Introduction to the Jerusalem From the Ground Up Blog

Shalom wa'salaam l'kulam {peace/hello (hebrew) and peace/hello (arabic) to everyone (both)}!

Welcome to my reflections on and stories from Israel/Palestine as a Displaced-or-Replaced-American-Jew/Buddhist?-with-Muslim-Heritage-in-both-of-said-areas-and-the-surrounding-Middle-East from a social justice and peace lens blog!

... As you can tell, this thing still has a... description issue.

Here's why: I am both worried and excited about this blog because I know I will find some truly amazing stories, and yet everything I present will also be somehow political (annoying tangential philosophy question: what isn't political? annoying tangential answer: I have no idea, but definitely here, ANYTHING can be taken as political).

SO: I don't have a fixed description of what this blog will really be about with regard to Israel and Palestine. The segments that I will post will be (ironically) a little like the place where I now live: absolute yet inconclusive, controlled yet slightly chaotic, ethical yet morally ambiguous.

THUS I publicly acknowledge that posts can and perhaps will be taken out of context or taken to be part of one agenda or another.

SO, now that I've admitted the inevitable inherent fault of this blogs creation...

My intention from the beginning is to recognize this impossible situation, and to state outright that I wish to string together all these strange and contradictory accounts by the fact that they are all stories and accounts that I've found and collected, without a true political slant either way. Just as a story is bound by its spine, this blog will be bound by the stories it finds, and not by a particular leftist or rightist agenda.

SO when you see that some of my activities seem to fall to either side, or when you comment on what I write, please keep this in mind, and also know that readers here will be from all over the spectrum. I'm not here to try and talk about what's wrong and right, but to struggle genuinely with what snippets I find in what is a truly complex place that is often, unintentionally, at odds with itself.

All right. Enough of the abstract, wispy, and existential blah-blah-blah (also pronounced Bob Loblaw). Onward with the intro:

If you look at the tabs up above, you'll see a couple of different pages. Let me explain them briefly:

1) "Photos and Videos" will connect you to places where I stash what I photograph or record. I am on an i-pod touch type of quality, not only out of necessity/lack of a better point-n-shoot, but so that this blog will truly clothe itself in the amateur clothes I've provided it in my description above (... but mainly for the first reason)

2) "Hebrew Vocabulary" and "Arabic Vocabulary" will take you to Hebrew and Arabic words that I will use in my posts. As the list grows bigger, I will start to separate the words into the usual grammatical sections (verbs, nouns, adjectives, context, etc.). The intent is to get you also to start translating words with me. I recognize some people don't want to do this. Too bad. You're going to do it.

Just kidding. For all you freeloaders and impatient ones, I'll translate everything at the end of my post. Just know you have a word bank if you'd like it.

3) "Relevant Maps" are where I'll post some maps with a couple of comments below them. Again, each of these will probably be taken as political. Fine, just know that I post them to give more of a sense of my whereabouts, depending on the context, not to show which map is an accurate portrayal of situations on the ground.

Sounds good? Lay some comments below to let me know what you're thinking.

In the meantime sirs, madams, and all those in between, kol ha'ahava m'eretz hakodesh (all the love from the holy land). Beware of a week one update very soon :-)

Hasan