When traveling in rough lands, I always wear sturdy shoes. In my town, curbs at intersections are turned into ramps so people won’t trip…and other curbs are painted yellow, just in case. You even get goofy little red flags to carry when crossing the street. But in a country like Palestine, you’re on your own. There simply isn’t a strong ethic of “don’t litter.” Broken concrete, rusty junk, and piles of crumpled plastic blanket the roadsides. Excuse the wind buffeting on this clip as I give you a little tour from the perspective of my shoes — which follow me wherever I go.
If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.
Comments
I never would have known there is such junk everywhere. Wow! Some kind of sturdy hiking boots would be key here. It wouldn’t deter from the wonderful experience of travel, the country or people though. Happy travels!
I am not sure that it is poverty that causes the trash on the streets. Thailand is a poor country, but it looks cleaner. I think is is more Mediterranean. The streets have more trash in southern Italy than in the north. As Rick points out, in many ways Israel could fit in as an EU social democracy more than with its neighbors.
Thanks for showing us the sad ugly reality that those people choose to live with. They only have themselves to blame. Even people who are poor can have clean streets if they want to.
doppelganger
Tampa
If I learned one thing about the world from my time in the army, it’s this- when a government is ineffective or non-existent, one of the first things to go is waste disposal. I don’t think it has anything to do with a Mediterranean mindset. The trash problem in southern Italy is more indicative of mafia corruption in local government contracts than in culture.
I just returned from a two week trip to the West Bank and was very disturbed by the trash. I did see that type of trash in poor villages in Mexico in the 80’s and in Sicily 3 years ago. In the case of Mexico it was poverty. I think in Sicily it is the lack of trash removal services. Clearly throughout the world we are seeing the problems with plastic. There were plastic bottles everywhere in Palestine and because of poor water quality in areas like these people are having to purchase their water. We did see plastic recycling in Israel but they have more services including money and more water there so much less trash.
Rick Steves,
I appreciate your travel commentaries, books, and philosophy. Specifically, some of what you report about Palestine is useful information and helps humanize Palestinians for an American audience that has been very negatively affected by our official pro-Israeli propaganda. I know you walk a fine line in sharing perceptions about this trip to Israel-Palestine, but I wish you’d explore what you see in more depth. Often you mention things without any explanation or context to help your audience understand the deeper reality. For example, in discussing Hebron, you make no mention of how the Israeli army is present on a daily basis but never does anything about the aggressive settlers who live in second or third floor apartments who purposely throw the garbage on to Palestinian passersby as one form of harassment. I could mention several examples. My point is, I hope you speak and write more frankly about the oppressive reality Palestinians live with day in and day out. The big picture is that since 1967 Israeli has been expropriating Palestinian land, settlement by settlement. Over half a million Israelis now live in land that was designated by the UN as Palestinian, and the aggression continues. Recently Israeli leadership said it wants the border in a two-state solution to be the separation wall. But that wall snakes deeply into Palestinian territory. Speaking these kinds of facts is dangerous in our society, as many American Jews never question the Israeli government’s actions vis-a-vis the Palestinians, and regard anyone critical of Israel’s oppressive policies as anti-Semitic. You need to protect your travel business, so I don’t expect you’ll be as bold as I’d like to see you be. But please do more to explain a larger perspective and some political context to what you’re seeing. Thank you
Dan Onorato
I have visited Israel-Palestine and have been involved for over 10 years in the movement to create a just peace between the two peoples.