A Land Without Borders: My Journey Around East Jerusalem and the West Bank

All hope for peace between Israelis and Palestinians rests on the international demarcation line known as the Green Line. This line stretches from the South, near Gaza, to the North, crossing towns, roads, checkpoints and villages.

Over the past year, author Nir Baram has traveled along this border ?from South to North? venturing into the depths of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He begins his journey a couple of months before the war in Gaza (summer 2014) and finish it in in the 2015 after a new wave of violence erupts. This journey has challenged his most fundamental beliefs and political views. What kind of life takes place along the Green Line? What is the day-to-day reality? Does the Green Line still carry significance in everyday life?

Baram meets a variety of people over the course of this journey: Palestinian-Israeli citizens trapped behind the Separation Wall in Jerusalem, a real no man?s land where neighborhoods have no municipal rule; children living in Kibbutz Nirim who experienced the war in Gaza, the rockets raining down on their homes; young Palestinians, the close friends of the Palestinian boy who was murdered by Jews; meeting ex-prisoners from Hamas who have started a Hebrew language school in Ramallah, and ex-prisoners from Fatah who spent years detained in Israeli jails and who are now promoting a new peace initiative. He gets into a secluded settlers? stronghold in the West Bank, and near Nablus he comes across two Palestinian boys tied up by the side of the road after allegedly trying to stab Israeli soldiers, only to find that the truth is something entirely different.

As he moves deeper into the occupied society, he becomes acquainted with the bourgeoisie and the economic powers that govern Palestine. He gets to know political leaders and smooth businessmen, as well as ex-prisoners and demoralized workers. He meets settlers of all ages, classes and beliefs.

As the reportage is being written, both major and minor events take place throughout region: riots in the Temple Mount, John Kerry?s peace initiative, the abduction of three Jewish boys, the Pope?s visit to Bethlehem, the murder of an Arab boy in Jerusalem, the war in Gaza, the building of a new Palestinian city and elections in Israel. Against the backdrop of these sweeping events and the feelings of hope and despair they awaken, Baram sketches a fascinating, often disturbing and always surprising panoramic of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.