you talk about Fightclub? Because, if you do, you get in trouble. It'll be bad. Presumably even worse than actually going to Fightclub. Where are all the films about Israel and Palestine? Not the cool hip indie films; the big films, the blockbusters, the Blood Diamond of the Middle East? Or if not films, maybe books? Not high-brow academic histories or intellectual policy hardbacks; I'm talking the Kite Runner of Ramallah; the Book Seller of Tel Aviv? You can hear the producers and publishers squirming in their seats as they say, quietly, 'don't go there.'
About Border Skipping
The Border Skipping blog aims to help you (and me) explore the places where the action is happening.
The Path to Peace in the Middle East? A Documentary Review
May 13, 2012
4
In a packed cinema in Tel Aviv, the screen is filled with the image of Adriaan Vlok, South Africa’s former Minister for Law and Order, washing the feet of a grief stricken mother whose son’s death he ordered (one of the “Mamelodi 10“), during the Apartheid years, while saying “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry for […]