Benjamin Ladraa says he was so moved by a three-week trip to Palestine last April that he decided to “tell the world about the situation in Palestine”.<\/p>\n
“I was shocked by what I saw there, seeing all the walls, soldiers walking along the streets carrying M-60 machine guns. I heard stories about 300 children in prisons, rapes in homes.<\/p>\n
“After three weeks I returned and wanted to do something to raise awareness about human rights violations in Palestine,” said Ladraa, who was born to Jewish parents.<\/p>\n
After giving up his studies and work, he set out on his 5,000 kilometer journey from Gothenburg, Sweden to Palestine on Aug. 8, last year.<\/p>\n
Ladraa is always on the move, carrying the Palestinian flag on his back and a keffiyeh, a symbol of Palestinian independence, over his shoulder.<\/p>\nError, group does not exist! Check your syntax! (ID: 9)<\/span>\n Each day is a different experience for him, he says. Sometimes he sleeps in his tent or in a hostel. Dinner may mean eating canned food by a campfire or a meal shared with hosts he meets during his journey.<\/p>\n Ladraa sometimes holds lectures, where he tells his audience what he saw during his Palestine trip.<\/p>\n With the exception of some standalone incidents, he says most people welcomed him.<\/p>\n In Prague, he says, he was detained by guards of the Israeli Embassy because he was carrying a Palestinian flag and pushing a trolley.<\/p>\n He was released after a bomb squad ensured was not dangerous.<\/p>\n However, the guards scanned his passport and Ladraa fears border troops will not let him enter Palestine.<\/p>\n “The plan is to continue through Bulgaria, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, and again through Syria to Jordan, and if I cannot get into Palestine, I will try to inform the media about it,” he said.<\/p>\n He posts pictures of his journey on his Facebook and Instagram accounts under #walktopalestine.<\/p>\n Ladraa, who occasionally worked for the Red Cross, saved for about a year for this trip.<\/p>\n He says he has sold everything he owns. Sometimes he receives donation.<\/p>\n He is expected to complete his journey in June or July.<\/p>\n “I think everyone can and should give a little time to do something for other people,” said Ladraa, who sets off from Belgrade on Saturday.<\/p>\nError, group does not exist! Check your syntax! (ID: 14)<\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A 25-year-old Swedish activist has commenced a treacherous walk from Sweden to Palestine, to raise awareness about human rights violations in the occupied territory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":60001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,63,895,14],"tags":[77876,265,9001],"class_list":["post-60000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-daily","category-life","category-world","tag-benjamin-ladraa","tag-palestine","tag-sweden"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}