TV Travel Host Rick Steves Speaks in Tacoma on “Israelis and Palestinians Today”

 

Submitted by University of Puget Sound

Travel expert Rick Steves talks in Tacoma about his travels in
Travel expert Rick Steves talks in Tacoma about his travels in Israel and Palestine on Tuesday, Jan. 27.

Rick Steves, the travel television host and book author, will give a talk at University of Puget Sound about his travels in Israel and Palestine, and his impressions of the lives of ordinary citizens there today.

The free talk, Israelis and Palestinians Today, will be held 7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 27, in Schneebeck Concert Hall on campus. No tickets are required and everyone is welcome.

The lecture by Steves follows the release last fall of his video on travel in Israel and the western enclave known by the local Arabs as Palestine. In his talk Steves will share his impressions of the beauty of the Holy Land and explore legacies of the region’s long history of conflicts, including the disputed settlements in the West Bank, the security wall built by the Israelis, and the long-lingering Palestinian refugee camps.

Steves traveled from the ancient city of Jerusalem to modern Tel Aviv to the fertile Sea of Galilee. He went on to the West Bank to visit an olive harvest near Hebron, a Christian pilgrimage and local home in Bethlehem, a university in Ramallah, and the salty and buoyant Dead Sea.

His video weaves together the narratives told by Israeli Jews and Palestinian Muslims, and reflects upon the mostly Arab Christians who straddle both lands. Steves spoke to Jewish settlers and to native Palestinians in the West Bank, as well as to young, secular Israelis in prosperous Haifa, and to Palestinian refugees who fled the major cities when the State of Israel was created in 1948.

An advocate of perspective-broadening and affordable travel, Steves is host and writer of the public television series Rick Steves’ Europe, which is carried by more than 300 stations, reaching 95 percent of U.S. markets. He is also the best-selling author of more than 50 European travel books. Steves hosts a weekly public radio program, Travel with Rick Steves, and a European tour program.

Steves took his first trip to Europe in 1969, visiting piano factories with his father, a piano importer. As an 18-year-old, he began traveling on his own, funding his trips by teaching piano lessons. In 1976 he started his business, Rick Steves’ Europe, which has grown from a one-man operation to a company with a staff of 80 and headquartered in Washington state. Steves, who briefly attended University of Puget Sound in the 1970s, lives and works in his hometown of Edmonds, Wash.

The Jan. 27 lecture at University of Puget Sound is presented by the university’s Center for Intercultural and Civic Engagement and by Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Tacoma.