Blogs from West Bank, Israel, Middle East - page 5

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Middle East » Israel » West Bank March 17th 2014

My 68th Country - 4 Days in Palestine My film “Corn Flakes in Palestine” Whilst driving around Israel I passed through the West Bank on a couple of occasions but didn’t stay for more than a couple of hours. For this reason I hired a car and drove around the West Bank for 4 days, sleeping in the car to keep things cheap and to enable me to see as much as possible in a limited time (i.e. we didn’t waste time looking for hotels). One of the brief visits was to Bethlehem where we went to the Church of Nativity to see where Jesus was allegedly born, although how the accuracy of the location has been kept over the years I failed to comprehend. Not being a religious man the location didn’t mean much to ... read more
The Car We Hired
Quite a famous town
The Church of Nativity

Middle East » Israel » West Bank » Jericho October 11th 2013

MASADA, JERICHO, AND JORDAN I started out this morning checking out from the David Citadel Hotel and busing to Masada, a UNESCO World Heritage Site built by King Herod between 36 and 31 BC. It is in the West Bank Territory. The fortress became a mighty stronghold of Jewish Zealots who fled Jerusalem rather than submit to Roman rule during the First Jewish-Roman War in the 1st century AD. The logistics of King Herod’s palace and fortress on top of a mountain in the eastern fringe of the Judean Desert near the shore of the Dead Sea were overwhelming, but he did it. I got to the top and return by cable car, but all the construction materials had to by taken up by donkey or humans. Water supply was the biggest challenge which Herod figured ... read more
JUDEAN DESERT
CABLE CARS AT MASADA
CABLE CAR AT MASADA

Middle East » Israel » West Bank » Bethlehem October 10th 2013

BETHLEHEM AND THE ISRAEL MUSEUM - DAY 8 I went to Bethlehem this morning and was greeted by several surprises. First was going through the checkpoints between Israel and the West Bank which is controlled by the Palestinian Authority. It was smooth for us, but we had our passports in case they were needed. When we crossed into the West Bank we were joined by our new guide, Maher, who lives in Bethlehem and knows his subject well. We got into the Basilica and Grotto of the Nativity which also houses the Grotto of St. Jerome and the Church of St. Catherine. St. Jerome was responsible for the translation of the Bible to Latin. The grotto of the Nativity is the place where Christ was born of the Virgin Mary. I saw the place Jesus was ... read more
HI FROM THE CHURCH
ST. JEROME GROTTO
ROMAN CATHOLIC CHAPEL

Middle East » Israel » West Bank » Bethlehem September 24th 2013

Palästina, so präsent dieser Begriff immer wieder in den Medien ist, so wenig wissen Doch die meisten von uns darüber, wie die Menschen hier leben. Denn die palästinensischen Selbstmordattentäter die die Medien beherrschen sind mit Sicherheit nur das eine Extrem, dem auf der anderen Seite die extremistischen Juden, die ebenfalls eine Minderheit darstellen, gegenüber stehen. Und doch scheint es keinen Frieden, keine Lösung geben zu können. Omer erklärt uns bei einem Glas Wein am Abend vor unserem Ausflug ins Westjordanland, dass es für ihn als Israeli zu gefährlich sei, dort hin zu reisen, dass er erwarte, dass seine Staatsangehörigkeit allein ausreiche um dort angegriffen zu werden. Und auf der anderen Seite werden zigtausende Araber, die täglich nach Jerusalem zum Arbeiten pendeln jeden Vormittag aufs Neue am Grenzübergang schikaniert und wie Illegale in ihrem eigenen Land behandelt, ... read more
Bethlehem
Geburtskirche Jesu in Bethlehem
Hier soll Jesus geboren sein

Middle East » Israel » West Bank » Bethlehem May 9th 2013

O' Little Town of Bethlehem...How different you are than the song! You are not so little. We drove through the border check between Israel and the West Bank which is Palestinian. We immediately pulled over so we could add a guide who was a Palestinian. He talked about how Bethlehem had changed since the birth of Christ and was happy to show us his city. This birthplace of Christ has sweeter meaning to Christians than any other place on Earth. The name Bethlehem means bread in Hebrew and Aramaic, and house of meat in Arabic. Bethlehem was mentioned in the Bible many times...with the death of Rachel; the friendship of Ruth and Boaz; the birth and anointing of King David and the birth of Jesus Christ. Bethlehem lies south of Jerusalem, surrounded by rolling hills that ... read more
Where Jesus was laid in a manger
Tim and his "Stars and Bucks"
Sign for Bethlehem

