Month: November 2014

Ten things I did not see (or hear) during my recent 3 week trip to Israel/Palestine

Map of Israel/Palestine

On this map you can see many of the places I just visited during a 3 week tour to Israel/Palestine: Tel Aviv/Jaffa, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth, Hebron, the destroyed bedouin village of al-Araqib, and Canada Park, (itself built on top of 3 Palestinian villages destroyed in 1967).

Together with 7 other curious Canadians on a “come and see tour”, I met with 27 Israeli and Palestinian NGO’s, as well as international organizations. We visited the Knesset and various historical sites. And we also got to talk to many individual Palestinians and Israelis.

We saw a lot, heard a lot and learned a lot. But sometimes its instructive to reflect on what you didn’t see or hear.

Here are 10 significant things we did not see or hear, while we were there.

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Why is this young Jewish man opposed to the Jewish National Fund of Canada?

Tyler Levitan is the National Coordinator of Independent Jewish Voices, a small group of progressive Canadian Jews. IJV has been spearheading a campaign to get the Jewish National Fund of Canada (JNF) delisted as a tax deductible Canadian charity. JNF Canada annually collects over $10 million, mostly from Canadian Jews, for projects in Israel. I caught up with Tyler to ask him about the IJV campaign. Read the interview here:

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