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Rick Steves' The Holy Land: Israel and Palestine

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Rick Steves' The Holy Land: Israel and Palestine

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This hour-long special weaves together both the Israeli and the Palestinian narratives. In Israel, we go from the venerable ramparts of Jerusalem to the vibrant modern skyline of Tel Aviv. In Palestine, we harvest olives near Hebron, visit a home in Bethlehem, and pop into a university in Ramallah. We also learn about security walls, disputed settlements, and the persistent challenges facing the region.

In this Q&A, Rick talks about the reasons why he decided to produce the "Rick Steves' The Holy Land: Israelis and Palestinians Today" TV special, how he arrived at certain decisions he made, and what he learned from the experience.

Transcript:

Why did you want to make a program about the Holy Land?

All my life, I've heard experts talking about the Holy Land. But I'd had no personal experience there. I've also suspected that most well-educated, politically active Americans have never really had a chance to talk to an Israeli and to a Palestinian and sort through all the complexities of the region. So I thought it might be a good idea to go there with a travel writer's perspective, with open eyes and an honest curiosity. I wanted to talk to all kinds of people, and come away with some empathy and a better understanding for the different narratives.

Is this approach new for you?

Not at all. In my work I like to expose Americans to other ways of thinking, to help Americans get out of their comfort zone. As a travel writer, that's what I do. I go to places that are confusing to me. I go to places that are scary to me. And I realize that hey, when you talk to people, they become less confusing and less scary.

Did you feel you are as knowledgeable about the Holy Land as you are about Europe?

I don't try to be an expert. Viewers relate to me because I come at things from the perspective of someone who knows a little and is hungry to learn more. In doing this TV production, I was steep on the learning curve, just like our viewers. I didn't have opinions set in place by years of familiarity.

For this project, first I went to the Holy Land on my own just to scout the program, connect with some good local guides, and talk with many different people. This was a very exciting experience for me. And then the fun challenge was to go back with the TV crew a few months later and actually share what I learned.

We didn't intend to come home with any solutions. What we wanted to do was to share the "eurekas" and discoveries that any thoughtful traveler will pick up when they go to a place like the Holy Land in person. I'm a huge fan of people going to a complicated part of the world to talk to people and understand what's going on there.

Do you feel you started this project with any sort of a bias?

If I had a biased perspective, it was that I knew a lot about Israel, and almost nothing about Palestine. In preparation for this work, I did a lot of reading and documentary-viewing and so on. I also talked to a diverse bunch of people who are very committed to finding solutions to the challenges that the Holy Land presents us. They were all very helpful. But there's nothing like actually going there and standing with an Israeli on top of the Golan Heights to understand the importance of the high ground, and to go through a refugee camp and talk with somebody who is still holding a rusty key that their parents fled with 60 years ago, and whose family still dreams of going back.

Is the program either pro-Palestinian or pro-Israeli?

Fundamental to our mission was to be neither "pro-Palestinian" nor "pro-Israeli." I wanted to share the narratives from Israel and from Palestine in a balanced way. Our goal as TV producers was to produce a show that people would enjoy watching from beginning to end without slamming the door and thinking we are just "agenda" journalists.

At the same time, we didn't want to be clinically detached. Good travel is about opening one's self to empathy. I envisioned writing things in a way where if you took me out of context in a little snatch of the show here and there, you might think I was pro-this or pro-that. That's what happens when you learn to empathize with people. "Rick Steves is having dinner with our enemies!" Out of context, it can be made to look like bias.

I wanted to do a show that was balanced and showed both narratives. I believe that's what we produced. I wanted a program that would encourage people to travel there themselves. Or at least enjoy the vicarious benefit of having traveled there with us so they can humanize the Holy Land and better understand that it's not as simple as black and white. One very clear lesson from all this travel: There are good people - very good people - on both sides of the divide.

Why did you choose to use the name "Palestine" for the region?

We had a lot of discussions about what we should name the show, and especially what we should call the West Bank, Palestine, Occupied Territories, whatever you might want to call it. We decided not to go with the careful, the politically correct, or the least contentious name, but to go with what the local people want to be called, taking into consideration what the consensus is among the nations in the world. That's "Palestine." The fact that it's a controversial choice is an example of how this area is quite a challenge when you're writing a script. Every word is a potential minefield.

How did you decide on the terminology to use in the program?

When producing a show on the Holy Land, one of the big challenges is just simple terminology. Talk to a settler and you ask, "Are you a settler?" They'll say, "No, we're not settlers." You ask, "Do you live in a settlement?" "No, we're living in a city." Well, we refer to it as a settlement.

If you talk to an Orthodox Jew about Palestine, he or she - as a matter of principle - will call it "Judea and Samaria" because that group of people believes that's what it should be. The wall, is it a "wall"? Well, it depends on who you talk to. It's a "fence" to an Israeli and a "wall" to a Palestinian. These are all no-win areas, so we would try to use both terms, or, when possible, find a term that would be more acceptable to both sides.

How do you respond to potential criticism of the incomplete coverage or omissions?

A challenge in making this special was to be able to talk about complicated issues but work within our word and time limit. I wanted to talk about things that illustrated a certain point, but you could take any number of issues and start a very constructive debate on any of these. Take the refugee problem, for example. There are lots of refugees in Palestine who fled Israel after the state of Israel was created, but, of course, there were also a lot of Jewish refugees created during the tumult that brought along the modern state of Israel.

You know, we could have gotten into all of that, but it physically wasn't possible. What we wanted to do was introduce issues that were complicated, that most people didn't appreciate, and let people with a different narrative share their take on it. And there were a lot of cases when we found ourselves debating whether we should even bring up a particular topic, given the fact we wouldn't have time to cover it as thoroughly as we'd like to.

More often than not I would say yes, I want to broach this. I don't want to claim to be scholarly, and I don't want to claim to be complete. I really don't claim to have a scholarly or complete look at this.

I'm a traveler going over there with a wide-eyed curiosity and a passion for doing my best, to just get a handle on what is the reality of the people of the Holy Land. What's it like to live in a little country where there's no airport and you don't even have control over your water supply? What's it like to be a Jewish-Israeli person surrounded by millions of people who you think are your enemies? Living in the US, chances are we are more likely to hear one narrative over the other. I just love the opportunity to go over there and witness all the complexity and contradictions at close range.

How did you decide whom to interview in the program?

It was very important in our production to get local voices. Whenever I make a TV show, I want local voices - and that was particularly important here, because we wanted the Israeli narrative and we wanted the Palestinian narrative. And the only way to get that is to find Israelis and Palestinians to talk to you.

I didn't want to just talk to tour guides, and I didn't want to just talk to activists or people from the tourist board or the public-relations folks. Plenty of these people would have loved to talk to us. I wanted to just surprise people on the streets and see if they'd be willing to talk to us.

We found in Palestine and in Israel that people were generally very open and willing to talk with our camera rolling. We would drop in on people in cafes in Israel. We would talk to people in the markets in Jerusalem. It was very important for our show to shine a light on the settlements to find out why people live there. What's it like? Who are these half a million people who live in the West Bank in Israeli settlements?

We were impressed at how easily we could get into the settlements. We walked right in, and they wished us a good visit. And we were hanging out with the kids and the families in the parks. We were being invited into people's homes. We were having coffee in the mall, talking to people there. And people were very willing to talk about their personal story. Why are they living in this settlement? For political reasons, for religious reasons, for family reasons?

In Palestine, we also got a chance to talk to clerics in the mosque. We got a chance to talk to refugees. We had a chance to talk with people in the university. I just can't overstate the importance of actually physically going somewhere and talking to real people there.

Why didn't you speak with moderate Israelis or radical Palestinians?

I wish we'd had time in the program to talk with an even wider spectrum of voices. There are a lot of Israelis who don't support the settlements. We talked to three or four families in the settlements, but not with Israelis who disagree with them. But the people who are pro-settlements are calling the shots today, so it's especially important to understand what makes them tick.

We did not cover Gaza, which is run by or has been run by Hamas. I didn't want to politicize this show. I wanted to talk about the West Bank. To me, the future and the hope for peace rests with the people who live on either side of the wall - in Israel and the West Bank - who want to live together and who believe that violence is not an answer.

The consensus of the people we met in the West Bank, across the board, is that violence is a mistake. I felt very buoyed by the commitment to nonviolence that I felt from talking to Palestinians in the West Bank.

But that view isn't really newsworthy. Radicals get in the news easily. I wanted to talk to the everyday Joe.

Did you enlist the help of experts for the program?

For this one, yes. When I write TV scripts for shows all over Europe, I don't need much expert input. They are fun destinations, and there's not much quibbling over what you say about this place or that.

But trying to write a script for a one-hour special on the Holy Land - not dodging contemporary challenges and issues that are very complicated - I just couldn't do that without running it by experts who would bring in a very thoughtful take from both narratives.

To vet our script, we went to great lengths to run it by people in academia here in the United States and people who are leaders in the Holy Land, both from the Palestinian narrative and from the Israeli narrative.

These people were very helpful. I learned a lot about the sensitivities of the whole topic, and it helped us do a better job.

What do you mean by the United States being a "stakeholder" in the Holy Land?

When you travel to the Holy Land, you realize that the United States really is a stakeholder in this area. There are many people in the United States who care deeply about Israel, and there are also a lot of people in the United States - Palestinian Americans especially - who care deeply about the challenges of the Palestinian people.

America has spent a lot of money in the Middle East, and lots of military capital as well. So I just believe it's right and in our interest to not shirk the responsibility of staying involved and engaged in this challenging part of the world. We have an obligation to work very hard to help find solutions that enable people in the Holy Land to exist peaceably and with dignity.

Do you feel confident peace can be achieved in the Holy Land?

It was so interesting for me to be talking to Palestinians and Israelis. I would oftentimes ask them, "What do you hope for your children?" Everybody said, "We want peace." Everybody wants peace.

The way I see it, the key challenge is finding ways for the younger generation from both sides to get together. Because if they can't get together, they're saddled with the unfortunate baggage of their parents' struggles.

There is a passion for peace, and I think there is hope for peace. And that's why I'm so excited to bring this TV show to our viewing audience here in the United States.

Did you feel safe while traveling and working in the Holy Land?

I never felt at risk anywhere in the Holy Land during this production. I went into some tense areas where there was a lot of military security, and I felt bad for people on both sides of the issue who need to live with that.

But as an American visiting, I really felt I had almost a special status. As a curious traveler and a TV producer, I felt it was very comfortable, and honestly never once felt at risk.

Would you recommend traveling in the Holy Land?

My work is to go to places and report on them so people can be comfortable, traveling there smartly, efficiently, economically, and in a way that broadens their perspective. Having traveled in the last year at length in Israel and Palestine, I am very enthusiastic about people traveling there. I felt safe the whole time.

There is a wonderful infrastructure for tourism. I would remind travelers to not fall into the rut of just going to Israel and then making a little beeline into Bethlehem to see the Church of the Nativity and coming back. If you're going to go to the Holy Land, it's not a balanced experience without actually sleeping in Israel and actually sleeping in Palestine.

Even on a "Holy Land history" kind of sightseeing tour, you can add a lot of value to your experience by connecting with people who live there today. Get to know Israelis. Get to know Palestinians. If nothing else, you'll come home appreciating why the land is treasured by people on both sides of that wall. And you'll find it harder to ignore the challenges facing the Holy Land.

Hi, I'm Rick Steves, back with more travels. This time we're exploring the Holy Land - Israel and Palestine. It's harvest time! Our goal? To understand and enjoy the people who love this land and call it home. Thanks for joining us.

