Ultimately Unsure...

In a post from last year I wrote about Ultimate Peace, an US/Israeli initiative which attempts to achieve a form of reconciliation between Israeli and Palestinian children through the magic of frisbee.

When I got home I was asked to write an article for Ultimatum, the annual magazine of the sport's governing body in UK. The article was finally published this week. It goes into a bit more detail than the original post and hopefully reflects how my views settled after I had had a little time to ponder. You can read it here.

Rambling to Ramallah - Part II - Touring Turkey

(As you can see I've given the blog a bit of a revamp. More on this to come. The upshot is I've spent so long faffing around with the design I've left little time for writing. Hence the rather large photo to word ratio in this post. This is a relief to you I'm sure. This will be my last holiday related post. Normal Ramallah-related service will resume shortly.)

Long story short, I decided to skip Syria, stay in Turkey for two weeks and fly to Tel Aviv from Istanbul. Turkey is a wonderful country with stunningly diverse scenery and in Istanbul has one of the most mesmerising cities I've ever visited.

Rambling to Ramallah - Part I - Just BBBBecause

Originally posted on 15th April en route from Bucharest to Istanbul

Now this is the business. A (faux) wood panelled compartment, rainy Romanian countryside trundled past the window and no bog roll for 19 hours. This is international train travel and it kicks Easyjet's orange ass every day of the week. (Let's ignore the fact that I face a 1am bus replacement service due a busted bridge on the Bulgaria-Turkey border - all part of the experience, don't you know.)

Ramble VIII - The Greener Grass of Home?

Just a quickie to pass on some news and a few photos.

This is likely to be my penultimate post as I'm heading home a little earlier than planned. Rather unexpectedly, I have been offered a job in London. It is too good an opportunity to pass up and despite reservations about leaving Ramallah after such a short time, with my current project not quite finished, I will be packing my bag and flying home at the end of the month.

Ramble VII - Head Spin

Apologies to all my followers for the recent blog drought. I'm sure the nervous anticipation has been terribly bothersome for you both. To make up for the dry patch this is a bumper post, consisting of two parts, covering my travels to some new parts in the last couple of weeks. Its a bit long but there are plenty of photos. (As usual, click to enlarge)

Ramble VI - Viva Ramallah

With pleasing symmetry, and thanks to the right boot of a little balding Spaniard, in this post I am able to return to the subject of my first post. If you scroll right to the bottom of this page you'll find photos of the reaction in Ramallah in April to Barcelona's defeat of Real Madrid in El Clasico. Well last night the players of those two teams got together with a couple of mates and beat the best of the rest of the world. Naturally, and just as I predicted in that first post, things kicked off once again.

Ramble V - Bloody foreigners, coming over here, trying to help.

Following the existential naval-gazing of the last post (quick summary: Why I am in Palestine = desire to mitigate injustice + personal connection to people + career prospects + post-colonialist guilt) the BIG question for this one is a natural corollary: Should I or any of the 'internationals' even be here at all?

(Now before your politics filter has you reaching for the remote let me say that I'm writing about this stuff because it is relevant to my own decision of whether to stay or go back the UK. If you have got this far then you might at least care about that.)

Ramble IV - My Palestinian Question

(This post was provoked by a piece from Robert Fowke on the Guardian website this week. Read it here.)

"Ok, but why Palestine, why not Tibet or Darfur or the thousands living in poverty in the UK?"

I am asked this question a lot. Not from my friends and family, most of whom are willing to accept my choices at face value, or even from colleagues, who are too polite or indifferent to quiz me about my motivations. No, I am asked this question most often by just one person. Me.

(I know what you're thinking. "Bloody narcissist - always banging on about himself." Well what did you expect? This is a blog about ME.)

Ramble III - Smooth Re-entry

I'm sure you've all been on tenterhooks but your wait is over. I am back in Ramallah and it feels great. The short story is that I had a very enjoyable week in Dahab and a relatively painless re-entry into Israel. I won't bore you with the details of the border crossing, suffice to say that the security personnel seemed taken aback by my honest approach and, despite asking hundreds of questions (including a bizarre request for my grandfather's name!) and recording my answers, were relatively civil in their approach and only detained me for an hour.

Ramble II - Rant Warning

This is a bit of an impromptu post due mostly to having a few hours to kill. I’m sitting in a café in Jerusalem Central Bus Station praying to the god of wireless internet and waiting for a bus to Eilat in southern Israel. My ultimate destination is Dahab on the Red Sea coast of Egypt’s Sinai desert where I will enjoy a week of beach bothering and scuba diving. Now before you curse me for being a Billy Bragg-a-lot and head for the exits allow me to explain how the next seven days will actually be the most stressful of my time in the Middle East.