Comments on: Daily Dispatch: March 19, 2010 http://coveringreligion.org/?p=727 Reporting on the faiths of the holy land. Thu, 13 May 2010 14:03:32 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Pamela Olson http://coveringreligion.org/?p=727&cpage=1#comment-112 Pamela Olson Thu, 25 Mar 2010 20:00:25 +0000 http://coveringreligion.org/?p=727#comment-112 Thanks for this report -- it's far better than most of what we're getting in the mainstream media. I worked as a reported in the West Bank for almost two years, and I know how overwhelming the place is the first few times you go, or the first few months you spend there. And it seems to make even less sense as time goes on. Finally, with a lot of listening and studying and soul-searching and research and observation, things begin to crystallize to some extent. Fear has a way of hijacking and manipulating our highest instincts, and so do a lot of political leaders. The real pity is that so little true understanding gets past the editors at places like the NYT. Most Americans still have no idea about the conditions Palestinians live under, the policies that keep them living that way, and the fact that non-violent resistance to illagal occupation and colonization is blossoming all over the Palestinian territories and all over the world. I hope you will continue to report what you see rather than what you think your readers and editors prefer to hear. I'm working on a book that's simulataneously a travel/adventure story, a coming of age memoir, and a "Palestine for Beginners" primer called Fast Times in Palestine. Chapter One is posted here: http://fasttimesinpalestine.wordpress.com/2010/03/10/chapter-one My blog has other stories from Palestine, including a Beer Fest in a village near Ramallah, that most people never hear about, either: http://fasttimesinpalestine.wordpress.com/2009/10/07/beer-fest-in-palestine Thanks again, and best of luck. Thanks for this report — it’s far better than most of what we’re getting in the mainstream media. I worked as a reported in the West Bank for almost two years, and I know how overwhelming the place is the first few times you go, or the first few months you spend there. And it seems to make even less sense as time goes on. Finally, with a lot of listening and studying and soul-searching and research and observation, things begin to crystallize to some extent. Fear has a way of hijacking and manipulating our highest instincts, and so do a lot of political leaders.

The real pity is that so little true understanding gets past the editors at places like the NYT. Most Americans still have no idea about the conditions Palestinians live under, the policies that keep them living that way, and the fact that non-violent resistance to illagal occupation and colonization is blossoming all over the Palestinian territories and all over the world.

I hope you will continue to report what you see rather than what you think your readers and editors prefer to hear.

I’m working on a book that’s simulataneously a travel/adventure story, a coming of age memoir, and a “Palestine for Beginners” primer called Fast Times in Palestine. Chapter One is posted here:

http://fasttimesinpalestine.wordpress.com/2010/03/10/chapter-one

My blog has other stories from Palestine, including a Beer Fest in a village near Ramallah, that most people never hear about, either:

http://fasttimesinpalestine.wordpress.com/2009/10/07/beer-fest-in-palestine

Thanks again, and best of luck.

]]> By: Columbia J School class covers the occupation, after all http://coveringreligion.org/?p=727&cpage=1#comment-105 Columbia J School class covers the occupation, after all Thu, 25 Mar 2010 01:26:29 +0000 http://coveringreligion.org/?p=727#comment-105 [...] fact of racial profiling in annexed East Jerusalem. I see that student Carolyn Phenicie also covers this ugly practice here, for Goldman’s class. Good [...] [...] fact of racial profiling in annexed East Jerusalem. I see that student Carolyn Phenicie also covers this ugly practice here, for Goldman’s class. Good [...]

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