The land Israelis and Palestinians occupy is, for a third of humanity, literally holy land. And Jerusalem marks its sacred center. For Christians, this is where Jesus was crucified and resurrected. For Muslims, this is from where Muhammad journeyed to heaven. And for Jews, the Temple of Solomon stood right here. The crossroads of three great religions, the Holy Land has been coveted and fought over for centuries.

While Israelis and Palestinians have overlapping claims and struggle to share it peacefully, this land has a rich and fascinating heritage. We'll go beyond the sights, opening our minds to both narratives to better understand and empathize with the people. In Israel, we'll explore Jerusalem, and learn some of the religious customs and ideas that shape society here. And we'll walk the Golan Heights, where the importance of maintaining Israel's security is an enduring lesson.

Benny: ...And now we have to make sure that we are on the high ground, never to let it happen again.

In Palestine, by harvesting olives, making a home visit, and popping into a university, we'll get to know a land few travelers visit, and a point of view few people consider.

Student: It's like I don't see the whole of my country; I don't know my country.

And, along the way, we'll hear a few of the many perspectives here. We'll learn about security walls, controversial settlements, and the persistent challenges facing the region.

At the east end of the Mediterranean Sea, the region west of the Jordan River is split between Israel (predominately Jewish), and Palestine (predominately Muslim and Arab), which is made up of the West Bank and Gaza. We'll start in Jerusalem, and in Israel we'll visit Tel Aviv, the Sea of Galilee, and the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. Then, in the West Bank, we'll venture to Bethlehem, Hebron, Nablus, and finish in Ramallah.

The Muslims and Jews that call this region home share a family tree that goes back nearly 4,000 years. That's when the patriarch (or prophet) Abraham had two sons: From Isaac came the Israelites, and Ismael spawned the Arabs.

This ancient ethnic mix is complicated by religions. Israelites were Jewish. Christians worship Jesus, a Jew who brought his own message. And today, most Arabs here are Muslim - a religion that arrived much later with their prophet, Muhammad, in the seventh century.

Throughout the centuries, this region endured waves of conquerors, from ancient Romans...to Christian Crusaders...to Muslim Ottomans. Until the 20 th century, the entire area was called Palestine - as it was in Roman times. While Muslims generally outnumbered Jews and Christians, the various communities generally got along peacefully. In the 20 th century, the Jewish population grew - especially with the creation of the state of Israel after World War II. Today, the combined population of Israel and Palestine is about 12 million - roughly half Jews and half Muslim Arabs, and only a couple percent Christian. In 2012, the United Nations recognized Palestine as a state.

OK, I know, this is complicated and it's contentious...and I imagine some people on both sides are already upset with me. But I'm a travel writer, and the beauty for me is to come here with an open mind and learn. We'll visit each side and we'll do it in alphabetical order: first Israel, then Palestine. Let's go.

Israel is the size of New Jersey, with 8 million people - twice the population of Palestine. While the state of Israel is young, the Jewish people have a history here going back 4,000 years. There's history everywhere, and within a two-hour drive of Jerusalem you can take a sweeping tour of sites illustrating its tumultuous past.

Two thousand years ago, Caesarea was a mighty Roman seaport. Further up the coast is the 12 th-century Crusader town of Akko. And, in the 16 th century, after the return of Muslim dominance, the Ottoman Turks surrounded Jerusalem with this mighty wall.

And the 20 th century has left reminders of a determined struggle that built today's modern Jewish state.

In 1947, after the Holocaust and the end of World War II, the United Nations helped found the modern state of Israel. And Jews, long dispersed across the world, returned to their ancient homeland. In the process, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were displaced. And, to this day, both people struggle to find an equitable and peaceful way to share what each consider their rightful homeland.

The dividing of the Holy Land hasn't been easy. The 1947 United Nations plan of partition, creating an independent Jewish state and an independent Arab state, was rejected by the Arabs. Civil war broke out, which led to the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. After a year of fighting, with Israel mostly victorious, a ceasefire was declared, and temporary borders known as the "Green Line" were established. In the 1960s, Arab-Israeli relations again deteriorated to the point where war broke out in 1967.

With a quick and decisive victory in the Six Days' War, Israel increased its territory substantially. Later, Palestinians - chafing at the loss of their land and freedom - staged two uprisings, or "intifadas." Approximately 1,000 Israeli civilians were killed by Palestinian suicide bombers as violence intensified during the Second Intifada from 2000 to 2005. In response, Israel asserted itself more aggressively, building a controversial fence, or wall, around the West Bank in the name of "security from terrorism."

The epic stories of the world's three great monotheistic religions have played out on this tiny piece of real estate. It's been a difficult mix. And Jerusalem is the most contested city within this contested land.

Jerusalem is a sprawling and modern city of about 800,000 people. But its core, the Old City, is home to just 35,000. Its venerable walls corral a tangle of many of this planet's holiest sites. Within a 10-minute walk you can see the Church of the Holy Sepulchre - so sacred to Christians, the Dome of the Rock - revered by Muslims, and the holiest place in Judaism: the Western Wall. For so many people, Jerusalem is the closest place on earth to heaven.

Much of Jerusalem's importance rests upon this holy site, which is both an inspiration and a flashpoint for the religions that share it. Muslims believe Muhammad journeyed to heaven from here, and they've worshipped on this spot for 1,300 years.

Jews teach that here, Abraham, as a test of his faith, was asked to sacrifice his son. God intervened and saved Isaac. They call this place Temple Mount, believe it to be the center of the earth, and have worshipped here for 3,000 years.

A thousand years before Christ, King David united the 12 tribes of Israel and captured Jerusalem. His son, Solomon, built the First Temple right here. It was later destroyed, and the Second Temple was built. Then came the catastrophic year for the Jews: 70 A.D., when the Romans destroyed their temple and ushered in the Diaspora. That's when the Jews became a people without a land and dispersed throughout the world.

The western foundation of this ancient temple complex survives. Here - at what's called the Western Wall - Jews mourn a horrible past, and pray for a better future. The square operates as an open-air synagogue, with men and women separated by a barrier. The faithful believe prayers left in cracks between the stones of the Western Wall will be answered.

Bar mitzvahs and festivals enliven the scene. Holding the Torah high, joyous families celebrate at the most holy place in Judaism.

Radiating out from Temple Mount is Jerusalem's Old City. It's divided into four quarters: Jewish, Muslim, Armenian, and Christian.

Through the Christian Quarter winds the Via Dolorosa - the route it's believed Jesus walked as he carried the cross. Pilgrims come from around Christendom to retrace his steps. Their journey culminates at the site of Jesus' crucifixion - marked by the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on Calvary Hill, or "Golgotha."

Today the dark, sprawling church is the most sacred site in Christendom. Built on the site believed to be where Jesus died and was resurrected, pilgrims line up to pray at the place of the crucifixion, and a few steps away, under a grand dome, they gather to enter Jesus' tomb, or "sepulchre," and place a candle where he was buried.

Exploring Jerusalem's Old City, with its tight quarters and religious passions, I was impressed by the diversity, the feeling of community, and how, all in all, things seem to work together.

The Jewish Quarter is more orderly and modern than the other quarters. Much of this area was destroyed during the 1948 fighting, or under the ensuing period of Jordanian occupation. After Israelis took control of Jerusalem in 1967, they rebuilt this quarter.

While it's not convenient or economic to live in this medieval tangle, devout Jews find great joy in living here and raising their families so close to the Western Wall.

The Muslim Quarter, with over half of the Old City's population, is Arab. Like the Jewish Quarter, it also stretches out from Temple Mount, which is crowned by that glittering Dome of the Rock. Like the Jews worship at the base of Temple Mount, Muslims worship on its top -- in the shadow of the dome, with its intricate geometric designs in stone and tile fitting regally within its pure and simple lines. Holy as this spot is for Muslims, it's controlled by Israel, and residents of Palestine are generally not allowed to worship here. Most of those praying here are Israeli citizens - part of Israel's Palestinian minority.

Here in the Muslim Quarter, a bustling and labyrinthine marketplace is popular with local Arabs. Today, on the eve of a Muslim holiday, the market is particularly busy.

While wandering the Muslim Quarter, you may see houses fortified and festooned with Israeli flags - homes of Zionist families determined to stake out this bit of the Old City for their Jewish community. Considering the rich historic heritage of each of these communities, it's understandable that both vie for this sacred real estate. This struggle over control of Jerusalem is a huge political challenge.

While complete Muslim control of Jerusalem is unrealistic, many Arabs envision an independent Palestinian state, with this part of Jerusalem - East Jerusalem - as their capital. It's a very contentious issue, and Israel seems determined to keep Jerusalem whole and in its control.

An icon of the tension is the wall that Israel has built between it and Palestine. What Israelis call a "security fence" Palestinians consider an affront to their dignity, and a land grab, as it often reaches over the internationally agreed-upon border and into Palestinian territory.

Just five miles from the Dome of the Rock is a checkpoint in the wall where I can walk from Jerusalem right into Bethlehem.

Like at border towns between rich and poor lands all over the world, each day workers with special passes cross the wall on their commute from the poor side for higher-paying jobs in the more affluent country.

As long as times are calm, the West Bank's wide open for the adventurous traveler. You don't need a visa, the currency's the same as Israel, good guidebooks lead the way, and you certainly won't find any tourist crowds.

Bethlehem, a leading Palestinian city, is the perfect first stop in the West Bank. For me, no Holy Land visit is complete or balanced without crossing the wall and learning from both narratives - Israeli and Palestinian. Suddenly, there's not a yarmulke in sight. Wandering Palestinian streets and markets, I kept thinking how easy it is to get here, how little I knew of it, and how rarely visited this land is.

While beloved among Christians as the place where Jesus was born, Bethlehem is now a mostly Muslim town. Its thriving market is a classic Arab souk. The main square bustles with commerce. And the main traffic circle comes with a memorial to locals doing time in Israeli prisons.

Bethlehem's skyline is a commotion of both crescents and crosses - a reminder that the town, while now mostly Muslim, still has many Christians. While all Palestinians are Arabs, not all Palestinians are Muslims. In fact, a small minority are Arab Christians.

Nativity Square marks the center of Bethlehem. Here, the Church of the Nativity is built upon the spot believed to be where Jesus was born.

Inside, you feel the history. Emperor Constantine, the first Christian Roman emperor, had this church built in 326.

A steady stream of pilgrims and tourists come here from all over Christendom to remember that first Christmas, and to pray on the spot where tradition says Jesus was born.

Many assume that Palestinian or Arab Christians were converted in modern times. But, in fact, their Christian roots go all the way back to the time of Christ. By the way, a century ago, about 20 percent of all Palestinians were Christian. Today, that number's down to less than 2 percent. And most of those live here in Bethlehem.

Along with Christians, Muslims also consider this a holy site. In fact, for over a thousand years, a mosque has also stood on Nativity Square. It's Friday and Muslims have gathered to pray.

Travel - especially here in Palestine - is filled with opportunities to learn. After prayer, I met a cleric and enjoyed a conversation about Islam.

Rick: What do you hope for? And what do you see in the future here in Palestine?
Imam: I hope in whole of the world to be one family, one family. Mainly it is for life, no fightings, no killings, no explosions, no violence, to be good people. Every Friday I say this message for everybody. So I hope for everybody and I say to you I like to come to take you, your hand from here to go with each other to heavens, not alone. I'm not selfish man. I love you. I love him, I love everybody. I like this is my religion.

