The Round Trip

The bathroom at the Glozman family home in the settlement of Givon Hahadasha. (Image from the book "The Round Trip")

Bringing the Green Line to Sir Paul McCartney

The sea is vast, which is probably why I seldom meet people I know when I go in to take a swim. Another reason is that the sea wets people’s hair and I don’t recognize them quite as easily. A few days ago two wet-haired people called my name. It happened among the Hawaiian-sized waves…

By Yuval Ben-Ami July 27, 2013

Announcing: +972 travel series ‘The Round Trip’ now available as e-book

The Round Trip, the much-loved travel series by Yuval Ben-Ami, has been published as +972’s first e-book. While +972 blogger and travel writer Yuval Ben-Ami traveled for three weeks around Israel’s borders, I mostly stayed put. But editing the series that was borne of that journey was an exhilarating experience. The 22 posts that made…

By Noa Yachot July 18, 2013

The wall near Beit Jalla (Oren Ziv / Activestills)

Podcast: +972 bloggers explore Israeli walls and borders

+972 bloggers and journalists discuss where Israel starts and stops. In his journey The Round Trip, Yuval Ben-Ami set out to explore the State of Israel’s first border – the 1949 armistice lines, also known as the 1967 borders. Haggai Matar, on the other hand, is presently investigating a newer frontier, the one created by Israel’s separation…

By +972 Magazine June 7, 2012

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Yuval Ben-Ami

The Round Trip part 22: Night

From Ashdod to Tel-Aviv via Yavne, Rehovot and Jaffa, the final leg. The sun is setting over Ashdod, where Ruthie and I came to relax following the hospital experience. There is nothing wrong with Ashkelon, but Ashdod, a fifteen minute drive up the super-urbanized coast, somehow turned into our romantic getaway over the past few…

By Yuval Ben-Ami April 29, 2012

Yuval Ben Ami

The Round Trip part 21: Strip tease

From Nir Oz to Askelon via Agadir, the land of broken pots and the city of dirty bunkers Ewan and I build a fire outside Kmehin, both to warm ourselves and to impress a very special newcomer. Ruthie is here. She took the train to Beer Sheva, then caught a bus to the border and…

By Yuval Ben-Ami April 29, 2012

(Yuval Ben-Ami)

The Round Trip part 20: Western Sahara

From Eilat to Kmehin via Eritrea, the days of yore, and the middle of nowhere Tonight at sundown, the Day of Remembrance for Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism will begin. I picked a fitting city in which to pass this evening. Eilat is the one Israeli town that never knew war. In 1948, Palmach…

By Yuval Ben-Ami April 27, 2012

(Yuval Ben Ami)

The Round Trip part 19: Mr. Kalaboush

From Taba to Taba via trouble. The government issued a severe travel warning, urging Israelis to stay out of the Sinai Peninsula. I’ve bumped into those occasionally in newspapers and on the radio over the past few days, yet am still planning to venture in briefly. It’s not that I doubt the sincerety of the…

By Yuval Ben-Ami April 25, 2012

(Yuval Ben Ami)

The Round Trip part 18: Details, details

From Aqaba to Eilat via an intolerant electric appliances store, a metaphoric volleyball court, and a strange play of reflections. The first thing I notice in Jordan is a picture. It is hanging over my hotel bed: a representation of Rachel’s Tomb near Bethlehem in its “before” state (for its “after” state, see the end…

By Yuval Ben-Ami April 24, 2012

Mairav in Arava (Yuval Ben-Ami)

The Round Trip part 17: Impenetrable

From Neot Hakikar to the Arava border crossing, via a land bereft of food, a plant for neutering flies and the home of a two-headed snake. Zoe, Mairav and I are looking for something to eat. We head down to Neot Hakikar, a small moshav on the southernmost tip of the Dead Sea. Google claims…

By Yuval Ben-Ami April 23, 2012

Dead Sea salt (Yuval Ben-Ami)

The Round Trip part 16: Fresh water

From Ein Gedi to Sodom via three Hebrew songs, two versions of paradise and one magnesium plant. Tine likes the Dead Sea, conceptually, that is. She likes that it’s called the Dead Sea and that no form of life survives in its waters except for tourists. We camp out at a place that turns out…

By Yuval Ben-Ami April 22, 2012

The Round Trip part 15: Eternally confused

From Lehavim to Masada via South Hebron Hills tent dwellers, God-fearing settlers and a Russian minimarket. Someone very special is waiting for me this morning outside the train station of Lehavim, north of Be’er Sheva. It is Tine Fetz, the German artist who got into the legal trouble with me on the September Journey, and…

By Yuval Ben-Ami April 21, 2012

The Round Trip part 14: Planet hopping

From Jerusalem to the Lachish hills via a silent house of white robes, a Jewish Afghanistan and a Argentinian dance class. As the sun sets over Jerusalem, Holocaust Remembrance Day officially begins. It begins with a disaster: The wild wind of that sand storm toppled a stainless steel tower that held a light fixture above…

By Yuval Ben-Ami April 20, 2012

Borderline restaurant (Yuval Ben-Ami)

The Round Trip part 13: Walking the line

From Ramot to Rachel’s tomb via Brooklyn, a haunted house, a threat of very painful eternal damnation and two fjords. Ira, Ezra and myself are having breakfast in the sunny kitchen of Givon Hakhadasha. Ira eats what she terms a “kibbutz” breakfast: white cheese spread, some bread and a chopped salad of tomatoes and cucumber.…

By Yuval Ben-Ami April 19, 2012