Today we head to Palestine, a country synonymous with fighting, and being the Holy Land. Therefore my main goal with today’s post is to try to avoid politics (and also religion).
I then realised how impossible it is to avoid talking about politics when writing about countries because countries are defined by their borders and borders are inherently political entities. Palestine is also a country that is mostly defined by the Israel Palestine conflict. Basically, whatever I write about in this post is political.
One slightly unusual thing about Palestine is that it is a “de cure” state. This basically means that, unlike most countries where the area being governed and the territorial claims are the same, in the case of Palestine, much of Palestine’s claimed territory is under the de facto control of Israel.
Talking of territory, Palestine comprises Gaza and the West Bank. These two areas are separated by Israel. One thing I learned recently is that it is not possible for residents of Gaza to travel to the West Bank, and if residents of the West Bank decide to visit Gaza it will be a one-way trip. To me, it’s kind of mind-blowing that Palestinian citizens can’t travel freely from one part of their country to another.
There’s so much I don’t know about Palestine and the ongoing conflict with Israel. All I can do is hope for a peaceful outcome, and in the meantime perhaps cook some Palestinian dishes.
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