When on the road, the more people I can talk to the better. To get the most out of this opportunity to better understand Palestine, we're joined by local guide Kamal Mukarkar.

Rick: So there's churches but there's mosques, also, in Bethlehem?
Kamal: Bethlehem is a very holy city for the Muslims as well as the Christians. For the Muslims, Jesus is their second important prophet. They also believe in Mary; they worship her. She has a whole section in the Koran just named after her.
Rick: A whole book in the Koran, named after Mary?
Kamal: Yes, exactly, and that's why she's very important for them.

We're dropping by Kamal's place to meet his family and enjoy an evening together. It's typical in Palestinian culture that many generations live under the same roof. We're meeting Kamal's mother, fiancée, his sister, and her children.

After some good conversation in the living room, Kamal's mother calls us to the dinner table. She's cooked up a classic tagine.

Rick: I think it's impossible for a traveler to be hungry in Palestine. The food just keeps on coming!
Woman: Yes, and you have to leave something on your plate, 'cause if you don't keep something in your plate - food - you'll get another kind food.

As anywhere, actually making friends and getting into a home gives an intimate insight into the everyday worlds of the people you meet.

Rick: I think this a beautiful, beautiful welcome here.
Kamal's mother: Sahtein.
Rick: And what does that...?
Kamal's mother: Bon appétit.
Rick: Sahtein.
Kamal: Translated it's "cheers" - to your health - twice. Two times for your health.
Rick: Two times for your health. Sahtein.

Heading back across the wall to Jerusalem, the contrasts between the West Bank and Israel are immediately obvious. Outside the Old City, we're immersed in modern Jerusalem. Joining locals in an afternoon stroll down Ben Yehuda Street, in Jerusalem's New City, we appreciate this culture's compelling mix of east and west, secular and sacred, modern and traditional.

About three-quarters of all Israelis are Jewish. But most of these are secular Jews - non-practicing. About 15 percent of Israeli Jews are Orthodox - very religious, and living conservative lifestyles that require them to be apart in many ways. Entire districts of Jerusalem are known as "ultra-Orthodox." About 20 percent of the population are Arab citizens of Israel - generally Palestinians who never left after the formation of Israel. Christians, who are mostly Arabs, make up a small and shrinking minority.

Israel is a melting pot nation like none other. Nearly half the country is first-generation immigrants, evident in the cultural makeup of the soldiers who seem to be everywhere. Nearly all 18-year-olds do time in the military. This service is a kind of cultural boot camp, as even fresh-off-the-boat immigrants emerge as good Hebrew-speaking Israelis.

While I found most Israelis look and live as contemporary as any modern American, there are corners where traditions are very strong. This is especially evident in places of worship and in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods. With the help of my Jewish guide, Abie Bresler, observing the way people dress comes with cultural insights:

Rick: Walking down the street there are so many different fashions, different ways people dress.
Abie: Well, that's because they express their belonging to a certain group and following a certain rabbi. Different rabbis set standards of how their followers should be dressed.
Rick: What does the block on the forehead indicate?
Abie: Well, in the Scripture, it says you should always have the love of God on your mind. So in that capsule they have a parchment with that Scripture.
Rick: What's the significance of the yarmulke?
Abie: Jews wear yarmulkes because they are constantly reminding themselves that God is above them.
Rick: Ah, so everybody who's wearing a yarmulke, it's a constant reminder the maker is up above.
Abie: Definitely.
Rick: Now you see a lot of Orthodox, even the little boys, with long ear locks.
Abie: Regarding the ear locks, the Torah is very specific: "Thou shalt not shave the sides of your face." And these people take those words as it is written.
Rick: You notice women are dressed quite modestly.
Abie: The Orthodox women are always dressed modestly. But when they get married they take it one step upwards, and they cover their hair in public. Regarding the hats, it's part of, actually, the uniform defining which movement you belong to. So, by looking at somebody, you can tell if he's Ashkenazi, and which movement amongst the Ashkenazi, or Sephardi, or Lithuanian, and so on and so forth.
Rick: So there are many different stripes of Orthodoxy in the Jewish faith.
Able: Definitely. In Jerusalem 19, amongst the ultra-Orthodox.
Rick: And it's like the rabbis are almost like pop stars - they have their own following. These are the great teachers.
Abie: Uh, more than pop stars.
Rick: More than?
Abie: More than pop stars, sure. Put it this way: They're spiritual stars, without the pop.

The state of Israel was born, in part, out of the Holocaust, a defining event in the long history of the Jews. To appreciate the impact of the Holocaust, critical in understanding the psyche of today's Israel, visit Yad Vashem. This powerful museum and memorial chronicles the systematic slaughter of 6 million Jews by Nazi Germany.

Its Hall of Names is a project designed to give every victim the dignity of simply being named and recorded. This archive aspires to catalog and therefore remember each of the 6 million victims.

Yad Vashem also celebrates the creation of modern Israel. It shows the spirit of Zionism - that determination of those who came both as concentration-camp survivors and refugees from Europe to forge for themselves a state for the Jewish people. Photographs of the first settlers show early Zionists returning to their ancestral homeland - starting as a trickle in the 19 th century, and becoming a flood after World War II.

Today, just a couple generations later, the skyscrapers of Tel Aviv stand like exclamation points declaring, "we've come a long way."

There was a popular slogan back then: "A land without a people for a people without a land." That was inspirational, but it ignored the reality of the Palestinians who actually lived here and were displaced with the creation of Israel. Still, it's impressive how the true grit of those early Jewish settlers turned sand dunes into Tel Aviv and built modern Israel.

The historic town of Jaffa - now consumed by the sprawl of Tel Aviv - was the Ellis Island of the new state. This was where new arrivals first set foot in Israel. Much of Jaffa - historically an important Arab town - was destroyed in 1948 - in what Israelis call their "War of Independence."

As in any war, there are winners and there are losers. And, while Israelis celebrate the birth of their nation, Palestinians call Israel's Independence Day the "Day of Catastrophe." They remember their loss - the destruction of many Arab villages that once thrived here, and how hundreds of thousands of those who fled ended up in refugee camps over a newly drawn border.

Just a 10-minute drive north of the old stone buildings of Jaffa are the new glass and steel buildings of modern Tel Aviv. Gleaming Tel Aviv feels as modern and busy as any American city its size. While its history only goes back a century, the original main drag, Rothschild Boulevard, is lined with venerable buildings. And Tel Aviv's beach scene is filled with a live-for-today vibrancy.

In this culture, food is love, and seems to celebrate the bounty of the land. We sat down with our Israeli guide Benny and driver Kobe to get an edible lesson in this part of their culture.

Benny: Hey, cheers. L'chaim.
Rick: L'chaim! Very good. So Benny, could you say this is typical Israeli?
Benny: Yeah - you can say it is typical Israeli. Everything that you see here is grown here locally.
Rick: Now, you could say this is Israeli, but it's also Arab cuisine.
Benny: Yes. We call it now Israeli food but you can find it in the Arab countries, you can find it Lebanon, you can find it all over the Middle East. Here we have eggplant with olive oil and tahini. Here we have the tahini itself. Here we have another eggplant salad with vegetables. That's the hummus; very famous hummus made from chickpeas. This is something special: This we call tabbouleh. It's made of bulgur and parsley and cucumbers. Very special, very tasty. It's OK to reach and dip your pita bread into it - you dip it in each of the salads, and that's the way to do it; no need for fork or a knife...
Rick: And Kobe how do you say bon appétit in Hebrew?
Kobe: Beteavon.
Rick: Bete...
Kobe: ... avon.
Rick: Beteavon.Thank you.
All: L'chaim!

Israel is small, and laced by modern freeways. Getting around is easy. Road signs are in three languages and three scripts: Hebrew and Arabic for Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel, and English for visitors.

A short drive up the coastline takes us to Haifa - a prosperous and open city famous for its tolerance. Many people here are part of Israel's Arab minority. I was impressed at the youthful and positive energy. It feels like young Israelis here - whether from Muslim or Jewish families - are most interested in living free from the religious and ethnic baggage of their parents. In a trendy café, it was hard to tell who's who.

Talking with a local Arab Israeli family we learned that, while problems persist, they consider this land their home.

Rick: Now what is it like socially if, in Haifa, if you're an Arab Israeli with Jewish Israelis? Is it separate or can you mix?
Woman: Well we mix in restaurants, at work; we socialize here and there. But...
Man: Some neighborhoods, some streets are mixed.
Rick: 'Cause some people -
Woman: Some streets, not, not a lot.
Daughter: I, I used to hear from her that once they were more together.
Woman: Yeah.
Daughter: Like if she had neighbors that used to...
Rick: Really!
Woman: Yeah.
Daughter: ...to do everything together, now no.
Rick: And what do you see for the future, for your, for Israeli Arabs and Israeli Jews together, your children - what do you hope for?
Woman: Everybody hopes for peace and a better life but I doubt it. I doubt it.
Rick: The reality is...?
Woman: The reality is not like that. Even with all the problems that there is here, this is our roots, you know, we'll never, never give it up. With everything that happens around us.
Rick: That's beautiful. I like to hear that.
Woman: Yes. We love it here.

Heading into the interior takes us down - 700 feet below sea level - to the Sea of Galilee. Israel's primary source of water, it's both fed and drained by the Jordan River. Galilee is popular among Christian pilgrims. It's famous as the place where Jesus did his three years of ministry, and where so many Bible stories were set - from loaves and fishes, and the Sermon on the Mount, to Christ walking on water.

When exploring the Holy Land, your sightseeing careens from ancient holy sites to reminders of 20 th-century strife and wars. Overlooking the Sea of Galilee stands the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Taken from Syria in the 1967 war, and now firmly under Israeli control, a visit here helps explain Israel's commitment to holding the high ground.

Benny: See now, a former Syrian position...

Our guide, Benny, shows us the strategic significance of this area from an old Syrian pillbox.

Benny: Standing here, on a former Syrian position, one can understand how vulnerable was the settlements, the villages of the kibbutzim of Israel before 1967. For a whole generation the Syrians were - the Syrians were here on the Golan, on the edge of the cliff targeting and shooting every single village and kibbutz of ours. Every day they looked up to Golan saying, "Is it going to be a day of shelling today - "
Rick: Artillery from this little base? - Boom.
Benny: Mortar shells, artillery, tank shells, machine-gun fire.
Rick: And the Sea of Galilee was the source of the freshwater for Israel - and still is.
Benny: The Sea of Galilee was always and still is the most important water reservoir we have, and that's why today it's very difficult for us even to conceive leaving the Golan, allowing anyone to be here. Above all we must maintain our security. The security of the Israelis, the families, the children, then we can speak about all the other things.

Control of land is the crux of the problem between Israelis and Palestinians and occupying the high ground is more than a military issue - it's a civilian one as well.

Israel is developing settlements - fortified communities on the tops of hills - deep into the West Bank. Essentially Israeli towns, these controversial developments reach far into what Palestinians consider their territory.

Many Israelis make the case that developing this land is justified because the land was unused. And many Jews believe it's God's will that they occupy Biblical Judea and Samaria, which is what they call the West Bank.

Roughly half a million Israeli Jews now live in settlements in Palestine. These planned and gated communities come with all the comforts. And, with Israeli government subsidies for housing and transportation, young Jewish families can afford to live here and commute from West Bank settlements back into Israel.

As in other democracies, there are disagreements over government policy, and many moderate Israelis oppose construction of settlements in the West Bank. But government policies still allow the ongoing construction of these settlements.

I chatted with several settlers to get their perspectives. And, to get another narrative, I talked with my Palestinian guides - both residents of the West Bank.

