Can social media content creators promote peace through tourism in Israel and Palestine?

As the fra­gile first phase of a new peace deal com­mences in Gaza, Ahmed Abdel Fat­tah pon­ders the poten­tial for social media con­tent cre­at­ors to con­sol­id­ate con­nec­tions and pro­mote peace through tour­ism in Israel and Palestine.

Thanks to “Good Tour­ism” Insight Part­ner Tourism’s Hori­zon: Travel for the Mil­lions for invit­ing Dr Abdel Fat­tah to write this “Good Tour­ism” Insight. (You can write one too.)

A refreshing reminder

At a time when con­flicts in the Middle East appear to dom­in­ate the head­lines, and not­with­stand­ing the recent fresh hope for a last­ing peace, it’s easy to over­look the rich cul­tures and shared exper­i­ences of people liv­ing in places like Israel and Palestine. 

Recently, I came across two You­Tube travel doc­u­ment­ar­ies by Stef Hof­fer that I believe can change how we per­ceive these regions. Pub­lished in 2022, a year before the tra­gic events of Octo­ber 7, 2023, these films offer per­spect­ives that go bey­ond the often-grim por­tray­als found in main­stream media. They serve as a refresh­ing altern­at­ive; a remind­er of the rich cul­tur­al tapestries of both Israel­is and Palestinians. 

What’s fas­cin­at­ing is how Mr Hof­fer invites us to form our own inter­pret­a­tions of his doc­u­ment­ar­ies. He also expresses his desire to explore altern­at­ive sources of inform­a­tion about Israel and Palestine.

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The power of alternative media

Arab­ic and Israeli tra­di­tion­al media usu­ally paint a grim pic­ture, often bom­bard­ing us with head­lines fea­tur­ing charged words like “aggres­sion”, “inhu­mane”, “occu­pied”, “gen­o­cide”, “ter­ror­ists”, and “extrem­ists”. 

How­ever, Hof­fer­’s doc­u­ment­ar­ies, Jour­ney Through Palestine and Jour­ney Through Israel, por­tray a vibrant and col­our­ful scene, high­light­ing the many sim­il­ar­it­ies between Israeli and Palestini­an lives. Fam­ily gath­er­ings centred on food and tra­di­tion are cel­eb­rated, mak­ing it clear that beneath the polit­ic­al and mil­it­ary tur­moil, there’s a lot of com­mon ground.

Those who watch these two films may be pleas­antly sur­prised to find stor­ies filled with cul­tur­al rich­ness and human con­nec­tion. For instance, the scene fea­tur­ing the Ibrahimi Mosque, a sig­ni­fic­ant reli­gious site in Hebron, holds deep spir­itu­al import­ance for Jews, Chris­ti­ans, and Muslims alike. This site serves as a place of wor­ship for all three faiths, illus­trat­ing that shared her­it­age exists even amid polit­ic­al and mil­it­ary ten­sions. It’s heart­warm­ing to see Israeli Jews and Palestini­an Muslims pray­ing peace­fully along­side each other.

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A glimpse into everyday life

One of the most strik­ing aspects of Hoffer’s doc­u­ment­ar­ies is how he presents the every­day lives of Israel­is and Palestini­ans, show­cas­ing moments that res­on­ate with us. 

You will notice fam­il­ies dig­ging into their favor­ite dishes; Israeli and Palestini­an fam­il­ies enjoy­ing din­ners at loc­al res­taur­ants, while people from both com­munit­ies explore lively mar­kets, wheth­er in Israeli towns or the Arab­ic souks (mar­kets) in the West Bank. 

You will also see young, fash­ion-for­ward girls and guys in the West Bank hanging out in trendy out­fits along­side con­ser­vat­ive Muslim women in veils and men in tra­di­tion­al long dress. The doc­u­ment­ar­ies also high­light Palestini­an women in the West Bank driv­ing and par­ti­cip­at­ing in mar­ket trade. 

You may be sur­prised to spot tour­ism activ­it­ies on the Palestini­an side, with loc­als and tour­ists vis­it­ing the Dead Sea and rid­ing the Jericho Cable Car, which offers beau­ti­ful views of the area. Hof­fer remarks that being in Jericho feels like being “in the Swiss Alps while in a cable car.”

