Jerusalem & Palestine

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Hello again
i just returned from a loong trip, in fact I did 3 things today. My day started with an attempt to walk around the old city on my own until I found out that my lacking sense of orientation lead me into the most remote corners of the city.. just far away from all sights. So in the end I decided to get a travel guide. he took me around town, I visited all important and holy places here in the old city (Al Aqsa, Wailing wall, via dolorosa, grave church, etc). Jerusalem is a very very special place with too much culture, different mentalities and religions. You literally feel like performing time travelling. Once youre inside the old city walls you feel like centuries behind, the only thing that reminds you of the real year is the presence of guns and the armed israeli soldiers you see literally everywhere. Even the young jewish teenage girl of maybe 18 with braces who searched your bags before you entered the israeli tourist information had a big kalashnikov on her back. In some corners you saw memorials with candles and photos for israeli soldiers who obviously were killed at those places. You see palestinians passing israeli soldiers with a quiet "salam" or israelis buying things in palestinian shops greeting with a "shalom". It is not that palestinians and israelis are completely seperated and enemies. On the streets you sometimes see israeli children playing with palestinian kids and i saw my palestinian guide talking with israelis even using some hebrew words, I think they were teaching each other their languages.

Anyway I was thinking about taking a trip to Bethlehem but my guide wanted to charge me 300 shekels for it (what a rip off!!)!!! The staff from my hostel recommended me to catch a bus to the checkpoint and get a palestinian taxi from there. And this appeared to be the best alternative as it was quick and much cheaper. The westbank is very calm in many areas today and so it was a truly great experience to spend time there. My taxi driver, a lovely palestinian man whose wife just gave birth to a little girl today, showed me around bethlehem. We visited the place where the angels appeared to the shepherds, the place where jesus was said to be born born and some places in town. Afterwards my driver drove me to "herodion national park" around 10 min way from Bethlehem where you still can see remains of king herodes palace.
Palestine is a country that makes me smile and cry at the same time. Smile because of the beauty and kindness of the people, cry because of the anger and frustration and often even the resignation you see in their eyes. My driver, Nayef, told me that before the start of the intifada in 2000 he never had big problems to get his money in through tourism. He has a shop and a taxi and for both i was the first customer for the day even though it was already afternoon. In some moments I didnt know what to say anymore. After 10 minutes they shared their entire life, and they all just want one thing: PEACE! What can a single person do about this. Nothing. You may be able to give them some money but this doesnt fix their destroyed dreams and lifes. They appear to be glad when they can talk about thier feelings with somebody. Nayefs brother gave me a small peace dove out of olive wood as a good bye gift.... The good bye was very hearty with hugs and kisses. When I walked back to the checkpoint past the wall (that separates the palestinian territories from the Israeli side) a man begged me to buy a few necklaces. He was so persistent and all I could say was no because I already spent all my money I had on me in Bethlehem and with my driver...
Im disgusted about politics, about humans who believe to be better than others.... on either side! People killing INNOCENT ones, this counts for the Israeli actions as well as for the suicide bombings (which fortunately havent taken place for a long time anymore) Extremists on both sides are the ones should stop their brainless actions. The civilians are the ones who are going to suffer from all this especially the palestinians
Bethelehem has been calm and peaceful for 8 months now and people hope that peace will remain even though everybody doubts it. How glad we all can be that theres a god who takes care of us and all of us know that the trouble, depression and unjustice on this planet wont prevail into eternity. I'm stil so emotional
Anyway.... tomorrow im probably leaving for cairo. Culture change again... Its gonna be a long trip. Will write again once im there

P.S. i almost forgot... after my return from Bethlehem area I visited the mount of olives from where i watched a beautiful sunset over jerusalem. Got onto a bus that brought me right to the top and after some difficulties to find the lookout point I sat down on a stone bench, put my feet up, leaned back, ate some candies and watched the scenery. Unfortunately the sun went down pretty quickly and it was time to get back to my hostel. I kept on asking around for busstops from where a bus would go towards the old city but apparently the next stop was about 1.5 km away, I couldnt believe it!! How on earth can it be possible that a bus goes there but there are no departure stops!? The further I went the more uncomfortable I felt. In was already dark and it must have been an arabic suburb I walked through. This was the first and only time I felt truly uncomfortable on my entire 3 week trip. People looked quite angry at me and I thought "Whats up with them" as usually especially the arabic people were so friendly. I speeded up my pace to get "home" quickly but the busstop was still far. Some people yelled at me and had a really angry look and so I tried to look on the floor only and walking really quick. Maybe they thought I was a jew? But then again why was everybody in the old city so friendly? And palestinians don't treat all jews bad! Until today I dont know what went on. Maybe I just happened to pass by some bad mooded people? I became paranoid and imagined the worst things to happen and rushed to the busstop where I asked 2 young arabic teens when the next bus would depart. Even they appeared very distanced first but then they helped me out telling me from where a bus would depart soon. Fortunately the bus showed up 10 minutes later and I was glad to be inside. what an evening LOL

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Clearing up a missunderstanding

