Palestiniana the book is out now

Palestiniana, my book of words and photographs, was released earlier this month (August 2013).

You can read more about it at the dedicated Palestiniana blog which is here.

But for now here is the front page and one or two images which from the book (apologies if they've been published on this blog before).

Palestiniana, the book set for release

My story, with images, on Palestine is about to be released in book form and on Kindle.

To find out more about it and to see some of the images, see Palestiniana's own blog.

The blog includes the final cover for the book, which is not the cover shown below.

This image was taken in Qalqilya, in the West Bank in November 2012.

How to twin the Holy Land with Scotland or Dundee = Nablus

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Nablus and Dundee, two cities you would never ordinarily mention in the same sentence.

That’s because the two places, one in the West Bank of Palestine - the Holy Land – and the other looking out across the North Sea in Scotland, could not be less alike.

Nablus, a village inhabited by the Samaritan people before the birth of Christ, has a long and historically important history.

Situated between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, it houses Biblical sites such as Joseph’s Tomb and Jacob’s Well, the Roman’s built the city from 72 AD an it was captured by Crusaders a thousand years later.

And then you’ve got Dundee, a Scottish coastal city which famous for Dundee cake, two football clubs and Ricky Ross of Deacon Blue.

Not the most likely town to be twinned with an ancient city in the Holy Land.

This bizarre twinning came about in 1980, with controversial on-off British MP George Galloway leading the link-up.

Galloway, along with now retired Ernie Ross MP and then Dundee Councillor Colin Rennie.

The trio met up with Nablus mayor Bassam Shaka’a in London after he came to London to receive prosthetic legs following a bomb attack in Palestine.

It’s fair to say that issues in Palestine and the Middle East, possibly first addressed by Galloway around this time, have shaped his career.

The twinning was so successful that when Shaka’a needed a second pair of limbs, he came to Dundee Limb Fitting Centre. Naturally.

In 1996 an official twinning document was signed by the Dundee-Nablus Twinning Association. 

Strangely, I have been to Nablus but not Dundee – though I am a big fan of Scotland.

NOTE: In the photograph (above) is Nablus’ current Guvernor Jibrin Al-Bakri, who was the subject of an assassination attempt by Hamas - the Palestinian political party which governs Gaza - two years ago. 
The book Palestiniana is coming soon.

Dundee is also twinned with Orleans in France and German city Wurzburg.

Nablus is twinned with Lille, (France), Nazareth, (Israel), Dublin (Ireland), Como (Italy), Florence (Italy), Naples (Italy), Toscana (Italy), Poznan (Poland), Rabat (Morocco), Stavanger (Norway), Khasavyurt (Russia) and, of course, Dundee.

Facts from the DNTA website:

General Information

Nablus is about 66 km north of Jerusalem, 42km east of the Mediterranean.

Summer is hot and dry, winter moderate and rainy. The temperature ranges from 8° to 26° Centigrade.

One of Palestine’s largest cities, Nablus has a population of 326,752 in 2003, about half in the old city and half in surrounding suburbs and refugee camps.

The City of Dundee is situated beside the River Tay, at sea level. It is at the end of a rift valley, and is overlooked by The Law: a ‘pipe’ or small volcano. It is about 60 km north of Edinburgh.

Summer is cool but sunny, winter is cold. The temperature ranges from about 0° to 20° Centigrade. It is Scotland’s fourth largest city, with a population of about 140,000.(in 2004)

Trade and Industry

Nablus is famous for its soap industry. Also for marble and building materials, pharmaceuticals, goldsmiths, and the making of delicious sweets, the local variety being called ‘knafeh’.

Dundee’s chief business today is in biotechnology, electronics and education. Also computer games, comics, tyres, and call centres.

Both cities have been important trading centres. Dundee's harbours are no longer as busy as they used to be, though it has enjoyed something of a revival with oil business and cruise ship visits. Nablus is at the junction of two ancient commercial roads running north/south and east/west. But in recent years Israeli road blocks have severely hampered imports and exports.

Education

In Nablus there are 66 public schools and 21 private. In the refugee camps and the villages round about there are another 104, with camp schools run by the United Nations.

There are two universities; An Najah University, largest of the universities in Palestine, with 19,000 students, and Al-Rawda National School. Nearly all the students live in the old city because it is impossible to travel daily from the villages through the checkpoints.

Dundee has 52 schools; 10 secondary, 41 primary and one special. There are two universities, Dundee and Abertay, plus Dundee College, with 33,000 students between them.

ADVERT: Palestine is normal

Do an image search for the world Palestine and almost every result contains the national flag. Of those results that are photographs, most show Palestinian protesters. In some there is the added ingredient of an Israeli Defence Force soldier to add contrast.

It is not so easy to find images of the country of Palestine, its landscape and its normality.

Palestine is a dry, hard, mountainous region. Its roads are dusty and, outside of the major cities, are free flowing.

Sometimes it takes a little bit longer to get from, say, Ramallah to Bethlehem, because somebody built a bloody big wall across the road which you now have to 20 miles round.

In the West Bank there are a lot of bloody big walls. But there are also a lot of roads, a lot of cars and lot of advertising.

The huge advertising hoardings are proof that, even in a country of military occupation whose people continually suffer in the struggle for freedom, anyone can still be persuaded to buy crap.