Local traditions and culture in Palestine

If invited to a meeting or someones home, you will be served lots and lots of sweet delicious tea for hours. But, when they bring in the coffee it is time to leave. Drink your coffee, chat for a few minutes and say good bye...
Also, don't ever decline something you are offered to eat or drink. It will be brought to you on a tray, so if you don't like it, take the cup, taste it anyway and put it on the table... If you say no thank you it is insulting to the host.

Another thing you could keep in mind is that it is usually concidered rude for girls to smoke in public...
Public display of affection is also not common, so try to keep your hands off eachother on the street :)

Palestinians love their flag. (Who doesn't?) During the first Intifada they were banned from waving or showing it, so they resorted to wearing clothes with the color of their flag or flying kites with black red green and white. Here my friend Ali is at an anti-war march in SF proudly waving his flag...they might not have a state but a flag they do! So many symbols...

Once you're there you might want to familiarize yourself with the human rights and political situation. Some valuable sources (I feel) are www.palestinemonitor.org (the voice of Palestinian civil society), www.btselem.org (Israeli human rights organization-monitors abuses from both sides) and www.haaretzdaily.com (Israeli daily newspaper in English. Look for articles by Amira Hass and Gideon Levy for accounts of the lives of Palestinians under occupation and of course more of an Israeli perspective on the conflict.) Ha'aretz also gives a good perspective on Israeli society from all different view points.

El-AQSA Mosque
Since 1967, Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem has been the target of several attempts by the occupation authorities to destroy or burn it, including several attempts to bring about its collapse through underground excavations (shown above).
The Jerusalem Islamic Supreme Council had repeatedly warned against such activities. On August 21, 1969, an attempt was made to burn Al-Aqsa mosque. The U.N. has passed a resolution, Number 1512, condemning Israel for the attempt and calling for preserving Jerusalems entity and its holy sites. Zionists believe Al-Aqsa and Dome of the Rock mosques should be dismantled to build the temple mount instead.
'There is no meaning of Israel without Jerusalem and there is no meaning of Jerusalem without the temple,' Ben Gurion.
'If we takeover Jerusalem, I will remove all of that non-holy to Jews,' Hertzel.

Just go there with an open mind! Especially if you're a woman. Yes you might be harassed but I always thought about all the good people I met there, keeping in mind that 95% of all my memories of the Palestinian people and way of living was positive. In Ramallah you can get away with wearing t-shirts, jeans, funky clothes, whatever. But stay away from miniskirts and shorts. No need to wear a veil in this city. Avoid eye-contact with men! This is the best way to avoid annoying comments etc. Although it can turn you in to a meanie who never smiles (at least while walking around town...)

The Palestinians still have not a recognised State (the Kurds as well, without going too far away), but they established a Palestinian National Authority which has a PNA Web site; a very interesting source of information is managed by the Arab Studies Society - Land Research Centre at LRC Web site, the important thing with the LRC is they are based in the immediate outskirts of East Jerusalem (Al Quds, in Arabic); direct information about the dramatic effects of Mr. Ariel Sharon's oversized reactions to the second Intifada are disseminated by the Red Crescent Society: as far as April 20th there were 431 casualties and 13,230 injured registered.
The Italians NGO's expatriates have their own nternet site at Intifada2000.

I maintain that one of the reasons I was and always am treated so kindly in Muslim culture is because I make an effort to dress respectfully. Lots of Americans at the Al-Aqsa compound are forced to borrow the green sack-like objects to wear while visiting the two mosques, because they are dressed indecently.

If you are even remotely planning on visiting a mosque (or a church, or any holy site), pack a light, long-sleeved shirt and skirt, if you are a woman. If you are a guy, you will frequently still be asked to cover your legs, so you might want to consider wearing slacks to begin with.

The Americans wandering around in the green sacks would laugh and take pictures of each other, but I don't think it's very funny to be forced to be respectful. Show a little initative and do it yourself -- you will be rewarded with respect and kindness.

the whole world supports the palestinians against israel,so I will make a little propaganda against terrorism,although I know that I will receive many letters of insults;these 3 posters belong to the association:'Women in Green',they are israeli women who struggle to proove that the peace process has killed more jews than the wars!let's go: