Five hundred words and three photos from one place. This time: a church in the middle of a minefield, water you can walk on, an international border with no soldiers and a legal limbo that wouldn't make sense anywhere else. What is the strangest place in the world? Depends how you define "strange." In English, one must differentiate between strange, weird, bizarre and my personal favorite: eerie. If there ever was an "eerie" place in this delusional country between the river and the sea, it can be found close to the Jordan River. In the following photo one can see tourists…

A new survey by the BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, a non-profit organization that works to defend and promote the rights of Palestinian refugees, attempts to understand how youth of Palestinian heritage (third or fourth generation of displaced Palestinians) identify with their ancestry. BADIL conducted a survey focusing on identity and social ties among Palestinian youth residing in Mandate Palestine (West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and Israel), Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. The results reveal that between 55 to 70 percent of the respondents in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon regard themselves as Palestinians; 45 percent of Palestinian citizens of Israel regard themselves as…

The Syria nightmare has gotten worse than imaginable, and now the only thing conceivably worse is what can be expected in the foreseeable future. In this awful environment, some interesting data has appeared about public attitudes from two important parts of the world: the U.S. and the Middle East. Here are a few thoughts about the findings. Please read this as not as a collection of cold statistics, but as a tally of how human beings assess the lives and value of other human beings, their responsibility to humanity and their fears and morals. U.S. on Syria: 45 percent of Americans…

The United Nation agency for Palestinian refugees is reporting that three separate incidents in Syria claimed last week the lives of five children. One of the children died in Dera'a and four others in Damascus. According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East UNRWA, Mohammad Al-Khateeb (aged 14) was killed on March 15 by a bullet as he was returning home on foot after buying bread from a bakery in his neighborhood in Dera'a. On March 19, Hisham Mahmoud (aged 10) and Farhat Mubarak (aged 11), were killed at the crossroad of Yazour and Safad Streets in Yarmouk, Damascus. They were…

Five members of the same family were killed in Yarmouk, along with at least seven other people. Despite the bloodshed, Jordan continues to refuse to allow Palestinians among the Syrian refugees it accepts. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) issued a press release on Sunday expressing grave concern over the rising number of Palestinian casualties in the Syrian civil war. According to credible sources, an estimated total of 30 Palestinians were killed in the last week. Twelve of the casualties – including five members of the same family – were from…

VLADIVOSTOK, RUSSIA -- They gathered, they spoke, they made their positions known, one by one.  Leaders representing 21 economies from the Asia-Pacific region vowing, once more, to ease the barriers that can often make trade more difficult and more expensive.   They came, they saw, they conquered The event was rather diplomatic: lots of handshakes, formalities, photo-ops and smiles. But some, including the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton - representing the American delegation - came out swinging: [P]rotectionist policies might provide short-term benefits to domestic terms, but they disrupt supply chains, they scare investors, and ultimately, they set back…

The fact that international law supports the two-state paradigm is not sufficient reason to preserve its current role, if at present, international law serves to perpetuate the conflict.  International law is increasingly being applied when deemed relevant to an ideological agenda, and therefore its impact is limited.   By David Hughes In response to former Justice Edmond Levy’s report on the status of the West Bank, Itamar Mann considers Levy’s controversial proposal that Israel’s presence in the West Bank does not amount to an occupation. Mann's position is surprising: perhaps easing the collective fixation on the terminology of occupation “will enable…

The writer shares snippets of life from the Palestinians living in the refugee camp in Jordan - from the longing for  a home unknown, to reservations about the 'Arab Spring'  reaching them. Dispatch from Jerash.  By Munir Atalla Last month I worked at the Gaza Refugee Camp in Jerash, Jordan.  The camp is home to about 24,000 Palestinian refugees who left the Gaza Strip in 1968.  Most of the families living there were also displaced in 1948, meaning that they have lost their homes twice in one lifetime.  The majority live on less than $2 a day.  About a quarter live on less than…

The Israeli right celebration of the legal opinion that there is no occupation - written by the Supreme Court Justice that opposed the disengagement - is evidence that public debate has clearly reached a delusional moment. A panel formed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has concluded that Israel is entitled to settle the West Bank with Jews. The committee, headed by former Supreme Court Justice Edmond Levy, claims that Israel's control over the West Bank cannot be seen as "occupation" since no country has recognized sovereignty over the territory. Therefore, the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prevents the transfer of a civilian population…

From Neot Hakikar to the Arava border crossing, via a land bereft of food, a plant for neutering flies and the home of a two-headed snake. Zoe, Mairav and I are looking for something to eat. We head down to Neot Hakikar, a small moshav on the southernmost tip of the Dead Sea. Google claims that it is home to a restaurant named "Fata Morgana" (a mirage). "I hope it doesn't vanish when we reach it," Mairav says. The restaurant is real enough, but only feeds large groups and only with advanced reservation. The other culinary establishment in town, a…

Jordan, Israel's neighbor, has a nuclear program. And, unlike Iran, Jordan and Israel actually have a history of military confrontation.  So why isn't Israel barking? Yes, Israel has a peace treaty with Jordan, but if the Israeli and American hawks set their sights on Jordan's nuclear ambitions, they would shriek that a peace treaty is not enough to secure Israel's future. They would demand Jordan halt its uranium enrichment and dismantle its facilities. If Jordan refused, and insisted that its nuclear program was for civilian purposes - as Iran has - Israeli leaders would threaten that Israel will do what…

Ever so often, when it seems like too much time has passed since someone has addressed the "peace process," there is suddenly a meeting followed by reports that nothing has actually changed but that there is sober optimism that Israelis and Palestinians are ready to negotiate. The latest news -- following meetings in Jordan where (surprise!) no significant breakthrough was made -- is that Israel is ready to negotiate immediately with the Palestinians.  According to Haaretz, Prime Minister Netanyahu's exact words were: "I'm ready to get into my car at any time and go to Ramallah, even if it's more than a small…

+972's Omar Rahman asks, "What will Hamas do with its new political capital?" Well, it didn't take long to find out. Jordan's King Abdullah has asked the country's Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit to resign, effective immediately. This, after 70 out of 120 of the country's MP voted in a no-confidence motion against Bakhit over a 2007 casino corruption charge. He had only been in the post since February, replacing the previous leader who was also removed for being too "pro-business" in the eyes of the many. While Jordan has been one of the handful of Arab countries in the region…