Hello,
My name is Amir, I was born and raised in Germany. My family is originally from Palestine but fled to Jordan in 1948, later they immigrated to West Germany. I have been in Jordan many times to visit my relatives. A few years ago, I spent a bit more time in Jordan to learn Arabic. Despite all my visits to Jordan, I always felt quite hesitant to visit Palestine due to the ongoing conflict between Palestinians and Israelis although Amman, the capital of Jordan, is only roughly 70 kilometers away from Jerusalem.
However, two years ago, I finally picked up my courage and decided to visit Palestine to explore my distant home country. I consider myself a well-traveled person who has seen and experienced a lot in our world, but this trip was a totally different experience. The ongoing conflict has shaped Palestine and the Palestinians enormously, but I was still amazed by the beauty of this small country and the kindness and generosity of all Palestinians. Every place has its own mentality and character – different architecture, different food, different traditions – each place is simply unique and one of its kind.
With Stories of Palestine, I founded a not-for-profit travel agency that helps travelers from around the world to explore the Westbank and meet Palestinians in their daily life. The tourism industry in the Westbank suffers greatly as the market is dominated by Israeli travel agencies and there are numerous restrictions for Palestinian travel agencies in the Westbank. Yet, Israeli travel agencies cannot show the beauty of Palestine and describe Palestinian lives, traditions, and culture. We at Stories of Palestine started to change that by offering travelers to get in contact with local Palestinians who talk about their own city, their lives and their Palestinian heritage. And this way, we also support Palestinians to receive a fair share to support their families or pay their college tuition with the income from the tours.
Find out more about our tours here!
To arrange a tailor-made trip to Palestine, contact me via email: info@storiesofpalestine.com or call me on +49 178 6576588
Stories of Palestine was recently featured in German newspaper TAZ
German newspaper TAZ sent a travel editor to experience and write about a 8-day-trip with Stories of Palestine to Jerusalem, Nablus, Hebron, Bethlehem and Ramallah. Read the whole article here >> (in German)