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Transformational host communities: justice tourism and the water regime in Palestine

In this article, Isaac argues that since 1948, Israel's control of water resources has been the result of military actions that forced between 700,000 and 800,000 Palestinians into exile and claimed the most fertile part of the disputed territory for the state. It thereby paved the way for subsequent military occupation. Isaac maintains that the Israeli occupation has violated the Palestinian right to the equitable and reasonable utilization of shared water resources. In his view, from the end of the 1967 war, Israel initiated its occupation of the territories of Palestine and quickly imposed military order with a view to achieving full control over land and water resources. To Isaac, these military orders served to dissolve the pre-1967 legal systems and which consisted of Ottoman, British, Jordanian (West Bank) and Egyptian (Gaza Strip) laws. This critical review article concentrates on the concept of justice tourism as a response to these assumed Israeli violations of Palestinian rights to equitable and reasonable utilization of shared water resources. The article sheds light on why and how justice tourism conceivably contributes to the Palestine host communities' transformation and hence to the development of higher level self-consciousness about their rights as "a sovereign nation".

The war from both sides : how Dutch and German visitors experience an exhibit of Second World War stories

At the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, questions arise if contemporary audiences still find historical accounts relevant. Fundamental to understanding the relevance of stories from the war is assessing their emotional impact on leisure participants from various social groups. We used the social identity theory framework to assess differences in emotional reactions of Dutch and German visitors to stories of the Second World War presented at a Dutch museum exhibit. Emotional reactions were measured using physiological signals of heart rate and heart rate variability as well as self-report. Emotions experienced were mixed and often, but not always, different between Dutch and German participants. Patterns in the physiological and self-report data differed. Many of the significant differences were generally consistent with a collective guilt account of German social identity, but the findings as a whole were more complex than could be predicted by existing social identity accounts. Specifically, participants did not simply categorize themselves with either national or human identities of characters based on what their respective stories emphasized. We conclude that stories of the Second World War are still relevant, but touch on audiences’ nationalities in a complex way, beyond simple historical categories.

Museums going digital; inspiring and engaging examples presented and discussed during the Traces-Workshops

Moving from pilgrimage to "dark" tourism: leveraging tourism in Palestine

Traveling to places associated with death is not a new phenomenon. People have long been drawn, purposefully or otherwise, towards sites, attractions, and events linked in one way or another with death, suffering, violence, or disaster. War-related attractions, though diverse, are a subset of the totality of tourist sites associated with death and suffering. This article aims to assess how "dark" tourism may play a role in leveraging tourism in Palestine, which has largely relied on pilgrimage tourism in the past. This article investigates the potential for developing this form of tourism, since Palestine has been undergoing death, suffering, violence, or disaster through political tension and instability since 1948 and arguably for a generation earlier, but has not yet developed a strategy for tourism development that considers this type of tourism.

What do we know about AR Storytelling?

In the last years, there has been an abundance of AR applications developed, across multiple sectors. However, AR still remains in many domains just a buzzword, with very little evaluations carried out to study its impact on users in terms of exploration, navigation, learning and enjoyment. In this paper, we want to reflect on the use of AR on a heritage site related to World War II, to raise awareness around an issue, i.e., our common history, whose implications can still be felt today, in these days of social unrest. We want to show how an emerging technology like AR can do some social good by not loosing the memory of those who fought in the war and liberated Europe, now that many of us consider 'freedom' as a given. We will do so by presenting the story of George and Ursula Lévy, two Jewish children confined in Kamp Vught, a deportation camp for children in the South of the Netherlands, and by discussing in which way viewers of this story can be sensitized to 'not forget'.

Regaining memory: current Jewish heritage narratives in Belmonte (Portugal).

The role of Jewish heritage for the city of Belmonte.