Blogs from West Bank, Israel, Middle East - page 6

It was about time to ramp up a travel blog for this excursion! Over a week and a half after starting out in NYC, I at first had made peace with the notion that I would not blog this trip. But, we are simply learning and experiencing too much to not share the wealth with whomever might be interested. So I'll start with the current day and perhaps fill in the gaps later...? Yesterday (the 21st) a group of us took off from JUC for Bethlehem. We used the (newer) bus station across the street from Damascus Gate, which kind of kicked me into nostalgia mode since it was where a friend of mine and I found a hotel when I was here last. The public bus took us to the checkpoint for the West Bank ... read more

It seems that everywhere I go in the world, I find myself adopted by older gentlemen. Something about me (I wish I knew what) draws them to me like flies to fly paper. They want to drive me around and show me things; they want to sit and eat papaya. Most of all, they want to talk – and I’m more than happy to listen. I consider myself lucky to be so oft in the presence of wisdom that surpasses my years on this crazy planet. In Israel, I found two such men in the same day. While on my way to catch a bus to Jericho, I stopped to take a picture of a Russian Orthodox Church. At the same moment I pressed the release, an elderly man walked into the frame. Hearing the shutter ... read more

Spending a month in Ramallah was a great idea. The small city-town—with its bars, well-paid jobs, expensive restaurants, and international NGO offices—is a bubble sheltered from many of Palestine’s problems. But through its numerous bus and taxi services, I had access to towns and villages all over the West Bank. Day trips to the WB would have been more difficult if I had been living in Jerusalem because of the Qalandia checkpoint. Entering the WB is easy but leaving it can take a looooong time. Up to two hours sometimes. Actually, what surprised me a lot about Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories is the close proximity of everywhere. From Jerusalem, Bethlehem or Ramallah are only a 30-min bus ride, while it takes one hour to go to Tel Aviv. From Ramallah, the furthest city is ... read more

Hebron is the most vivid reminder of the Israeli occupation. I don’t understand how Palestinians living in Hebron’s Old City have the energy to stay in the face of routine settler violence. Over 500,000 (illegal) Israeli settlers live across the West Bank. But Hebron’s case is unique because settlers live right in the middle of the Palestinian city—rather than maintaining a degree of isolation, as is normally the case. Because of the settlers’ existence, the Hebron municipality was divided into two sections in 1997: H1 (under Palestinian Authority control) and H2 (under Israeli control). H2 includes parts of the Old City, such as the al-Ibrahimi Mosque. Visitors and worshippers have to go through three checkpoints to get to the mosque! The H2 area (roughly 20 percent of the Hebron municipality) has 40,000 Palestinian inhabitants and 500 ... read more

Crossing at Hussein Bridge From the Amman airport we travelled by car to the border of the West Bank. Or if you prefer, Palestine, or maybe the occupied Territories. The trip took about an hour and we travelled by the northern edge of the Dead Sea and through the “lowest place on earth” , well below sea level. We were all a bit stressed about the border but in the end it was more tedious than anything else. On arrival we shifted to a bus for the 10 minutes ride across a river that has been dry for thousands of years. Then lots of questions about who we were and why we were there. Mercifully, the place was empty but it took more than 30 minutes, including a 10 minute interview to clear. Then another 10 ... read more