In Israel, the vibe is pretty sim­il­ar. You can see people in West­ern-style clothes along­side con­ser­vat­ive Israel­is; men in black suits and skullcaps, and women in long skirts and scarves, just like Palestini­an women in the West Bank. 

Audi­ences might also be sur­prised to notice the mosques in Israel, espe­cially those situ­ated along­side syn­agogues and churches. They may also notice the dis­tinct­ive sound of the Azan, which calls Muslims to prayer. 

The night­life in Tel Aviv show­cases a unique and vibrant aspect of Israeli cul­ture, reflect­ing the city’s diverse influ­ences. As audi­ences engage with these scenes, they start to real­ise that the dif­fer­ences between Israel­is and Palestini­ans are often exag­ger­ated in tra­di­tion­al mass media.

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Don’t miss the “GT” Insight Bites on tour­ism, war, and peace

Fostering connections and peace through tourism

The power of these doc­u­ment­ar­ies lies in their abil­ity to chal­lenge ste­reo­types and help us appre­ci­ate the human stor­ies that unite rather than divide. Hof­fer­’s films focus more on shared exper­i­ences and values. 

This shift in per­spect­ive is cru­cial for peace through tour­ism, as it encour­ages view­ers and trav­el­lers to engage with both cul­tures and fosters a sense of empathy. By enga­ging with these stor­ies, trav­el­lers and view­ers can become inform­al ambas­sad­ors for peace, spread­ing aware­ness and fos­ter­ing con­nec­tions that tran­scend borders. 

In a region often char­ac­ter­ised by harsh cri­ti­cism and anim­os­ity towards Israel, these doc­u­ment­ar­ies remind us of the many com­mon­al­it­ies and few­er dif­fer­ences between Israel­is and Palestini­ans, and between Israel­is and Arabs in general.

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A vision for the future

As we look to the future and hope for a per­man­ent end to the con­flict in Gaza, it is cru­cial to con­sider wheth­er social media cre­at­ors from both Israeli and Palestini­an com­munit­ies, as well as Arab com­munit­ies in the region, can col­lab­or­ate bey­ond polit­ic­al tensions. 

By show­cas­ing their shared her­it­age, beliefs, and cul­ture in a pos­it­ive light, Israeli and Palestini­an con­tent cre­at­ors could attract tour­ists to their regions and foster cul­tur­al under­stand­ing and peace through tourism.

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What do you think? 

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About the author

Ahmed Abdel Fat­tah is a lec­turer at Macao Uni­ver­sity of Tour­ism (UTM), where he teaches qual­it­at­ive research meth­ods, tour­ism man­age­ment, and her­it­age courses. Dr Abdel Fat­tah received his PhD from Lin­coln Uni­ver­sity in Christ­ch­urch, New Zealand. 

Ahmed provides train­ing lec­tures on her­it­age and spe­cial interest tour­ism products for the UTM Glob­al Centre for Tour­ism Edu­ca­tion and Train­ing, in col­lab­or­a­tion with The World Tour­ism Organ­iz­a­tion (UNWTO).

Ahmed has prac­tic­al exper­i­ence in the hotel and tour­ism industry, as well as in her­it­age tour­ism, across Egypt, the United States, Aus­tralia, and New Zea­l­and. He has also served as an over­seas pro­gram coordin­at­or for The Arab League Edu­ca­tion­al, Cul­tur­al and Sci­entif­ic Organ­iz­a­tion (ALECSO) in Leban­on and France. Pre­vi­ously, he taught at vari­ous edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tions in the United States and New Zealand. 

Ahmed has a broad range of research interests, with a cur­rent focus on reli­gious tour­ism, estab­lished and emer­ging qual­it­at­ive research meth­ods in tour­ism stud­ies, cul­tur­al her­it­age inter­pret­a­tion, vis­it­or man­age­ment, and post-colonialism.

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Featured image (top of post)

A Gem­ini-gen­er­ated image promp­ted by the head­line of this post: “Can social media con­tent cre­at­ors pro­mote peace through tour­ism in Israel and Palestine?”

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