The War on Terror, eight years in.

“So senior year, huh? Where do you think you’ll end up when you’re done?”
This was the first sign of interest that my landlord had displayed in my personal life since I moved into one of his dingy apartments a few months ago. I decided to engage in his invitation to bring our relationship past the [...]

Defining the lines.

Sorry for the lack of updates recently. The past few entries that I’ve written haven’t been appropriate for publishing on the Internet, considering that I’m never sure exactly who reads this blog. Suffice to say that over the past two weeks I’ve had several encounters with attitudes that border on anti-Semitic – the lines between [...]

When things get tense, head to Café de la Paix.

A friend and I decided to make our way to Jerusalem for a nice Friday of sightseeing and indulging in sushi and other consumerist comforts.
After getting ourselves sufficiently caffeinated, we left the dormitory around late-morning and caught a taxi from the city center to the checkpoint into the Holy City. The taxi driver dropped us [...]

Apostrophe to a young guard.

Who are you, madam soldier who sits behind the counter at the border terminal? You interrogate me about my travels, my motives, my friends. You’re relentlessly uptight.
But wait. You slip for a second and flirt with me, giggling coyly at my attempts to lighten our situation – the iron-fisted relationship that has been dictated to [...]

Romanticizing landscapes, changing plans.

             I’m reading a book at the moment titled “Palestinian Walks,” by Raja Shehadeh, a land-rights lawyer in Ramallah. In this memoir he talks of his passion for wandering the hills of the West Bank by foot, a hobby that has become increasingly dangerous over the course of his lifetime as [...]

What does structural violence look like? The Allenby border crossing.

             The whole journey from Amman to Ramallah took about seven hours. To drive directly between the two cities, if imaginary lines dividing places and people didn’t exist, would take just over one hour. I started in the morning with three French backpackers that I had met the night before [...]