The power of the place, in Palestine and beyond.

A look at the power conveyed by places of religious significance     You can’t go far in Palestine and the region around it without tripping over a site of great religious and historical significance, particularly for those of us brought up in the Judeo-Christian traditions. So many place names take me back to early school days, when at morning assemblies and the occasional obligatory church service, us numerous unbelievers were subjected to Biblical extracts and the moral lessons they were…

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The unhidden in Hebron

The tensions of life in the Palestinian city of Hebron     If there is one place in Palestine where the stark realities of the occupation and the seemingly irreconcilable differences between the two sides cannot be hidden, it is in the ancient city of Hebron. Here, unlike elsewhere in Palestine, a Jewish community lives within the city itself. Even before you are confronted with the hard evidence of Hebron’s troubles you can pick up on the slightly downbeat feel in…

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Palestine, what you don’t see

A neat, little village sits atop the gentle, olive shrouded slopes of a rounded hill, the terracotta tiles of the homes’ roofs gleam in the warm, Mediterranean sun. This pleasant, pastoral view could be almost anywhere in southern Europe, where the middle classes from further north come to invest in holiday homes and fatten their bellies on local cuisine. On a neighbouring hill sits another village, a bit older, less ordered, less terracotta, more concrete, but never the less very…

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