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Hoping to allay the fears of Palestinians who keep away from visiting distant websites, Malak Hasan and Bisan Alhajhasan based “Ahlan Falasteen” – which means “Hello Palestine” – a weblog and Instagram web page providing travel locations and recommendation.
travel
Updated: Sep 17, 2020 21:44 IST
Two Palestinian travel bloggers are selling local Palestinian tourism within the West Bank as an act of defiance towards Israeli occupation. The West Bank is scattered with websites holy to Christians, Muslims and Jews, and its mountainous panorama gives breathtaking views from the hills of Hebron and Nablus right down to the hypersaline Dead Sea, the bottom level on earth. But after its seize by Israel within the 1967 Middle East battle, the West Bank has additionally been residence to Israeli navy bases and checkpoints that prohibit Palestinian motion, as effectively practically 430,000 Israeli settlers who reside amongst three million Palestinians. Israel cites safety considerations for the checkpoints in a risky space it calls by its biblical identify, Judea and Samaria. Hoping to allay the fears of Palestinians who keep away from visiting distant websites, Malak Hasan and Bisan Alhajhasan based “Ahlan Falasteen” – which means “Hello Palestine” – a weblog and Instagram web page providing travel locations and recommendation. “The idea of two young female Palestinians who visit places that people feel are too far, or that might be closed, or are scared because of settlers or Israeli soldiers, we go there to show them that we should not abandon those places,” mentioned Alhajhasan, 32.
ALSO SEE| PHOTOS: Palestinian, feminine travel bloggers are selling local Palestinian tourism
“This is part of our struggle as Palestinians,” Alhajhasan mentioned, taking Instagram movies at a 19th-century monastery in Artas village, south of Bethlehem. Driving to Artas from the Palestinian hub metropolis of Ramallah includes crossing no less than one Israeli checkpoint and bypassing a number of others, an roughly 50-km (30-mile) route that with out restrictions could be round half the space. The bloggers’ Instagram web page options dozens of websites together with a number of hillside springs in style with Palestinians and Israelis alike. They have gained greater than 5,600 followers since launching the app in May. They say it goals partly to indicate Palestinians new local locations whereas worldwide travel is restricted. “We hear from shop owners that lots of people are visiting them after hearing about us,” mentioned Hasan, 31. “We feel like we filled a gap.”
(This story has been printed from a wire company feed with out modifications to the textual content.)
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