Rick: Now, there's a lot of confusion in America about settlements and so on. Is this a "settlement," is this what you would consider a settlement?
Man in café: Well the word 'settlement' has all kinds of connotations. We consider it a city. And just like Seattle's a city so is Ma'aleh Adumim a city. There is some dispute in the world as to what this should be and what its status is...

Rick: Are you "settlers"? Or what do you, how do you consider the name?
First man on balcony: I don't have name for that. We live in Israel, this is Israel.
Rick: Yeah, so this is your town.
First man on balcony: Yeah, this is my country.
Second man on balcony: Exactly.
First man on balcony: Now what is Ma'aleh, what is Jordan Valley? It's Israel; everything is Israel.

Rick: Israelis I've heard would say, "Well, the land is unused anyway, it sits on the top of the hills."
Husam: Yeah that's a good - a good excuse, but why it's unused - because we are not allowed to use it.

Rick: What would you say to an Arab that says, "This is on the other side of the line defining the West Bank and it's Palestinian territory and you don't belong here" - what...what would you say to them?
Woman in café: I don't know. My history goes back not to the...to the line, whatever the line is, my history goes back thousands of years and in my history this is part of Israel.

Kamal: Why should I leave my country? I was born and raised here. My grandfather, his grandfather, his great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, and we still here. We didn't leave.

Second man on balcony: We do need to find a way to fix everything. But I don't know, I don't know how easy it's going to be. And if it's going to be possible now.

Kamal: You know that daily there are settlements [they] are building, there is, the wall is being built, and the Palestinians don't do anything about it. We don't fight it; we don't do anything against it. We just want to show the world that we are a people that want peace. We want to show them we, we're accepting this now because we want to show you this is not who we are. We are people who want to achieve something.

Rick: My hunch is they've learned that there [is] only one future and that is to respect Israel and not be violent.
Woman in café: I don't know if they've learned.
Rick: Maybe I'm naïve.
Man in café: You know I think they've learned -
Woman in café: I'm not convinced yet.
Rick: That's my hope. That's my hope.
Woman in café: I think we're all hopeful. I don't think we've seen it yet.

Kamal: Those settlements are making these, this, this idea of us building the states on that land impossible. If you want peace, if you want a two-state solution, help us achieving that, you know. The settlements for sure they don't help.

Husam: I'm hoping and that's part of the things I'm involved in, to create, plant seeds, hopefully maybe 10 years, 15 years from now people will realize the importance of living together and having one pluralistic democratic state.

Being here, I can see the appeal of these neighborhoods - especially for young families. But, I've learned that these Israeli enclaves embitter the Palestinians as much as violent resistance embitters Israelis. And many fear that the more the West Bank is fragmented by Israeli settlements, the more elusive a mutually agreeable solution to this region's troubles will become.

The Palestinian perspective of the situation is illustrated by maps like this, showing how their land-holdings are shrinking, since the creation of Israel in 1948, with each passing decade.

And there's the wall - begun in 2003 by Israel to defend its border with the West Bank. Israelis say this is a security fence, built after losing a thousand of its citizens to suicide bombers in the previous decade. And they claim it's been effective - noting that since its construction, there's been almost no terrorism.

Palestinians counter by saying that the wall was built with the pretense of security. They say it's actually a land grab, designed to hobble a Palestinian state. The fence, or wall - which is over 300 miles long - generally runs well within Palestinian territory. And it's nearly twice as long as the border it claims to defend - redrawn in order to secure settlements, aquifers, good farm land, and holy places within the West Bank for Israel.

While it's landscaped, and can look attractive from the Israeli side, the wall is unfinished and feels demoralizing from the Palestinian side.

This struggle has been difficult - with killings and tragedy on both sides. While one man's terrorist may be another man's freedom fighter, the fact is, in recent decades, both sides have suffered terribly - Israeli Jews have been killed by Palestinians and Palestinians have been killed by Israelis.

I can certainly understand Israel's need for security. But walls are designed to keep people apart...and to me, that's part of the problem. I felt that young generations on both sides want to connect...but with this barrier - which many call the "separation wall"...people connecting to find common ground is not an option.

Beyond the infrastructure of conflict, it's the treasured land that defines Palestine. Rejoined by our Palestinian guide, Kamal, our first stop is Battir Natural Park - famed for its hikes through olives groves and ancient terraces.

Here in the Holy Land, the land itself is holy to its inhabitants. And for Palestinians, the olive tree is a kind of lifeblood for their culture.

It's October, and across the land - as they have since ancient times - families gather in the olive groves for the harvest. Children are let out of school for the week so they can work the trees with their parents. In the West Bank, most of the trees are olive trees. To Palestinians the beloved olive tree represents their past and their future. They say, "It was planted by our grandfathers for us to eat and we plant it for our grandchildren to eat."

In nearby villages, families take their olives to the communal press to make oil. The traditional technique survives - though boosted by hard-working machinery - as a busy crew in oil-soaked shirts meets the demands of the harvest season. Rounds of olive paste are pressed into a weeping mass. The fresh oil, after filtering, becomes a golden liquid poured into jugs to be taken home.

As if rising out of those ancient olive groves, the ancient city of Hebron, with over 200,000 people, is the largest city in the West Bank. And it's the vibrant commercial capital, with nearly a third of the entire West Bank economy.

Just strolling the streets, dodging cars, and mixing with the people, I feel the energy of an economy that seems primed to grow. Commerce spills out everywhere. Exploring the market streets, I'm immersed in Palestinian life. Experiences like these are why we travel.

Along with all the market activity and commerce comes high security and tension. That's because this city has the tomb of Abraham, so sacred to both Israelis and Palestinians.

Here, Jews live literally atop Palestinian Muslims as the two communities struggle to be near the tomb of their common patriarch. While the city is mostly Palestinian, a determined and well-protected community of several hundred Israeli settlers has staked out the high ground. The tension between the communities is illustrated by a wire net that protects the Arab food and clothing market from the garbage of the Jewish residents above.

Israeli troops are posted here in the name of security. Turnstiles and checkpoints are a way of life. A no-man's-land with Jewish political art decorating closed buildings divides the two communities.

And it's all about this very sacred and complicated site: an ancient structure capped by a medieval church, which now functions both as a mosque and a synagogue, holding the Tombs of Abraham and his family.

The focal point for both faiths is this: the tomb of Abraham. Poignantly, access for the feuding descendants of Abraham is divided by a pane of bullet-proof glass.

On one side of the glass Jews worship in the synagogue - the second most holy place in Judaism. It's enlivened with singing, studying, and praying among the tombs of their great patriarchs.

And The other half is a mosque - where Muslims worship before their shared patriarch with equal fervor. Its exquisite mimber - where the imam stands to give sermons - is a rare original from the 12 th century, with inlaid wood and no nails. Unfortunately, this holy place's history has a tragic aura.

For centuries, Jews were generally not allowed to worship here. Then, after the Israeli victory in the War of 1967, the space was shared by Jews and Muslims. But during a Muslim service in 1994, an Israeli settler entered here with his gun and killed 29 Palestinian worshippers. Since then, this holy space has been divided - emblematic of the difficult challenges that permeate the Holy Land.

As a visitor, traveling from Palestinian city to city on fine, modern freeways, it's easy to underestimate the complexity of the region and the extent of Israeli control. Palestinians living in the West Bank, while nominally autonomous, are living under an Israeli occupation. Israel has granted sections of the West Bank various degrees of autonomy.

Palestinian cities are generally Palestinian-run, with their own security forces. But these islands of relative independence are surrounded by zones controlled by Israeli military. Most of the West Bank population is in Palestinian-controlled cities, but Israel still controls most of the roads and most of the land.

If there's a problem or unrest, Israel can activate checkpoints like this all across the country and stop all traffic in the West Bank. Within minutes they can lock down and isolate every Palestinian city.

Palestinian cars have green plates. Israelis have yellow plates. Generally, most West Bank roads are open to all. But, when times are tense, checkpoints are manned, and only yellow plates are allowed. Things are pretty quiet during our visit and we're able to move fast and free, even with our green plates, throughout the West Bank.

Some of the most dramatic and evocative scenery here is in the vast and arid Judean Desert.

Hiding in folds of the desert are fabled monasteries, which, since ancient times, have given hermits the isolation of their dreams. Our ears pop as we continue deeper into the desert and drop below sea level. The road ends at the lowest place on earth, the fabled Dead Sea.

Palestinians living in the West Bank have no access to waterfront. Officially, there's no seaside, riverbank, or lake front in the West Bank. Israel adjusted the border to control the entire Dead Sea shoreline. But, when tensions are low, Palestinian families are allowed to enjoy some Israeli Dead Sea resorts.

Approaching any Palestinian city, a bold red sign makes it clear: You're leaving the realm of the Israeli military and entering the zone controlled by Palestinian security. This comes with a checkpoint - sometimes manned, sometimes unmanned and a simple drive-through. Regardless, there's always a watchtower, reminding those coming and going that Israel is keeping an eye on things.

Nablus is the second city of the West Bank in population, with a fine modern center and a long history. In ancient times the Roman Emperor named it the "New City" - that's "Neapolis," or "Nablus."

The people of Nablus are relatively conservative. And, immersed in this vibrant city's commercial commotion, I found simply being part of the scene a powerful experience.

Famed (or notorious) for its fighting spirit, the city has walls crusty with political posters. These young local men - considered terrorists, or freedom fighters, depending on your perspective - are mostly in Israeli prisons or dead. Yet, they live on with posters that celebrate their commitment to Palestinian independence. As these posters fade, I'm hoping that what seems to me like a new spirit of nonviolence to address the region's problems reflects a permanent shift in Palestinian strategy.

A recurring symbol throughout Palestine is the key. Many towns display a big key as a reminder of a big issue here: refugees, the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who were displaced with the creation of Israel in 1948. Here in the West Bank - over 60 years later - many refugee camps are still filled with Palestinian families who fled when their land became "Israel."

To this day, these people - whose parents and grandparents, thinking they'd be returning home soon, grabbed their keys and fled back in 1948 - treasure those old keys and are happy to tell their story.

Man: Around the 19 th of October, 1948, my family was forced to leave their village. They closed their house, and moved away, waiting for two weeks, and then they will be coming back. Sixty-five years later we are in refugee camp, still waiting for this return, which never happened. Two-thirds of Palestinian people became refuges in 1948, dispersed in 59 refugee camps, and most of them have these old, rusty keys for doors that do not exist anymore.

Among the many refugee camps in the West Bank, the biggest - with over 20,000 people - is Balata, just outside of Nablus. The 10-foot-by-10-foot platting - marking where tents were posted back in 1948 - survives. Only now, the tents are gone, replaced by multi-story cinderblock tenements.

Throughout the world, there are refugee camps like this. Wandering these lanes, I can't imagine living in such dense population...the lack of privacy...being a parent with children and little money...the frustration of an uncertain future.

For over 60 years, the United Nations has maintained a calming and helpful presence. When the UN-run and -funded school lets out, the streets flood with children happy to practice their English with a rare traveler venturing into their world.

A women's co-op provides training, and helps kick-start cottage industries run by traditional artisans.

And the commerce enlivening the main street of the camp is like that of a town. We're joining little Mustafa, who's been sent by his mother to get chicken for dinner.

Around here, pride can come in little triumphs...and Mustafa is heading home with dinner for the family.

Life goes on in these camps, as refugees wait for a resolution to their plight.

It's time to move onto our final stop in the West Bank. It's October, and the landscape is pretty brown after a scorching summer. Today's vistas feel timeless. In fact, I 'can imagine Abraham, Jesus, or Muhammad, each traversing these same valleys.

