I made two half day excursions from Jerusalem to the West Bank: one to Bethlehem and another one to Jericho. Both were very interesting, not only because of the specific things to see in the two places, but because of the specific situation there. Going to Bethlehem was very easy. I just went to the East Jerusalem bus station and took a minibus. Buses leaving Jerusalem are not controlled at the Israeli checkpoint at the exit of the city. Bus number 31 uses a specific highway and even entering Jerusalem there seems to be relatively easy. Palestinians seem however not to be allowed to use this checkpoint. In order to experience a normal checkpoint I took a different road and walked to the checkpoint in order to see the wall the Israelis have built in order to close the West Bank and to control entrance and exit to Jerusalem. Some call it the “wall of shame” others the “apartheid wall”. Whatever you call it, one thing is clear to me: building such a wall is a major mistake and it is completely crazy to see this concrete wall, double as high as the former Berlin wall. In the same way than its Berlin mother, dead since now 20 years, it attracts protest graffiti and art, but most of the about one kilometre I saw was still grey… The international community condemned the wall which is also in total breach of international law and the Oslo peace agreement of 1993. The same goes for the Israeli settlements, which continue to be built / enlarged in the West Bank and particularly around Jerusalem, many think in order to surround East Jerusalem by Israeli territory so that, in the event of a two-state-solution, to make it more difficult to split Jerusalem with East Jerusalem becoming the capital of a Palestinian state. A similar policy seems to be to accept all kind of immigrants into Israel in order to halt the increase in percentage of Palestinians in Israel’s population. Normally, Jewish people from al lover the world can ask for Israeli citizenship, but it seems that the vast majority of the hundred thousands of Russians who came to Israel (and the presence of which is evident all over Israel) are not Jewish but Russian Orthodox Christians.
On Bethlehem’s main square, there is a board explaining in several languages the story of Israeli occupation of Palestine by Israel and repression of its people. I uploaded a picture of it on the webalbum for those of you who want to read the story how it is presented form the Palestinian perspective. Even if this might not always be objective, it shows the nature of problems Palestinians have to face.
In Bethlehem, I visited the Nativity Church and the so called “milk grotto”. The Nativity Church is quite impressive. The entrance door is really tiny, you even have to lower your head to get in. As the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Church is divided in different parts: mainly Catholic and Orthodox, while the Orthodox “own” the nativity grotto itself. The Church was packed with Russian tour groups, one after the other… there was a real “traffic jam” at the stairs leading down to the grotto. It took ages to get in. The manger (stable) is actually a cave carved in the rock and there was probably a wooden structure built in front of it at the time. The “milk grotto” is underneath a church and is the spot where Maria and Joseph were hiding. Drops of milk fell on the rock and therefore women (even Muslim ones it seems) with difficulties during their pregnancies or who do not become pregnant come here to pray…
For Jericho, I took part in an organised tour: we were in total 5 people: a young Polish and an older French couple (living in Canada though). It was nice to have some company… Jericho, very close to the Dead Sea is the lowest and oldest city in the world. It is also in the Guinness World record book for the lowest cable car in the world, which leads up to the Greek orthodox monastery high up on the Mount of Temptation, where Jesus was tempted by the Devil, who had asked him to prove that he was God’s son by turning stone into bread.
Jericho is completely cut off from the rest of the West Bank: right before entering Jericho, there are two checkpoints, an Israeli one and afterwards a Palestinian one. Israelis are prohibited to enter Jericho and the Palestinians are – it seems – held responsible if anyone gets in. That is why the Palestinian control, at least for Western looking people, is perhaps a little bit stricter than the Israeli one. Since the second Intifada, Jericho lost a lot of its former glamour as a centre of an agricultural area (water supplies are very much restricted as the Israeli control the management of water in the territories) and the lack of Israeli tourist s coming there for short day or weekend trips. The whole tourist complex with the cable car and shops and restaurants attached to it (developed with Austrian investment), looks now pretty run down and the huge casino (also developed by Austrians and very much appreciated by many Jews who did not find casinos in the rest of Israel for religious reasons) had to close down due to the lack of clients.
On the way, we also went through parts of a Wadi which leads to the St George’s monastery, built on the rocks and very impressive, even for far away. Due to Israeli road restrictions (there is a Israeli settlement very close to it), it is however not possible anymore to even get close to it, so we had to admire it from far.
Photos at:
http://picasaweb.google.de/muellju/Israel8best2?authkey=Gv1sRgCKOmsJyImOjAhAE&feat=directlink
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