Ma’ale Adumim in the West Bank

28 February 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Union for the Mediterranean Reading Time:  5 minutes

© Davidmosberg/cc-by-sa-3.0

© Davidmosberg/cc-by-sa-3.0

Ma’ale Adumim is an urban Israeli settlement organized as a city council in the West Bank of Palestine, seven kilometers (4.3 miles) east of Jerusalem. Ma’ale Adumim achieved city status in 1991. In 2015, its population was 37,555. It is located along Highway 1, which connects it to Jerusalem and the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area. The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law.   read more…

Gaza Strip “Gaza Metro” smuggling tunnels

29 October 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Union for the Mediterranean Reading Time:  16 minutes

Smuggling tunnel in Rafah © flickr.com - Marius Arnesen/cc-by-sa-2.0

Smuggling tunnel in Rafah © flickr.com – Marius Arnesen/cc-by-sa-2.0

The Gaza Strip smuggling tunnels are smuggling tunnels that had been dug under the Philadelphi Route along the Egypt–Gaza border. They were dug to subvert the blockade of the Gaza Strip to smuggle in fuel, food, weapons and other goods into the Gaza Strip. After the Egypt–Israel peace treaty of 1979, the town of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, was split by this buffer zone. One part is located in the southern part of Gaza, and the smaller part of the town is in Egypt. After Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, the Philadelphi Corridor was placed under the control of the Palestine Authority until 2007, when the terror organization Hamas seized power in 2007, and Egypt and Israel closed borders with the Gaza Strip. In 2009, Egypt began the construction of an underground barrier to block existing tunnels and make new ones harder to dig. In 2011, Egypt relaxed restrictions at its border with the Gaza Strip, allowing Palestinians to cross freely. In 2013–2014, Egypt’s military destroyed most of the 1,200 smuggling tunnels. Experts estimate the total length of the tunnel system to be 480 to 500 km, which is where the nickname “Gaza Metro” (subway) comes from.   read more…

Rockefeller Archeological Museum in East Jerusalem

27 October 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Museums, Exhibitions, Union for the Mediterranean Reading Time:  6 minutes

© McKaby/cc-by-sa-4.0

© McKaby/cc-by-sa-4.0

The Rockefeller Archeological Museum, formerly the Palestine Archaeological Museum (“PAM”; 1938–1967), is an archaeology museum located in East Jerusalem, next to Herod’s Gate, that houses a large collection of artifacts unearthed in the excavations conducted in the region of Palestine, mainly in the 1920s and 1930s, under the British authorities.   read more…

Tell es-Sultan in Jericho

26 September 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage, Union for the Mediterranean Reading Time:  3 minutes

Archaeological site © Fullo88

Archaeological site © Fullo88

Tell es-Sultan (lit.: Sultan‘s Hill), also known as Ancient Jericho, is an archaeological site and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the State of Palestine, in the city of Jericho, consisting of the remains of the oldest fortified city in the world.   read more…

Arab Souk in the Old City of Jerusalem

14 September 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Bon appétit, Shopping, Union for the Mediterranean Reading Time:  3 minutes

© Radoslaw Botev/cc-by-3.0-pl

© Radoslaw Botev/cc-by-3.0-pl

The Arab Souk Couk, also known as the Arab Souq Couq, Arabic Market of Wondrous Expectations or Suq El-Bazar, is a large bazaar occupying approximately 100 acres (400,000 m²) of area in the Old City of Jerusalem. About 800 merchants operate a variety of businesses in closely-packed shop stalls along a network of alleyways primarily in the Muslim Quarter and the Christian Quarter, located in the northern part of the Old City. The New York Times described the market in a 1982 publishing as “an explosion of colour, movement and smell.”   read more…

Mediterranean Region

29 July 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, French Riviera, European Union, Living, Working, Building, Sport, UNESCO World Heritage, Union for the Mediterranean Reading Time:  28 minutes

Monaco © Tobi 87/cc-by-sa-3.0

Monaco © Tobi 87/cc-by-sa-3.0

In biogeography, the Mediterranean Basin, also known as the Mediterranean Region or sometimes Mediterranea, is the region of lands around the Mediterranean Sea that have mostly a Mediterranean climate, with mild to cool, rainy winters and warm to hot, dry summers, which supports characteristic Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub vegetation.   read more…

75th anniversary of the State of Israel

10 May 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Union for the Mediterranean Reading Time:  9 minutes

David_Ben-Gurion declaring independence in Tel Aviv on 14 May 1948 beneath a large portrait of Theodor Herzl, founder of modern Zionism © Rudi Weissenstein - Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs

David Ben-Gurion declaring independence in Tel Aviv on 14 May 1948 beneath a large portrait of Theodor Herzl, founder of modern Zionism © Rudi Weissenstein – Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs

In 1948 the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel sparked the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, which resulted in the 1948 Palestinian exodus (Nakba) from the land that the State of Israel came to control and subsequently led to waves of Jewish immigration from other parts of the Middle East. The latter half of the 20th century saw a series of further conflicts between Israel and its neighbouring Arab nations, most notably the Six-day War, which resulted in further expulsions and subsequent waves of inward migration, and the occupation and settlements of the West Bank, Golan Heights and East Jerusalem.   read more…

Gethsemane in East Jerusalem

7 April 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Union for the Mediterranean Reading Time:  < 1 minute

Garden of Gethsemane © Tango7174/cc-by-sa-4.0

Garden of Gethsemane © Tango7174/cc-by-sa-4.0

Gethsemane is a garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem where, according to the four Gospels of the New Testament, Jesus underwent the agony in the garden and was arrested before his crucifixion. It is a place of great resonance in Christianity. There are several small olive groves in church property, all adjacent to each other and identified with biblical Gethsemane.   read more…

Latrun in the West Bank

14 January 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Union for the Mediterranean Reading Time:  8 minutes

Trappist Monastery © Bukvoed/cc-by-2.5

Trappist Monastery © Bukvoed/cc-by-2.5

Latrun is a strategic hilltop in the Latrun salient in the Ayalon Valley, and a depopulated Palestinian village. It overlooks the road between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, 25 kilometers west of Jerusalem and 14 kilometers southeast of Ramla. It was the site of fierce fighting during the 1948 war. During the 1948–1967 period, it was occupied by Jordan at the edge of a no man’s land between the armistice lines. In the 1967 war, it was occupied by Israel. Latrun is located outside the 1967 Green Line and therefore part of the West Bank in Palestine.   read more…

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