After having received some messages especially from Israelis in response to this posting I really felt like explaining some things.
What is going on in the middle east (Israel-Palestine) is a very vast, complex situation and a whole lot of unright is happening, caused by political leaders and I'm the last one to take a political side simply because I feel like politicians on both sides appear very aggressive and extreme and as a Jehovahs witness I'm politically neutral anyway. Tragedies happen on both sides - Israeli and Palestinian.
Israeli civilians lost loved ones through brainless suicide bombings, lost their own life or carried terrible injuries. My heart reaches out to those effected ones and their families and I feel anger about the ones who elaborated and implemented such a horrible thing
However I feel quite emotional especially about what is happening to the palestinians. Israelis appear to live a normal life. They have a home, they go partying, they have work. And I'm glad that at least one side in this conflict suffers less. But then have a look at what happens every day in the gaza strip especially.
It's a matter of discussion whether it is justifiable to assasinate palestinian extremists (For my part I'm against killing in any way - catch the extremists and lock them in jail) but isn't this against any humanitarian law to bomb and shell the Gaza strip where not only extremists get killed but also homes of civilians damaged or destroyed, family fathers killed or crippled, women and children, elderly people hurt or killed. Let alone the emotional scars people carry. Unable to sleep, posttraumatic stress disorder, hopelessness, depression. Not every palestinian agrees with suicide bombings and collective punishment is something that screams to heaven as a big unright.
Like I said I'm not on any political side, but on the side of humanity. I have both Israeli and palestinian friends. Fellow believers who are both arab and of Israeli descendance. Within JWs we make no difference of where you are from or what your ethnic roots are. Anyway there are extremists on both sides and it is wrong to generalize and have feelings of hostility towards civilians because of this simply because extremists lets say on the palestinian side dont represent the general attitude of civilians.
In Israel you can see Arabs and Jews being befriended with each other, learning each other's languages, buying in each other's shops, their kids grow up together and this shows that both sides of the average civilian only wants peace.
I just hope that god will bring justice soon.

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Photos

Dome of the rock
this was the most stunning place in jerusalem!! My japanese roots came through when i took around 30 pictures only there (fortunately ive got a digi cam so i dont have to keep them all)
Inside the golden dome theres a big rock from where muslims believe that their prophet mohammad descended to heaven. Only muslims are allowed to enter the dome of the rock

al aqsa
the mosque right ooposite of the dome of the rock.
Muslims believe this was the most distant mosque away from makkah (Saudi arabia) that their most important prophet and receiver of quran mohammad personally visited. Therefore one of the most important places for pilgrimage of muslims from all over the world right after makkah/medinah.

the westbank wall
painting...

palestinian eyes
those increadible eyes belonged to an armed palestinian authority anti terror guard. My taxi driver Nayyef, him and me had lunch together

church of nativity / Bethlehem
christendom believes that Jesus was born at this place in todays westbank city of bethlehem

jewish settlement in the westbank
after the withdrawal of settlement from the gaza strip palestinians today hope that the ones in the westbank will be withdrawn too. They are occasionally a target for attacks of militans

Comments

[CROW]

NICE PICS
sounds intresting , i wish i was there tooo :P , espacially at THE DOM OF ROCK , i think mosque al-aqsa is beside the dom of rock . the pics are soo nice and attractive . someday i well be there to see whats cooking :D prayers ...

[nayeemuddin]

clear ur misunderstanding
hi nicola this is nayeem from india, i am orthodox muslim, it sound good that u have visited all thosse but for ur kind in fotmation in the pic wat u have taken is of the DOOM of ROCK ( Al-Saqra) not the Masjid (Al-Asqua) it is in the same coumpound i wish u could have taken that so plsssss change the image for the same journal( i wish could ahve also see that) coz it is holy place for muslim ( pls dont mind)

[Nicola2004]

thanks
hi nayeemuddin, thanks for your comment, i made some changes now :)

[Elisheva]

Jewish Homeland
Dear Nicola: Please reconsider your position. You have had a good visit to the 3000+ year old Jewish homeland, the few square miles which G-d gave to the Jewish people. That said, we have happily shared it with anyone who has wanted to be there. so long as they do not try to kill us. Is this not reasonable? The claims to "palestinian" homeland are false. Few of the Arabs are more then a generation there. We have been there continuously. The Arab goal is merely to be rid of us - G-d forbid. In fact, most of the Arabs and Muslims who have lived in Israel actually owe their lives and education to the Jewish people. Wherever we have put in settlements, everyone near us gets clean water, a free education and free medical treatment. The infant mortality of Arabs living near Jews is less then that of the rest of the Arabs world wide. They should not hate us, but they are taught to do so. Best to you, Elisheva from Ohio

[S ASSAD]

APALESTINIAN LIKE ME BORN IN JERUSALEM HAVE NO RIGHT TO LIVE INJERUSALM AND MY LAND THEY TAKET FOR ISRAEL SETELMENT WHERE ARE THE WORLD WHO KNOW RIGHT FROM WRONG .GO .WAKE UP.

[Anees]

great work
hats off to you, for viewing this land from palestinian side. they're branded terrorists when infact they are fighting for a place to live. i don't understand how some place can be anyone's homeland which they've abandoned for thousands of years and lived there for only about 700 years, and the palestinians who lived there ever since lived there for more than a thousand years, so whose homeland is it really? anyway, this isn't a place to argue and whats done is done, nothing can change it. No more Blood. i must admit, the dome of rock is as beautiful as the taj mahal, just the opposite of the romance.