Middle East » Israel » West Bank » Bethlehem November 5th 2012

Bus 21 sieht um einiges abgewrackter aus, als die grünen Intercity-Busse von Egged. Die Klappen der Lüftungsschlitze sind kaputt und eisig kalte Luft bläst mir in den Nacken. Zu dumm, dass ich mein neues Palästinensertuch erst ein paar Stunden später kaufen werde. Um mich herum sitzen braun gebrannte Männer mit Silberketten um den Hals und Frauen in langen Gewändern und Kopftuch. Die Schilder vor dem Fenster kann ich nicht lesen. Das hebräische Aleph-Beth existiert in den Straßen um den arabischen Busbahnhof in Ost-Jerusalem kaum. Die Fahrt dauert vielleicht 45 Minuten. 40 Minuten davon schelte ich mich selbst für meine gemischten Gefühle und das beklemmende Gefühl, dass mir sämtliche Vorurteile gegenüber der arabischen Welt, in die Brust gezwängt haben. Schon von Weitem ist die massive Betonmauer zu sehen und ironischerweise springt mir das Wort "Ghetto" in den ... read more
Der Felsendom in Jerusalem
Ein paar arabische Kinder springen von einer Mauer
Hoch konzentriert

Middle East » Israel » West Bank » Bethlehem » Dheisheh Camp August 9th 2012

The young man's eyes were trained desperately on the two of us. He needed help. Not sure if we could trust him, I kept my mouth shut and let my friend handle it. My friend knew many people in the camp, but this one was unknown. He begged us for help, just five minutes he said. Please come. Why not? So we followed him around the corner to his home and entered. "Do you know Mohannad? The boy who used to live here?", we asked as we passed his house. "Yes, he's my cousin." "Where is he? Is he home?" "No, he's in prison again." His accent was thick and as we followed him into the home we wondered what he needed help with. He had us sit in a small living room with ancient falling-apart ... read more
Graffiti of a Martyr
Rooms of the camp
Kitchen in the camp

Middle East » Israel » West Bank » East Jerusalem August 7th 2012

Half Day in The Holy City The city was bustling with all types of people. Such a "mixing pot" as Americans like to say when describing the U.S. But this city really was. There were all different types of dress. All different cultures. There's muslims, Christians, Jews, foreign tourists and then there's denominations of all religions - Egyptian Coptics and Greek Orthodox, Sunnis and Shias, Haredi Jews and Reform Jews - just to name a few. The Old City of Jerusalem is like one giant bazaar, but every once in a while there is a religious site or monument. The Old City is split up into four quarters - the christian quarter, the muslim quarter, the jewish quarter, and the armenian quarter. To start I headed with my friend Moodi to the muslim quarter to see ... read more
Coptic Church
Church of the Holy Sepulchre
Damascus Gate

Middle East » Israel » West Bank » Bethlehem » Beit Sahour August 6th 2012

The Holy Land Said to be the most fought over real estate in history, just hearing the name of the Holy Land brings spiritual and exotic thoughts to the minds of people all around the world. It serves as the holiest place for all of the three Abrahamic religions, hence the name "The Holy Land", and has been fought over this for this reason, and political reasons, for thousands of years. As a Christian I'm very excited and feel blessed to get to visit this land and walk where Jesus walked. These hills were once shepherded by Jesus himself and this is where his teachings began. The land here has memories. The hills, the trees, the stones, and the seas. They have witnessed some of the most important events regarding the fate of mankind. And this ... read more
West Bank Security Checkpoint
Streets of Bethlehem
The Berlin Wall...I mean the "separation wall"

Middle East » Israel » West Bank » Bethlehem July 19th 2012

After Jerusalem, we hopped on the bus and went headed to the West Bank! We were met by and enthusiastic tour guide, Khalid, who in my opinion, was the best of the 3 we had so far. After we past the checkpoint, (which I was totally unaware of since I was asleep :)) ), we headed to the Church of the Nativity where Jesus was born. We parked in a parking structure and it was probably a quarter mile walk to the church. On the walk there we got our first glances of Palestinian life. Despite all the media coverage, all we (or at least I saw) was a city of regular people living day to day trying to make a living. I really liked walking that quarter mile, and as we reached the church, we ... read more
I came as both!
Stars and Bucks in the West Bank
Church of the Nativity




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