Food From The West Bank

Although under Israeli occupation, Palestine has a rich and vibrant culture where taste buds, not just eyes and minds, will reap the rewards of a visit. You will find a colourful cuisine that is filling (trust me..), along with well cooked and flavoursome. A walk down the street in any city will make this pretty obvious. The shops and souks are a goldmine for cooking ingredients; heaps of herbs aswell as lots of fresh produce are easily available if your into cooking some traditional recipes. The street food is equally as good though, and if you're looking for fast food containing some of whats on offer, the freshly prepped falafel, sharawma or kofte is often a far cry from the customary greasy post-night out kebab in the UK.

A Cook's Dream. (Photo Courtesy of Flora Murphy)

If your also lucky enough to have the opportunity of a meal at someone's house, make sure you go. We were served, and very much enjoyed the maqluba, a popular casserole rice dish eaten in the Arab world meaning 'upside down' in Arabic, due to the way its cooked in a pot and then turned upside down when served. Combined with fresh salad and labnah (yogurt), it makes for a highly delectable, authentic meal. Any thoughts of hunger on our last day were very much sated by this filling, but also flavoursome meal.

Maqluba For Lunch. (Photo Courtesy of Nandita Dowson)

If we could have found room for something sweet after such a great meal, we could have had some kanefeh, a dish originating from where many us visited in Nablus. It's a sweet treat made from cheese cooked with sugar syrup, and its certainly worth trying. Although feeling like I ate a lot, I know for a fact that what I ate and wrote about only scratched the surface of Palestinian, let alone Arab cuisine. The bucket list for my upcoming month in Palestine has gorging on more of the food very firmly pencilled in. Quite rightly, Palestine remains proud of its heritage and roots, of which its food is a huge part. Luckily for us, its there to experience.

Kanafeh At Its Best In Nablus. (Photo Courtesy of Flora Murphy)

Broad Horizons

Broad Horizons

CADFA is a charity that thrives on creating international links, but not just between the UK and the Palestinian territories. CADFA aims to establish strong links between our own countries too, and no work exemplifies this more than the work of our friend and CADFA volunteer, Jean Dubost. Below is a sample of his blog, aimed at creating strong links between France and the UK in terms of understanding about, and solidarity for human rights in Palestine.

“Grace à mon stage au sein de CADFA, j’ai eu la possibilité de partir en Palestine fin Novembre pour une dizaine de jours. Ce séjour était organisé par le Higher Council of Youth and Sports (HCYS) entité issue du gouvernement palestinien. Le HCYS a fait appel à diverses organisations internationales (dont CADFA) dans le but de rassembler un nombre conséquent de jeunes internationaux afin de réaliser le premier Palestinian International Youth Camp. Ainsi, nous étions un peu moins de 200 jeunes internationaux et palestiniens à participer à ce séjour. Nous aurions pu être davantage si un nombre important d’internationaux n’avait pas vu leur entrée sur le territoire refusée par les instances de contrôles israéliennes. Mon travail consistait à préparer et à aider une partie des participants avant le départ puis de diriger, en compagnie de deux autres leaders, une vingtaine de participants durant le séjour. Afin de préparer ce travail, les leaders sont arrivés avant les autres et ont participé à deux journées de formation à Jericho, plus vieille ville du monde, qui constituait le point de départ dans ma découverte des territoires palestiniens”.

For the full blog, visit http://cadfafrance.blogspot.co.uk/

Solidarity and Friendship. (Photo Courtesy Of Emerson Photography)

Video from HCYS

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1193037917478774&id=100003177309728

An International Ruling

As the dust settles on yet another Festive period, aftershock from the major UN decision regarding Palestine over Christmas can certainly still be felt in the Occupied Territories. As many will know, on December 23^rd, the UN security council passed a resolution demanding a halt to the building of Israeli settlements within the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Crucially, the usual bedrock of support to Israel in the United States delegation abstained from voting on the resolution, enabling this encouraging step for achieving human right's in Palestine to be taken. This will bring hope in Palestine, as the illegal settlement situation is the a key in fuelling the cycle of violence, aswell as a direct violation of their sovereignty as a nation. It's also a diplomatic rarity to witness the United States partially turning it's back on the increasingly right wing government of Israel, which it has closely supported since its creation in the 1940's. These reasons, along with Secretary of State John Kerry's critical speech regarding Israel's huge role in derailing the road to peace in Palestine, may hopefully see the end of the Carte Blanche for Israel amongst the international community in it's continued abuse of human rights.

A Turning Point Amongst The International Community?
(Photograph Manuel Ellas/AP)

However, no human rights are abused within the UN meeting rooms, and what many in Palestine will be concerned about, is the effect of such international decisions on a practical day to day level. For some, faith in organisations such as the UN has dwindled, due to the previous inaction over the ever growing list of UN decisions that Israel has violated over the years. This now ever growing disbelief in the power of internationalism is a sad reality, but can be very much understood. Even during my experiences in Palestine only last month, I was witness to a non existent international response to a variety of human rights abuses that the Palestinians are subjected to on a daily basis. A more recent and poignant example of such though, was the case of a Palestinian woman being shot dead by IDF soldiers in East Jerusalem just last Friday, to name just one example. Although a step in the right direction has come about internationally in terms of settlements; hope for the future is very much intertwined with the harsh, continued realities of the Israeli occupation in Palestine. It's now hugely important to continue the support for human rights in the country, regardless of headline resolutions.

The Occupation Still Goes On.
(Photograph Nayef-Saif Twitter)