The city of Ramallah functions as the de facto capital of Palestine. While most Palestinians consider Jerusalem their rightful capital, so do the Israelis - and sharing the city seems unlikely for now. That leaves Ramallah to host the Palestinian government and international agencies.

Adjacent the president's headquarters stands the tomb of Yasser Arafat.

While he certainly has plenty of detractors, this Palestinian statesman, who led the PLO from 1969 until 2004, is without a doubt the father of modern Palestine.

Call him what you like, people here celebrate Arafat as the man who did more than anyone else to raise awareness of the Palestinian struggle for independence.

With its international professionals and university students, Ramallah has an almost cosmopolitan energy you feel nowhere else in Palestine. Whether coming together at the Square of the Lions...or browsing down a stylish shopping street...Ramallah helps me envision a peaceful and prosperous Palestine of the future.

Nearby, at Birzeit University, with its beautiful campus and 9,000 students, you feel a younger generation, working hard and engaged. A stroll through the campus gives me a chance to connect with students, and learn a bit about both their culture and their aspirations.

Rick: Now, in a university like this, are there more men or more women studying?
Second student: Women, I believe, women...
First student: I think more women, yes.
Rick: What is it like for a woman in Palestine?
First student: They live freely, like womens in the world.
Second student: Yes, we can do everything together. We can go out together and no judgment, nothing.
Rick: This feels so free and beautiful here, and you have such a future, but you're living behind a wall. What is that like?
First student: It is like I don't see the whole of my country. I can't go to Jerusalem also. I can't go to the - to the sea; I can'tsee the sea. I'm a refugee - I don't know my country.
Rick: 'Cause it's on the other side of the wall.
Students: Yeah.
Rick: Yeah. There was a history of violence during different struggles. But I feel today that there's a recognition that violence is not a winning strategy. What is the thinking in Palestine about, about violent resistance now?
Second student: For all, for us to stick together. To be together, to be one unite, you know, and this our victory to us, for us to keep together, to stay together, and never let them make us feel at the end that - yes - to accept the idea that we are the bad guys. 'Cause we're not.
Rick: So what is the hope for...for the future?
Second student: Of course to live in peace. To have peace and to be, you know -
Third student: To have, to have all your family around, to go abroad whenever you want...
Second student: We're very happy that you're coming and give you this point and this thoughts about us, because we know that Americans and public in general, they know the bad idea about us. So it's our pleasure to have this opportunities to give our thoughts and who we really are.
Rick: Free women with a good future.
Students: Yes.
Rick: Insha'Allah.
Students: Insha'Allah. Yes, thank you. Insha'Allah.

Traveling here humanizes the Holy Land. On both sides of the wall you feel the religious passion, the historical suffering, and the national pride. And you meet endearing people...good people motivated by fear and love. Land is treasured, land is disputed, and land is the basis of dreams. Both communities have inflicted pain, and both communities have endured pain. And peace is possible only when both sides move beyond the past and make real concessions. The United States is clearly a stakeholder, and it's hard to imagine a roadmap to peace in the Holy Land without American involvement.

There's no easy answer. Yet traveling here, I feel there's a growing realization that neither side is going away, violence is not the answer, and everyone will be better off when dignity, security, and economic justice are provided to all. I know the hurdles are high. But after hearing both narratives, I can envision a peaceful and prosperous Holy Land - with a secure Israel and a free Palestine. And I'm hopeful.

In this land, so treasured by Jews, Muslims, and Christians, I'm reminded that the prophets of each of these religions taught us to love our neighbors. And the lessons learned traveling here in in the Holy Land can inspire us all to strive for that ideal. I'm Rick Steves. Until next time, keep on travelin'. Shalom, salām, and peace.

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The Holy Land: Israel & Palestine Today TV Special | Rick Steves' Europe

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This hour-long special weaves together both the Israeli and the Palestinian narratives. In Israel, we go from the venerable ramparts of Jerusalem to the vibrant modern skyline of Tel Aviv. In Palestine, we harvest olives near Hebron, visit a home in Bethlehem, and pop into a university in Ramallah.

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Immigration and Donald Trump (Reading for Reading Response 3)

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Immigration and Donald Trump (Reading for Reading Response 3)

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W HEN JUAN GARCIA started work as an urban planner for the government of Gaston County in 1997, he reckons he was the only Latino among its 1,400 employees. Hub of a dying textiles industry, on the western edge of Charlotte, the county was missing out on the boom already rippling through the periphery of North Carolina's most dynamic city. For that reason Gastonia, its altogether less zippy capital, was not seeing many of the Mexican immigrants then pouring into the state, to labour on the building sites erupting in Charlotte and revive the poultry industry in Union County, east of the city. But this was about to change.

Finding opportunities overlooked by others in Gastonia's run-down factories and mills, migrants started settling in the town's trailer parks and poor black neighbourhoods. Its Hispanic population soared, to around 6,000, or 9% of the total, within a few years. This caused friction with Gastonia's white majority, recalls Mr Garcia, who was born in Colombia. "Mexicans like to get physically closer when they're talking to you than Anglos do. They might slaughter a chicken in their yard. They play loud music there." But the ill-will rarely went beyond grumbling about the migrants' poor English. Some in Gastonia said this reflected the much deeper tensions in the South between whites and blacks. Resentment of immigrants was only a brief distraction from that main drama. In any event, the migrants, many of whom had either moved from Texas or come directly from the Rio Grande, expected no favours. "So long as you treat people the right way, you're all right," shrugged Elvira, who came to North Carolina to pick tobacco 25 years ago and now works at the "Las Americas" supermarket in Gastonia.
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The influx of Hispanics to the town, and hundreds of unfashionable cities like it, illustrates how much they have changed America over the past three decades. The Hispanic population has risen ninefold since the 1960s, to around 60m. Its members, many of them second- and third-generation immigrants, are dispersing across the country, driving growth and changing the social fabric wherever they go. While the white population is on the cusp of declining, most states have flourishing Hispanic communities. North Carolina, which had around 40,000 Hispanics in 1990, now has almost a million. The high growth rates it has meanwhile sustained owe a lot to this migrant infusion.

To men like Julian, in other words, who had popped into Las Americas on a half-hour break between his jobs. From 5.45am to 3.30pm he works as a machinist in one of Gastonia's surviving looms; between 4pm and 11pm he drives a fork-lift in a packaging factory. Thus have Gastonia's Hispanics filled gaps in its old industries, taking low-skilled jobs that blacks and whites no longer want. Meanwhile the many small landscaping and construction businesses they launched have forged an overdue connection between Gastonia and the new services-based economy of the South, a 20-minute drive across the Catawba river in Charlotte. Recognising the community's importance, as well as its needs, Gaston County now employs over 100 Hispanic public servants, with a premium on bilingual doctors, nurses and social workers.

This transformation is the essential context in which to view Donald Trump's talk of a crisis at the southern border. The president appears to be motivated less by genuine concern for the state of the border than by his white supporters' feelings of anxiety over demographic change. His promise of a border-wall, which few immigration experts think America needs, following a steep decline in the number of illegal crossings, is a sign of that. In fact, were Mr Trump not so obviously using his promised border-wall as a political device, he might have built one by now. Last year he turned down an offer from the Democrats that would have given him wall money in return for comprehensive immigration reform-far more money than his emergency is likely to get him. In short, the physical promise of the wall is largely a figment. It is a symbol of Mr Trump's tacit pledge to his white supporters to defend them against the diversifying of American society that many fear. It is too late for that, however. Most of the growth in America's Hispanic population is the result of natural increase, not immigration. Mr Trump's nativist stand is positively Canute-like.

It also carries great costs. The most important is the forgone opportunity to cauterise America's immigration sore that his presidency represents. The anxiety of Mr Trump's followers is exacerbated-explained, even-by the chaotic legacy of decades of illegal immigration. It stands to reason that America's roughly 11m illegal migrants, most of whom are Hispanic, are willing to work harder, in tougher conditions, than indigenous people. Economists may argue over the effect of that on wages; but it is a theoretical disadvantage to natives that they are bound to resent.

Meanwhile the insecurity illegal migrants live with is a barrier to assimilation, which also causes tension. It was fairly amazing that most of the shoppers in Las Americas, despite having spent years in America, spoke little or no English. The answer to these tangled problems has long been clear. America needs to regularise the status of millions of illegal immigrants, while further improving border security to win consent for that change. Given Mr Trump's hold on the nativist right, he could have done this. Yet that would have required him to want to fix the mess, and not seek to profit from it.

A wave is coming

The pay-off for his party will be short-lived, however, because of another development among Hispanics. For several reasons, including the fact that many are illegal and unable to vote, their political clout has lagged behind their numerical rise. In North Carolina, they are 10% of the population and 3% of registered voters. Yet Hispanic citizens are now entering the property-owning middle-class in vast numbers. The looming calamity for Republicans, who have done so much to alienate them, is that such people vote.

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Donald Trump's real target is not illegal immigration but diversity

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W HEN JUAN GARCIA started work as an urban planner for the government of Gaston County in 1997, he reckons he was the only Latino among its 1,400 employees. Hub of a dying textiles industry, on the western edge of Charlotte, the county was missing out on the boom already rippling through the periphery of North Carolina's most dynamic city.

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Anthony Bourdain - Parts Unknown (Los Angeles)

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Anthony Bourdain - Parts Unknown (Los Angeles)

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Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown | Netflix

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This CNN original series has chef Anthony Bourdain traveling to extraordinary locations around the globe to sample a variety of local cuisines. Watch trailers & learn more.

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Crash Course Navigating Digital Information #2

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Crash Course Navigating Digital Information #2

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The Facts about Fact Checking: Crash Course Navigating Digital Information #2

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Crash Course Navigating Digital Information #1

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Crash Course Navigating Digital Information #1

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Introduction to Crash Course Navigating Digital Information #1

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The minimum wage is the minimum hourly wage an employer can pay an employee for work. Currently, the federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour (part of the Fair Labor Standards Act) and some states and cities have raised their ... Continue reading →

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Aung San Suu Kyi Nobel Lecture (Reading for Reading Response 2)

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Aung San Suu Kyi Nobel Lecture (Reading for Reading Response 2)

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Nobel Lecture by Aung San Suu Kyi, Oslo, 16 June, 2012

Your Majesties, Your Royal Highness, Excellencies, Distinguished members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Dear Friends,

Long years ago, sometimes it seems many lives ago, I was at Oxford listening to the radio programme Desert Island Discs with my young son Alexander. It was a well-known programme (for all I know it still continues) on which famous people from all walks of life were invited to talk about the eight discs, the one book beside the bible and the complete works of Shakespeare, and the one luxury item they would wish to have with them were they to be marooned on a desert island. At the end of the programme, which we had both enjoyed, Alexander asked me if I thought I might ever be invited to speak on Desert Island Discs. "Why not?" I responded lightly. Since he knew that in general only celebrities took part in the programme he proceeded to ask, with genuine interest, for what reason I thought I might be invited. I considered this for a moment and then answered: "Perhaps because I'd have won the Nobel Prize for literature," and we both laughed. The prospect seemed pleasant but hardly probable.

(I cannot now remember why I gave that answer, perhaps because I had recently read a book by a Nobel Laureate or perhaps because the Desert Island celebrity of that day had been a famous writer.)

