Betty Soibel, at The Blogs

Jul 24, 2019, 1:02 AM

The emergence of hope: a thank you to our community

On June 18th, I got a call from my boyfriend, Zvi, just as I was walking in the door from a day of Shatil Fellowship programming. He was calling from the doctor’s office; that much I knew. I had...

Feb 28, 2019, 2:05 PM

Featured Post

Walking the tightrope between modernity and tradition: A Bedouin story

It's a marvel how these West Bank communities maintain their ancient lifestyle amid Israelis and Palestinians embracing modernity

Dec 18, 2018, 12:02 PM

But really, why include women’s voices?

A reflection on how planning can incorporate “to see, but not to be seen” as an expression of independence for Bedouin women.

Nov 20, 2018, 8:21 PM

How do you say cultural appropriation in Hebrew?

I remember the very first time I heard the term cultural appropriation. I was a sophomore at Columbia, hanging out in my dorm kitchen, when a friend pointed out that another student, one particularly known for her activism, was...

Nov 6, 2018, 9:49 PM

Palestinian women put themselves on the map

Over the last year, perhaps as a reaction to the #MeToo era, I’ve become hypervigilant about the “trendiness” of feminism. An avid member of many women’s Facebook groups, I often read posts about how new “#girlpower” or “#strengthinpink” initiatives...

Oct 29, 2018, 1:01 PM

While we wait for an agreement: Reflections on Khan al Ahmar

Early in the morning two weeks ago, following panicked messages the night before hinting that demolition was imminent, I joined a group of Bimkom employees heading to Khan al Ahmar. Bimkom has been working with Khan al-Ahmar for over...

Oct 28, 2018, 2:22 PM

Putting unrecognized villages on the map

Well known to friends and family as a sometimes perilous, but usually harmlessly inept, navigator, I often look to the shining blue dot on Google maps as a beacon of light and purpose. I am shameless in my similarity...

About Me

Betty Soibel is the current Shatil Fellow at Bimkom: Planners for Planning Rights, which pursues human rights and democracy in the field of planning. She is a recent graduate of the Urban Studies program at Columbia University ('17) and is interested in how issues of urban development play out on the stage of the greater Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She can be reached at bs2829@columbia.edu.

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