Three (soon will be four...) Little
Fish........
Welcome to Leon,
Diana,Miriam's and ?????'s Palestine homepage. Yes, soon we will be four! All suggestions for Arabic/Palestinian/Holy Land sounding names can be e-mailed to us at ikankecil@yahoo.com
Since arriving in
Nablus, in the West Bank, in August 1999 we have been
enjoying Palestinian hospitality, culture, climate and food -
and finding out first hand what life is like for Palestinians
in the Occupied Territories.
Nablus
Nablus is 63 km
from Jerusalem and historically most famous for being home to
the (Good!) Samaritans. The largest city in the West Bank under full Palestinian Authority control, it
lies nestled in the valley between two mountains - Mt Gerizem
(881m) and Mt Ebal (940m). Click here for some views of the
city....
Not so far from
Nablus, Sabastia was the ancient capital of Samaria, and
boasts some impressive ruins spanning Hellenic, Roman,
Ottoman and Byzantium occupations. Click here for some photos
of Sabastia.
An Najah
National University
We have come to
Palestine to teach English for Agriculture at An Najah University's Khadoorie campus, Tulkarem.
Our project is part of a government to government capacity
building program funded by Australia's international
assistance organisation AusAID, and being implemented by Sagric
International and Australian Volunteers
International. Tulkarm is on the border between the West Bank and
Israel, and about 20km from the Mediterranean sea.
About Us
"Hurry up Daddy!"
"Miriam is 7 years old!"
"A cuddle is sometimes code for getting closer to the action!"
What we
think about the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians
We're the first
to admit that we are pretty green in terms of background
knowledge about a situation that has been festering for a
long long time. But it seems to us that facts on the ground
speak for themselves. The number of settlements within the
West Bank is disturbing. When travelling around and seeing
settlement after settlement come into view, on a distant
hilltop, or at the end of a winding settlement road, an
almost visceral upwelling of great injustice is hard to
ignore. It is not difficult to see that each settlement has
been placed extremely strategically. From our travels to date,
it is clear that Israeli settlements are still being
established, and that land is still being confiscated. Free
movement of Palestinians is still difficult, if not
impossible.
As Australians,
the situation reminds us a little of what it must have been
like for indigenous Australians 250 years ago when Australia
was first being settled by our ancestors. There is no doubt
that concepts of "Terra Nullus" and
slogans such as "A land without people for a
people without land" both flagrantly ignore the
other side of the story. We wonder why it is that the
Australian and other "Western" media rarely give
any indication of the injustices being meted out to the
Palestinians in the name of peace. It is sobering to
comprehend the ringing truth of Hanan Ashwari's conclusion
that the Palestinian people have indeed become victims of the
peace process.
Contrary to the
expectations of some of our friends and relatives back home,
and a number of Israelis that we have spoken to, we live
quite happily and comfortably in the West Bank, do not feel
concerned about our safety at all, and have been touched by
the warmth and consideration shown to us by the Palestinian
people. We would encourage anyone who is the slightest bit
interested in finding out more about life here to cross the
Green Line and come see for yourself.
(For more
musings on the matter, click here to access an archive of
Diana's "Correspondent's Report" distributed
spasmodically to an exclusive e-mail list....)
Worthwhile
links