In 1989, when my late husband Michael Aris came to see me during my first term of house arrest, he told me that a friend, John Finnis, had nominated me for the Nobel Peace Prize. This time also I laughed. For an instant Michael looked amazed, then he realized why I was amused. The Nobel Peace Prize? A pleasant prospect, but quite improbable! So how did I feel when I was actually awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace? The question has been put to me many times and this is surely the most appropriate occasion on which to examine what the Nobel Prize means to me and what peace means to me.

As I have said repeatedly in many an interview, I heard the news that I had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on the radio one evening. It did not altogether come as a surprise because I had been mentioned as one of the frontrunners for the prize in a number of broadcasts during the previous week. While drafting this lecture, I have tried very hard to remember what my immediate reaction to the announcement of the award had been. I think, I can no longer be sure, it was something like: "Oh, so they've decided to give it to me." It did not seem quite real because in a sense I did not feel myself to be quite real at that time.

Often during my days of house arrest it felt as though I were no longer a part of the real world. There was the house which was my world, there was the world of others who also were not free but who were together in prison as a community, and there was the world of the free; each was a different planet pursuing its own separate course in an indifferent universe. What the Nobel Peace Prize did was to draw me once again into the world of other human beings outside the isolated area in which I lived, to restore a sense of reality to me. This did not happen instantly, of course, but as the days and months went by and news of reactions to the award came over the airwaves, I began to understand the significance of the Nobel Prize. It had made me real once again; it had drawn me back into the wider human community. And what was more important, the Nobel Prize had drawn the attention of the world to the struggle for democracy and human rights in Burma. We were not going to be forgotten.

To be forgotten. The French say that to part is to die a little. To be forgotten too is to die a little. It is to lose some of the links that anchor us to the rest of humanity. When I met Burmese migrant workers and refugees during my recent visit to Thailand, many cried out: "Don't forget us!" They meant: "don't forget our plight, don't forget to do what you can to help us, don't forget we also belong to your world." When the Nobel Committee awarded the Peace Prize to me they were recognizing that the oppressed and the isolated in Burma were also a part of the world, they were recognizing the oneness of humanity. So for me receiving the Nobel Peace Prize means personally extending my concerns for democracy and human rights beyond national borders. The Nobel Peace Prize opened up a door in my heart.

The Burmese concept of peace can be explained as the happiness arising from the cessation of factors that militate against the harmonious and the wholesome. The word nyein-chan translates literally as the beneficial coolness that comes when a fire is extinguished. Fires of suffering and strife are raging around the world. In my own country, hostilities have not ceased in the far north; to the west, communal violence resulting in arson and murder were taking place just several days before I started out on the journey that has brought me here today. News of atrocities in other reaches of the earth abound. Reports of hunger, disease, displacement, joblessness, poverty, injustice, discrimination, prejudice, bigotry; these are our daily fare. Everywhere there are negative forces eating away at the foundations of peace. Everywhere can be found thoughtless dissipation of material and human resources that are necessary for the conservation of harmony and happiness in our world.

The First World War represented a terrifying waste of youth and potential, a cruel squandering of the positive forces of our planet. The poetry of that era has a special significance for me because I first read it at a time when I was the same age as many of those young men who had to face the prospect of withering before they had barely blossomed. A young American fighting with the French Foreign Legion wrote before he was killed in action in 1916 that he would meet his death: "at some disputed barricade;" "on some scarred slope of battered hill;" "at midnight in some flaming town." Youth and love and life perishing forever in senseless attempts to capture nameless, unremembered places. And for what? Nearly a century on, we have yet to find a satisfactory answer.

Are we not still guilty, if to a less violent degree, of recklessness, of improvidence with regard to our future and our humanity? War is not the only arena where peace is done to death. Wherever suffering is ignored, there will be the seeds of conflict, for suffering degrades and embitters and enrages.

A positive aspect of living in isolation was that I had ample time in which to ruminate over the meaning of words and precepts that I had known and accepted all my life. As a Buddhist, I had heard about dukha, generally translated as suffering, since I was a small child. Almost on a daily basis elderly, and sometimes not so elderly, people around me would murmur "dukha, dukha" when they suffered from aches and pains or when they met with some small, annoying mishaps. However, it was only during my years of house arrest that I got around to investigating the nature of the six great dukha. These are: to be conceived, to age, to sicken, to die, to be parted from those one loves, to be forced to live in propinquity with those one does not love. I examined each of the six great sufferings, not in a religious context but in the context of our ordinary, everyday lives. If suffering were an unavoidable part of our existence, we should try to alleviate it as far as possible in practical, earthly ways. I mulled over the effectiveness of ante- and post-natal programmes and mother and childcare; of adequate facilities for the aging population; of comprehensive health services; of compassionate nursing and hospices. I was particularly intrigued by the last two kinds of suffering: to be parted from those one loves and to be forced to live in propinquity with those one does not love. What experiences might our Lord Buddha have undergone in his own life that he had included these two states among the great sufferings? I thought of prisoners and refugees, of migrant workers and victims of human trafficking, of that great mass of the uprooted of the earth who have been torn away from their homes, parted from families and friends, forced to live out their lives among strangers who are not always welcoming.

We are fortunate to be living in an age when social welfare and humanitarian assistance are recognized not only as desirable but necessary. I am fortunate to be living in an age when the fate of prisoners of conscience anywhere has become the concern of peoples everywhere, an age when democracy and human rights are widely, even if not universally, accepted as the birthright of all. How often during my years under house arrest have I drawn strength from my favourite passages in the preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

....... disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspirations of the common people,

...... it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law . . .

If I am asked why I am fighting for human rights in Burma the above passages will provide the answer. If I am asked why I am fighting for democracy in Burma, it is because I believe that democratic institutions and practices are necessary for the guarantee of human rights.

Over the past year there have been signs that the endeavours of those who believe in democracy and human rights are beginning to bear fruit in Burma. There have been changes in a positive direction; steps towards democratization have been taken. If I advocate cautious optimism it is not because I do not have faith in the future but because I do not want to encourage blind faith. Without faith in the future, without the conviction that democratic values and fundamental human rights are not only necessary but possible for our society, our movement could not have been sustained throughout the destroying years. Some of our warriors fell at their post, some deserted us, but a dedicated core remained strong and committed. At times when I think of the years that have passed, I am amazed that so many remained staunch under the most trying circumstances. Their faith in our cause is not blind; it is based on a clear-eyed assessment of their own powers of endurance and a profound respect for the aspirations of our people.

It is because of recent changes in my country that I am with you today; and these changes have come about because of you and other lovers of freedom and justice who contributed towards a global awareness of our situation. Before continuing to speak of my country, may I speak out for our prisoners of conscience. There still remain such prisoners in Burma. It is to be feared that because the best known detainees have been released, the remainder, the unknown ones, will be forgotten. I am standing here because I was once a prisoner of conscience. As you look at me and listen to me, please remember the often repeated truth that one prisoner of conscience is one too many. Those who have not yet been freed, those who have not yet been given access to the benefits of justice in my country number much more than one. Please remember them and do whatever is possible to effect their earliest, unconditional release.

Burma is a country of many ethnic nationalities and faith in its future can be founded only on a true spirit of union. Since we achieved independence in 1948, there never has been a time when we could claim the whole country was at peace. We have not been able to develop the trust and understanding necessary to remove causes of conflict. Hopes were raised by ceasefires that were maintained from the early 1990s until 2010 when these broke down over the course of a few months. One unconsidered move can be enough to remove long-standing ceasefires. In recent months, negotiations between the government and ethnic nationality forces have been making progress. We hope that ceasefire agreements will lead to political settlements founded on the aspirations of the peoples, and the spirit of union.

My party, the National League for Democracy, and I stand ready and willing to play any role in the process of national reconciliation. The reform measures that were put into motion by President U Thein Sein's government can be sustained only with the intelligent cooperation of all internal forces: the military, our ethnic nationalities, political parties, the media, civil society organizations, the business community and, most important of all, the general public. We can say that reform is effective only if the lives of the people are improved and in this regard, the international community has a vital role to play. Development and humanitarian aid, bi-lateral agreements and investments should be coordinated and calibrated to ensure that these will promote social, political and economic growth that is balanced and sustainable. The potential of our country is enormous. This should be nurtured and developed to create not just a more prosperous but also a more harmonious, democratic society where our people can live in peace, security and freedom.

The peace of our world is indivisible. As long as negative forces are getting the better of positive forces anywhere, we are all at risk. It may be questioned whether all negative forces could ever be removed. The simple answer is: "No!" It is in human nature to contain both the positive and the negative. However, it is also within human capability to work to reinforce the positive and to minimize or neutralize the negative. Absolute peace in our world is an unattainable goal. But it is one towards which we must continue to journey, our eyes fixed on it as a traveller in a desert fixes his eyes on the one guiding star that will lead him to salvation. Even if we do not achieve perfect peace on earth, because perfect peace is not of this earth, common endeavours to gain peace will unite individuals and nations in trust and friendship and help to make our human community safer and kinder.

I used the word 'kinder' after careful deliberation; I might say the careful deliberation of many years. Of the sweets of adversity, and let me say that these are not numerous, I have found the sweetest, the most precious of all, is the lesson I learnt on the value of kindness. Every kindness I received, small or big, convinced me that there could never be enough of it in our world. To be kind is to respond with sensitivity and human warmth to the hopes and needs of others. Even the briefest touch of kindness can lighten a heavy heart. Kindness can change the lives of people. Norway has shown exemplary kindness in providing a home for the displaced of the earth, offering sanctuary to those who have been cut loose from the moorings of security and freedom in their native lands.

There are refugees in all parts of the world. When I was at the Maela refugee camp in Thailand recently, I met dedicated people who were striving daily to make the lives of the inmates as free from hardship as possible. They spoke of their concern over 'donor fatigue,' which could also translate as 'compassion fatigue.' 'Donor fatigue' expresses itself precisely in the reduction of funding. 'Compassion fatigue' expresses itself less obviously in the reduction of concern. One is the consequence of the other. Can we afford to indulge in compassion fatigue? Is the cost of meeting the needs of refugees greater than the cost that would be consequent on turning an indifferent, if not a blind, eye on their suffering? I appeal to donors the world over to fulfill the needs of these people who are in search, often it must seem to them a vain search, of refuge.

At Maela, I had valuable discussions with Thai officials responsible for the administration of Tak province where this and several other camps are situated. They acquainted me with some of the more serious problems related to refugee camps: violation of forestry laws, illegal drug use, home brewed spirits, the problems of controlling malaria, tuberculosis, dengue fever and cholera. The concerns of the administration are as legitimate as the concerns of the refugees. Host countries also deserve consideration and practical help in coping with the difficulties related to their responsibilities.

Ultimately our aim should be to create a world free from the displaced, the homeless and the hopeless, a world of which each and every corner is a true sanctuary where the inhabitants will have the freedom and the capacity to live in peace. Every thought, every word, and every action that adds to the positive and the wholesome is a contribution to peace. Each and every one of us is capable of making such a contribution. Let us join hands to try to create a peaceful world where we can sleep in security and wake in happiness.

The Nobel Committee concluded its statement of 14 October 1991 with the words: "In awarding the Nobel Peace Prize ... to Aung San Suu Kyi, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to honour this woman for her unflagging efforts and to show its support for the many people throughout the world who are striving to attain democracy, human rights and ethnic conciliation by peaceful means." When I joined the democracy movement in Burma it never occurred to me that I might ever be the recipient of any prize or honour. The prize we were working for was a free, secure and just society where our people might be able to realize their full potential. The honour lay in our endeavour. History had given us the opportunity to give of our best for a cause in which we believed. When the Nobel Committee chose to honour me, the road I had chosen of my own free will became a less lonely path to follow. For this I thank the Committee, the people of Norway and peoples all over the world whose support has strengthened my faith in the common quest for peace. Thank you.
Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 2012

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Nobel Lecture by Aung San Suu Kyi, Oslo, 16 June, 2012 Your Majesties, Your Royal Highness, Excellencies, Distinguished members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Dear Friends, Long years ago, sometimes it seems many lives ago, I was at Oxford listening to the radio programme Desert Island Discs with my young son Alexander.

