12. Caesarea, Megiddo and Nazareth

So now we shift gears.  Instead of a private car and driver/guide, we use a very comfortable touring bus with driver AND guide.  Instead of standing next to each other, the guide speaks into a radio transmitter, all 31 of us have receivers with ear bugs.  We can be as much as 500 feet away and still hear the interpretations.

Tonight we are at Maagan Kibbutz on the shore of the Sea of Galilee just outside the town of Tiberias.  Modest but nice facilities, particularly the shower after a "hard" day of walking the walk of the ancients as they built the cities of 3000 years ago.

First was Caesarea Maritime, on the shore of the Mediterranean north of Tel Aviv and Netanya.  A city built by Herod as a harbor to please Augustus and to facilitate trade with Rome during the period in which Jesus grew up and began to preach.   It saw many enhancements, particularly during the crusades and a palace for Pontius Pilot was built right ont he waters edge.

We then went to Megiddo.  Megiddo today is a very large tel, or mountain top archeological site that, upon excavation, reveals a very large and sophisticated city that looks out on the main trunk road from Egypt to Lebenon at one corner of the Jezreel Valley.

Finally, we went to Nazareth and saw the Church of the Annunciation.  It was built about 1961.  It is a very beautiful, but very new church, but built right ont he spot  where the small, and then insignificant, village of Nazareth was located when Jesus was born.

(for some reason, I am having trouble with transferring my pictures to my blog.  I will try to get it fixed.)

In the meantime, know that it is very hot at the Sea of Galilee...200+ feet below sea level...a lot like death valley but with water, so it is very lush.

More later.

11. Good Guides

Now that I have some time to pause and reflect on the Palestinian portion of my trip, I must acknowledge the valuable service of my two very competent guides.

In most countries where one visits, guides, particularly in Europe, are very well versed in the history, politics, art, culture of the lands they share with their visitors.   For the most part, these guides are licensed by the country after many years of rigorous study about their land.

My two guides were every bit as well versed about the land I was visiting.  They, too, were licensed after much study.

In Israel and Palestine, however, there are additional complications and one must have a guide familiar with how to navigate these complications.  ID cards, vehicle registrations, passports, which roads are permissable, location of checkpoints, location of shortcuts, are extremely important.

My guides were excellent.  I would like you to meet them.

On the right is Fred Shlomka who owns and operates Green Olive Tours.  He speaks excellent English (he lived in the US for several years) but knows the intimate details of the the Israel-Palesntine conflict.  Even though he is a Jew living near Tel Aviv, he understands and has sympathy for the plight of the Palestinians.  He has a lot of personal stories and local knowledge to share which adds color and depth to his guiding.

On the left is Mohammad Barakat, a muslim who lives in Jeruselem and who has family living in segregated Palestinian areas of the West Bank.   He is quite knowledgeable about the politics and even the law, legislative enactments, judicial decisions and practical enforcements and why they are not always aligned, which creates some of the anomolies one sees as he drives around the West Bank.

Although I spent more time with Mohammad, Fred organized the four day tour and arranged for me to stay with a a Palestinian family during the tour.  That arrangement was, in many ways, the highlight of the experience.  The family offered clean, comfortable, friendly and private accommodations in the European style but with the best of Arabian traditions and meals.  Fred also arranged for me to meet very helpful people at NGO's working in this field and interview them at length concerning their role, their observations, their needs and their perspectives in and of the Palestinian-Israeli question.

They enriched this experience in very meaningful ways.

Dick

10. The Nabob goes to Nablus

Jacob’s well is now located in a lower level grotto of a Greek Orthodox church in the middle of Nablus.

(John 4:5, 6). This is one of the few sites in Palestine about which there is no dispute. It was dug by Jacob, and hence its name, in the "parcel of ground" which he purchased from the sons of Hamor (Gen. 33:19). It still exists, but although after copious rains it contains a little water, it is now usually quite dry. It is at the entrance to the valley between Ebal and Gerizim, about 2 miles south-east of Shechem. It is about 9 feet in diameter and about 75 feet in depth, though in ancient times it was no doubt much deeper, probably twice as deep. The digging of such a well must have been a very laborious and costly undertaking.

