Blog 2014 – Alice Rothchild

Or see 2014 blog entries below

July 1, 2014 Airport Hasbara July 1, 2014Alice Rothchild
The talk on the cab radio is all about the murder of the three settler teens, their bodies were found. I am too disconnected to know the awful details, but I recognize the outraged voices and the words Hamas and Philistini over and over. A great sadness and fear settles over me. I worry about ...
June 30, 2014 How Do You Say Shalom in Tigrenya? Part two June 30, 2014Alice Rothchild
Ran takes me into the Open Clinic for some reality-based learning. The rooms are basic health center with shelves of paper charts and two volunteers engaged with their computers. The dress is casual shorts and tank tops, the waiting room rows of black plastic chairs. Today is appointments only with the specialist, so I will not be ...
June 30, 2014 Zionist Doctors and Jewish Values part one June 30, 2014Alice Rothchild
It is probably not a good idea to write a blog after two glasses of wine, particularly after three weeks of abstinence (except for that lovely Taybeh Beer), but sometimes drastic measures are needed. I have checked into a funky old hostel in Jaffa that was clearly a Palestinian home before everything happened and I am ...
June 28, 2014 Tell Them You’re Italian! Part three June 28, 2014Alice Rothchild
Al Manara, the famous square in Ramallah with the circle of lions sculpted in the center, is bustling with chaotic traffic, shoppers, drenching heat, and street venders. I can see the sign for “Stars and Bucks,” the Arab Bank, banners for the World Cup. I think about that odd puff piece in the New York ...
June 28, 2014 In the Container part two June 28, 2014Alice Rothchild
The bus station in Bani Nayim is hot, humid, and thick with exhaust fumes from idling vehicles that have seen better days in the seat and shock absorber department. The service has to fill with passengers before it leaves, and we are in a holding pattern. I am sitting next to a young woman wearing ...
June 28, 2014 Who is the Terrorist? Part one June 28, 2014Alice Rothchild
I have been thinking a lot about collective punishment and military force and the cost of fear. I am not going to reveal the identity and details of individuals in this story out of respect for their privacy and safety, but several asked me to write about recent events in their village. Let’s just say ...
June 26, 2014 Speak Truth to Power and Choose Joyfulness part three June 26, 2014Alice Rothchild
As a physician, I am always impressed by the combination of intelligence, dedication, weariness, and fortitude that characterizes so many Palestinians working in the field of health care. Our group has the opportunity to meet with professionals who are willing to speaking honestly and off-the-record, to explore the raw contradictory picture that is a ...
June 26, 2014 The Darkest Aspects of Human Experience part two June 26, 2014Alice Rothchild
I have been thinking a lot about torture lately, given the three murdered Israeli settlers and the most likely revenge killing of a Palestinian teen burned to death and then his American cousin beaten to a pulp by Israeli security and if you should come across the website of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, ...
June 26, 2014 First/Third World Medicine part one June 26, 2014Alice Rothchild
The newly built Ministry of Health Palestine Medical Complex is filled with all the expected contradictions of building a health care system under occupation in what is ironically a third world kind of setting. We are getting the grand tour from a medical student who did his internship here, “Lots of experience, low quality.” The ...
June 25, 2014 Medicine: If It Doesn’t Kill You, It Makes You Strong part two June 25, 2014Alice Rothchild
The meeting with the medical students is not that polite. Now I will grant you they had just finished their exams (because of the Hebron curfew and the resultant delays, some had six exams in one day). Many are about to graduate, so they are so done with all the frustrations and they are living ...

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