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If when my wife is sleeping
and the baby and Kathleen
are sleeping
and the sun is a flame-white disc
in silken mists
above shining trees,-
if I in my north room
dance naked, grotesquely
before my mirror
waving my shirt round my head
and singing softly to myself:
"I am lonely, lonely,
I was born to be lonely,
I am best so!"
If I admire my arms, my face,
my shoulders, flanks, buttocks
against the yellow drawn shades,-

Who shall say I am not
the happy genius of my household?

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If when my wife is sleeping and the baby and Kathleen are sleeping and the sun is a flame-white disc in silken mists above shining trees,- if I in my north room dance naked, grotesquely before my mirror waving my shirt round my head and singing softly to myself: "I am lonely, lonely, I was born to be lonely, I am best so!"

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UN - The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

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UN - The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

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The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a milestone document in the history of human rights. Drafted by representatives with different legal and cultural backgrounds from all regions of the world, the Declaration was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948 ( General Assembly resolution 217 A) as a common standard of achievements for all peoples and all nations. It sets out, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be universally protected and it has been translated into over 500 languages. The UDHR is widely recognized as having inspired, and paved the way for, the adoption of more than seventy human rights treaties, applied today on a permanent basis at global and regional levels (all containing references to it in their preambles).

Preamble

Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,

Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,

Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,

Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,

Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,

Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,

Now, therefore,

The General Assembly,

Proclaims this Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.

Article 1

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2

Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

Article 3

Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

Article 4

No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

Article 5

No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Article 6

Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

Article 7

All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.

Article 8

Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.

Article 9

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

Article 10

Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.

Article 11

1. Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.

2. No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.

Article 12

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

Article 13

1. Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.

2. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

Article 14

1. Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.

2. This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 15

1. Everyone has the right to a nationality.

2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.

Article 16

1. Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.

2. Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.

3. The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.

Article 17

1. Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.

2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

Article 18

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

Article 19

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Article 20

1. Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.

2. No one may be compelled to belong to an association.

Article 21

1. Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.

2. Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.

3. The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.

Article 22

Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.

Article 23

1. Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.

2. Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.

3. Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.

4. Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

Article 24

Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.

Article 25

1. Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

2. Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

Article 26

1. Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.

2. Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.

3. Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

Article 27

1. Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.

2. Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

Article 28

Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.

Article 29

1. Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.

2. In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.

3. These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 30

Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.

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Universal Declaration of Human Rights | United Nations

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The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a milestone document in the history of human rights. Drafted by representatives with different legal and cultural backgrounds from all regions of the world, the Declaration was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948 ( General Assembly resolution 217 A) as a common standard of achievements for all peoples and all nations.

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Dozens of Rohingya refugees died when a boat heading from Myanmar to Bangladesh capsized late Thursday, underscoring the immediacy of the crisis. Read more about the roots of the violence below.

The Rohingya, a mostly Muslim ethnic minority in Myanmar, have been called the "world's most persecuted minority," and recent events have added dramatically to their misery.

At least 500,000 Rohingya have fled to neighboring Bangladesh since August of this year. Although the crisis has intensified in recent months, the targeted, sometimes violent, discrimination of this minority group is anything but new.

National Geographic spoke with three experts on Myanmar to learn more about who the Rohingya are and what's been happening to them. ( Read more from National Geographic's coverage of the unfolding Rohingya crisis.)

The Rohingya are a Muslim ethnic minority group from Myanmar's Rakhine state, just south of Bangladesh, who have at times numbered 1.1 million.

Officially, Myanmar's government does not recognize the Rohingya as lawful citizens. The government claims they were brought to Rakhine from Bangladesh during the time when Myanmar was a British colony, and the government says they are living in Myanmar illegally. Ask the Rohingya and they'll tell you they have been in the region for over a century, and some claim to have been in the region from as early as the eighth century.

"The answer to that question is highly contested, particularly by those who want to politicize the issue," said John Knaus, the associate director of the Asia division at the National Endowment for Democracy.

Regardless of when the Rohingya arrived in Myanmar, the military junta that controlled Myanmar until recently denied them citizenship in 1982, leaving them stateless and vulnerable.

What is happening to them?

Attacks on the Rohingya have been systematic and widespread, reportedly at the hands of the Myanmar police and military, leading to what the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, called a " textbook example of ethnic cleansing."(The term is often used to refer to the forced removal of an ethnic or religious group by intimidation or violence.)

A controversial report by the Myanmar government found no evidence of systematic violence against the Rohingya, but the country has refused to allow the UN or outside organizations or journalists to conduct an independent investigation.

Most of what's known about the Rohingya crisis is being collected from interviews and information gathered at the Bangladesh border from those fleeing across it. Last February, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights published a report in which refugees told stories of gang rape, mass killings, and brutal beatings. More than half of the women interviewed reported having been a victim of sexual violence.

Satellite images have shown Rohingya villages burning. Refugees blame the Myanmar military, while the Burmese military has claimed the Rohingya burned their own homes. The BBC's Jonathan Head was one of the few journalists allowed into the Rakhine state, but under strict government surveillance. During a tour of the region's villages, he was given photos showing Rohingya allegedly burning their homes-photos he later discovered were faked.

There are 40,000 Rohingya refugees settled in India, 16,000 of which have obtained official refugee documentation. The majority of Rohingya fleeing Myanmar have not made it past Bangladesh. Devastating floods in India and Bangladesh over this past summer have worsened conditions in refugee camps and led to a cholera outbreak, water shortages, and malnutrition.

Why are we hearing about it now?

Myanmar has more than 100 different ethnic groups, with the Burmese making up about two thirds of the country. And while the Rohingya have long been persecuted as a minority, the scale of recent violence is unprecedented. It ramped up on August 25 after a small faction of Rohingya militants called the Arakan Rohingya Solidarity Army attacked police posts, killing 12 members of Myanmar's security forces. In retribution, Myanmar's military vowed to root out militant groups, and they've responded on a massive scale that has left many innocent civilians dead, injured, or homeless.

Kyaw Hsan Hlaing is executive director of an organization he founded called the Peace and Development Initiative, which documents stories of the violence in Myanmar. Following the August attacks, his organization paused its work in Rakhine in fear of retribution. Though he now attends Columbia University in New York, Hlaing is intimately familiar with the violent discrimination long seen in Rakhine.

He's Burmese and grew up in Rakhine with a Buddhist family, but following student protests against the Myanmar government, Hlaing was held as a political prisoner for five years and subsequently exiled to Thailand.

Hlaing says he believes Myanmar's security forces are exploiting the late August events to push the Rohingya out of the region.

What is Myanmar's famous leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, doing about the crisis?

The daughter of a resistance movement general, Aung San Suu Kyi has been advocating for a democratic Myanmar for nearly her entire life. She became a leading figure for the National League for Democracy, then an opposition party, in the late 1980s, but she was detained in 1989. She spent 15 years under house arrest, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, and has been hailed as a leader of democracy around the world.

However, Aung San Suu Kyi has not publicly condemned the military's treatment of the Rohingya, and this has tarnished her international reputation. Human rights activists believe it's her responsibility to speak out against the military's violent assault, but she has no functional control over the military.

During Myanmar's most recent election, the NLD won the majority of the country's parliamentary seats. As the leader of the NLD, Aung San Suu Kyi is Myanmar's de facto leader, officially named its "state counselor."

But that still doesn't mean Aung San Suu Kyi can rein in her country's military, which had established power years before her election and doesn't have to answer to her. The military is guaranteed the right to appoint 25 percent of Myanmar's parliamentary seats, giving it veto power over constitutional amendments. As a result, Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD are barred from moving the military under civilian control.

But is Myanmar a democracy? (And why do we sometimes call it Burma?)

During the 20 th century, activists struggled to establish a democracy and the Burmese were at times under a strict, militaristic regime. For more than a century, Burma was a British colony, until it declared independence in 1948. The country was briefly a democratic republic, but instability created a power vacuum that was exploited by General U Ne Win, who led a military coup in 1962. By 1974, he had established a regime that isolated the country.

Further crackdowns on what remained of the country's democratic institutions came in 1988 when the military responded to student-led protests by killing at least 3,000.

The country's ruling military junta changed the name of the state from Burma to Myanmar in 1989, but this change is not officially recognized by the U.S. and UK. (National Geographic refers to the country as Myanmar.) Use of the name Myanmar remains controversial among some, who say it infers support for military rule.

In the past five years, Myanmar has become less isolated, and Aung San Suu Kyi's victory represented a step toward democracy for citizens of Myanmar. But the situation remains complex.

"I don't think anyone would say Myanmar had become a democracy," said Joshua Kurlantzick, a senior fellow for Southeast Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations. "Myanmar's democracy is a work in progress. This [Rohingya crisis] shows how fragile it is."

Is there hope for the Rohingya?

Ethnic minorities in Myanmar describe regular mistreatment from those in the government and surrounding communities.

"[They] feel like second-class citizens," said Hlaing. Hlaing was struck by the atrocities he witnessed growing up in Rakhine and participated in protests against the government as a teenager. While the military's attacks have been the most devastating, the Rohingya also face violence from Myanmar's Buddhist majority, Hlaing added.

"There's a fear, especially among Burma's Buddhist nationalists, of Burma losing its unique Burmese culture," said Knaus. "Whether that's from Muslims coming into the country or influences from places like China, and the rest of the outside world, there's a real fear that Burma is going to be changed by all of these influences. The Rohinyga are the most obvious examples of this. They're Muslim and perceived to be from Bangladesh so to many they are the prime example of this foreign cultural and social invasion."

Hlaing says his curriculum from Rakhine state schools emphasized the country's Buddhist origins as what made Myanmar unique. Even his own family, he said, struggles to understand his work advocating for the rights of minorities.

While the UN and Red Cross have increased aid to the Bangladesh border, where so many Rohingya have fled, experts are hard pressed to see a short-term future in which the Rohingya can live peacefully and with equal rights within Myanmar's borders. ( See photos and read a first-hand account from the Myanmar-Bangladesh border.)

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Myanmar's Rohingya Are in Crisis-What You Need to Know

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Dozens of Rohingya refugees died when a boat heading from Myanmar to Bangladesh capsized late Thursday, underscoring the immediacy of the crisis. Read more about the roots of the violence below. The Rohingya, a mostly Muslim ethnic minority in Myanmar, have been called the "world's most persecuted minority," and recent events have added dramatically to their misery.

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Myanmar: Aung San Suu Kyi exclusive interview - BBC News

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is china socialist? a long (and better) answer

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Is China socialist? A long (and better) answer

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In 2017, Chinese President Xi Jinping gave a speech so long that when he was done and returned to his seat, his predecessor, Hu Jintao, gestured at his watch. ...

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Democracy Index Report 2018 (Economist Intelligence Unit)

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Democracy Index Report 2018 (Economist Intelligence Unit)

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Country analysis, industry analysis - Market risk assessment

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"The Almost Nearly Perfect People" (Amazon Purchase Link)

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"The Almost Nearly Perfect People" (Amazon Purchase Link)

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the almost nearly perfect people: behind the myth of the scandinavian utopia

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scandinavia - civilization - 21st century

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scandinavia - civilization - 21st century

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The Almost Nearly Perfect People: Behind the Myth of the Scandinavian Utopia

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The Christian Science Monitor's #1 Best Book of the YearA witty, informative, and popular travelogue about the Scandinavian countries and how they may not be as happy or as perfect as we assume, "The Almost Nearly Perfect People offers up the ideal mixture of intriguing and revealing facts" (Laur...

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Eric Lafforgue: "The pictures Kim Jong Un doesn't want you to see"

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Eric Lafforgue: "The pictures Kim Jong Un doesn't want you to see"

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Ji Seong-ho: "My Impossible Escape from North Korea"

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Ji Seong-ho: "My Impossible Escape from North Korea"

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Ji Seong-ho - My Impossible Escape from North Korea

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"Photos: Inside a North Korea that is Changing" (NPR)

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"Photos: Inside a North Korea that is Changing" (NPR)

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NPR journalists Mary Louise Kelly and Becky Sullivan and freelance photographer David Guttenfelder were among the some 150 foreign reporters who visited North Korea last month, at the invitation of the government, to cover celebrations commemorating the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Guttenfelder has taken nearly 40 reporting trips to the isolated country since 2000.
After just seven years under the rule of Kim Jong Un, North Korea is in a moment of change. Most visibly to the outside world, Kim - the third generation of North Korea's founding family to lead the nation - has made 2018 a year of unprecedented diplomatic engagement, with South Korea and the U.S.

Signs of change are visible inside the country, too. Once thought of as a Stalinist relic preserved in amber, with empty streets, cold gray buildings and an outdated airport, Pyongyang of today looks increasingly modern, as do a handful of other cities targeted for development. Conditions are worse in less favored areas - there are still shortages of food and electricity - but the country's economy is improving despite sanctions, and, overall, quality of life has come a long way since the famine of the 1990s.

It is hard to know what this flurry of modernization and diplomacy means for North Korea in the long term. Sanctions remain in place. The vast majority of North Koreans still can't travel freely, access the global Internet or express any sentiment about the leadership other than praise and gratitude. There's no guarantee that the authoritarian, dynastic regime can survive dramatic changes to the country's economy and a growing awareness among North Koreans of the quality of life outside their borders.

But it was in this moment of engagement with the outside world that North Korea chose to invite us in.

During our six-day stay there, timed to the 70th anniversary of the country's founding by Kim Il Sung, we were brought to witness a classic set of North Korean spectacles. Chief among them were the massive parades - one during the day to showcase the county's military power; the other, at night by torchlight, a display of a population in actual lockstep. We were taken on highly orchestrated tours of factories, a school and a farm. The country and its message are still tightly controlled by the grandson of North Korea's founder.

We sought to both document these events and look beyond them for a glimpse at normal life for North Koreans. In those moments, and in between them, we saw a changing North Korea that was at turns impressive, surreal, beautiful, melancholy and human.

Some things, of course, remain the same. Foreign journalists visiting North Korea still can't report freely. Government guides accompanied us at all times. After the itinerary of official events ended, our government minders took us only to tourist destinations and restaurants.

Our experience was that a visit to any location beyond the hotel doors had to be approved in advance, and we did not receive that approval to visit even the most mundane of public spaces - the subway, a market. (At other times, however, American journalists have visited the Pyongyang subway and markets throughout North Korea.)

Government guides tend to start from a place of distrust. They sometimes scold photographers pointing cameras at people doing everyday things: a man washing a car, a woman walking along an older bridge, a farmer with his ox cart. They often say that these images will embarrass rather than humanize.

It is possible to overcome that sentiment with time. Foreign journalists who have made repeated trips to the country have been able to build a level of trust with their government guides. For us, six days was not enough.

Speaking to North Koreans is also complicated. Journalists can't simply interview whomever we like. The government controls whom we speak to, even whom we see.

Above all, dissidence in North Korea is dangerous. Citizens risk political imprisonment for voicing critical opinions about the Kim regime, even in the confidence of their own family and friends.

For years, the country barred foreigners from bringing in cellphones, and images of North Korea were rare. While the rest of the world descended into selfies, Instagram and Snapchat, the flow of photographs from North Korea remained tightly controlled by the government, which produced most images seen in the West.

Then, in early 2013, the country added a 3G mobile Internet network for foreigners and allowed them to bring cellphones in for the first time. The world's most closed society opened a sliver.

Now, practically everyone who visits North Korea - journalists and tourists alike - takes and shares photos with their phones, capturing their own moments of spontaneity and humanity. Those of us outside North Korea are seeing more of the country than ever before.

For North Koreans, access to the global Internet remains restricted to a very small group of well-connected elites and government employees. For the vast majority of citizens, the North Korean government maintains a closed intranet with limited content.

The capital city of Pyongyang is in the midst of a dramatic facelift. During the Korean War, most of the city was flattened by a sustained U.S. bombing campaign. Rebuilding began after the end of hostilities in 1953. No private development meant no variety in architecture. Soviet-style raw concrete apartment blocks, gray and looming, dominated. The wide paved boulevards, multiple lanes across in each direction, were famously empty of traffic.

Within the past decade, dozens of new skyscrapers - retro-futuristic in style, with curves and glass - have been constructed all over the city. The older buildings have been repainted with bright candy shades of coral red, seafoam green and sky blue.

There are taxis now, and new cable cars have replaced the old trolleys. A growing class of Pyongyang elite wealthy enough to own their own cars means there's honest-to-god traffic at times. The people on the sidewalks, too, seem more modern, their hair a little less conservative and clothes a little more colorful.

At Pyongyang's airport, a new international terminal opened in 2015. It's the very model of a modern airport: high ceilings, glass walls, jetways, coffee shops, restaurants and duty-free stores inside. Still, it's North Korea. These amenities serve the passengers of roughly two flights a day in and out. The only destinations are China and Russia.

Another thing unchanged in the face of this development is Pyongyang's most distinctive civic feature: Likenesses of the country's two previous leaders, Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, are everywhere. The father and son smile benevolently in their official portraits, which hang above public squares and building entryways and classroom chalkboards. One pair of statues on Mansu Hill in Pyongyang stands more than 60 feet tall.

Our visit to North Korea in early September was timed to a significant moment for the country, the 70th-anniversary celebration of its founding. But it was only one important moment in a year of many, with more to come.

A week after we left Pyongyang, South Korean President Moon Jae-in arrived, greeted by a crowd of 150,000 North Koreans. Before the year is out, Kim is expected to meet a third time with Moon and a second time with President Trump.

Yet this isn't the first time North Korea has seemed to embrace diplomacy. Relations warm, and cool, and warm again. Meanwhile, life for North Koreans changes at its own pace.

For all the colorful new paint, there are still military parades. For all the VR headsets in a classroom, there are still government minders watching our every step. For all the new cars, the supermarkets, the Italian restaurants, the occasional smartphone, there is still the old Japanese boombox on the bar, four vases of flowers placed carefully around it.

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PHOTOS: Inside A North Korea That Is Changing - But At Its Own Pace

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NPR journalists Mary Louise Kelly and Becky Sullivan and freelance photographer David Guttenfelder were among the some 150 foreign reporters who visited North Korea last month, at the invitation of the government, to cover celebrations commemorating the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

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"If Americans Can Find North Korea on a Map, They're More Likely to Prefer Diplomacy" (New York Times)

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"If Americans Can Find North Korea on a Map, They're More Likely to Prefer Diplomacy" (New York Times)

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Where is North Korea? Here are guesses from 1,746 adults: ( Read in Korean.)

Just 36 percent got it right. Here are the countries they selected:

When asked in April which policies the United States should pursue regarding North Korea, Americans diverged on their views depending in part on whether they knew where it was.

An experiment led by Kyle Dropp of Morning Consult from April 27-29, conducted at the request of The New York Times, shows that respondents who could correctly identify North Korea tended to view diplomatic and nonmilitary strategies more favorably than those who could not. These strategies included imposing further economic sanctions, increasing pressure on China to influence North Korea and conducting cyberattacks against military targets in North Korea.

They also viewed direct military engagement - in particular, sending ground troops - much less favorably than those who failed to locate North Korea.

The largest difference between the groups was the simplest: Those who could find North Korea were much more likely to disagree with the proposition that the United States should do nothing about North Korea.

What drives these differences? Simple partisanship is one possibility. On average, Republicans - and Republican men in particular - were more likely to correctly locate North Korea than Democratic men. And Republicans were more likely to be in favor of almost all the diplomatic solutions posed by the researchers. (Women tended to find North Korea at similar rates, regardless of party.)

Geographic knowledge itself may contribute to an increased appreciation of the complexity of geopolitical events. This finding is consistent with - though not identical to - a similar experiment Mr. Dropp, Joshua D. Kertzer and Thomas Zeitzoff conducted in 2014. They asked Americans to identify Ukraine on a map and asked them whether they supported military intervention. The farther a respondent's guess was from Ukraine, the researchers found, the more likely he or she was to favor military intervention.

Which groups were most successful

Education was a major factor in participants' ability to find North Korea. Those with postgraduate degrees had among the most success; the only ones who did better were people who said they knew someone of Korean ancestry. Those who had visited or been to a foreign country were also much more likely to find North Korea than those who had not.

After the highly educated, the next most successful group was older people: Nearly half of respondents 65 and older found North Korea. The Korean War, which ended in 1953, may be in the memory of today's older seniors.

Americans' inability to identify countries and places is not new. A Roper survey in 2006 found that, in the midst of the Iraq war, six in 10 young adults could not locate Iraq on a map of the Middle East; about 75 percent could not identify Iran or Israel; and only half could identify New York state.

But how important is this, really?

In " Why Geography Matters," Harm de Blij wrote that geography is "a superb antidote to isolationism and provincialism," and argued that "the American public is the geographically most illiterate society of consequence on the planet, at a time when United States power can affect countries and peoples around the world."

This spatial illiteracy, geographers say, can leave citizens without a framework to think about foreign policy questions more substantively. "The paucity of geographical knowledge means there is no check on misleading public representations about international matters," said Alec Murphy, a professor of geography at the University of Oregon.

While Americans could be better at geography, they cannot be expected to follow every twist and turn of foreign policy. "People don't invest in policy information, but that's rational," said Elizabeth Saunders, a political science professor at George Washington University who studies foreign policy and international relations. Instead of exhaustively researching foreign policy options for a host of nations, Americans are "rationally ignorant," effectively outsourcing their foreign policy views to elites and the news media.

At the moment, Americans' views on North Korea are remarkably consistent, regardless of their other political views. A YouGov survey showed North Korea atop a list of 144 countries described as an "enemy"; a Gallup study from about the same time showed North Korea as Americans' least favorite country.

Americans' relatively low interest in North Korea is not returned in kind. "North Koreans are obsessed with the United States," wrote Barbara Demick, the former Beijing bureau chief for The Los Angeles Times, in an interview with the New Yorker.

"They hold the U.S. responsible for the division of the Korean peninsula and seem to believe that U.S. foreign policy since the mid-20th century has revolved around the single-minded goal" of damaging them, she said. "The cruelest thing you can do is tell a North Korean that many Americans couldn't locate North Korea on a map."

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If Americans Can Find North Korea on a Map, They're More Likely to Prefer Diplomacy

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Where is North Korea? Here are guesses from 1,746 adults: ( Read in Korean.) Just 36 percent got it right. Here are the countries they selected: When asked in April which policies the United States should pursue regarding North Korea, Americans diverged on their views depending in part on whether they knew where it was.

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Contemporary World Issues First Day Survey