Since this is the last day of my Isreali-Palestine Conflict tour, I was grateful to have at least one visit that related to the Bible.

Most of the day was given over to speaking with a worker for an NGO providing some assistance to refugee Palestinians in the Balata Refugee Camp,  His story and the tour of the camp was emotionally stirring.  There is a lot Americans need to know about the situation “on the ground”.

   This narrow alley way is all that separates families in this crowded camp, provided by the United Nations as a stop-gap measure to house Palestinians forced from their homes in the northern part of Palestine in 1948.  Now, 63 years later, these people, direct descendants of those who were forced to move, are still waiting for a resolution of their situation.

The story of the refugee camps is much longer and much more complicated, but suffice it to say, the story deserves hearing.

And for dessert…..Kneva.  hmmm, an Arabic sweet that is hard to beat.

A little of this and a little of that and you have a yellow flour mixture that gets spread on the pan.  Cover the flour with goat cheese and put on a flame until the goat cheese begins to melt.  Flip the pastry over so now the baked flour layer is brown and on top.  Liberally shellac the top with honey syrup and serve it up warm.  Hmmmmmm, good.  Kneva.

Today was Nakba, or the day Palestinians remember the 1948 day over half their land was given to the Israelis by the British.   We watched closely for disturbances that might affect our tour, but we were pretty much spared any inconvenience.  In other parts of the country there was some violence quickly quelled by the Israeli military.

So, I am now in Netanya for a day or two of rest before starting the next phase of this fantastic adventure.

9. The Road to Ramallah

Ramallah is a Palestinian city of some importance, one might say it is the capital of Palestine.  It is a newer city, did not exist during the Biblical or even later historical periods so it has no historic significance.  On the other hand it abounds in evidence of what has transpired since 1948. One can  see how a small Palestinian village began and the old homes are very present, although the city began to grow and now it is filled with high rise apartment buildings and new single family residences of some prominence.  The problem is that Ramallah and the roads and hills leading up to it, have been criss-crossed with Jewish settlements, huge walls and limited access highways that make it hard, if not impossible for arabs to get in or out of the city.

Robert Frost wrote "Something there is that doesn't love a wall, ".  He could not have known how on point that is today in the West Bank.

These walls separate Jewish settlements from the rest of the West Bank, preventing access to the Settlements by Arabs.   If they were isolated villages or neighborhoods with a wall and gated access, they would not be much different from American gated communities.  In the West Bank, these settlements are strategically located to deny access from one area of the West Bank to the other without having to go on long rough roads, not the efficient highways, going through check points, and in some cases, being completely denied access to land owned by Palestinians.

This road allows Palestinian access from one portion of the West Bank to another without having access to the better highways above ground that are available only to the Israelis.  This particular tunnel goes under a main route from Ramallah to other urban centers.

Mohammed and I share a late lunch at one of his favorite cafes. Grilled Lamb shish ka bob, lamb livers, chicken and roasted tomatos and peppers served hot with salads and condiments including yogurt and garlic, tszaziki (?) hummus and others. 

We also toured the Birzeit University, a fairly new Palestinian University of 9,000 students, predominantly women, with faculties in law, business, accounting, the arts, languages, sciences, computers and engineering.

I was fascinated to learn that all the classes are in English, largely because all the textbooks they use are in English.

The campus is built out with a lot of impressive new buildings.

Well, I am on to other things.

Richard

8. Hebron

Said to be the oldest city in the region still in existence.  Hebron is an active growing Palestinian city that mostly shows its age in the old city, an ancient walled compound in the center of  Hebron, in the middle of which is the Mosque/Synagogue that sits on top of the place where Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their wives are buried, on the site of the burial cave purchased by Abraham.

Unfortunately, access is limited and when I was there, it was guarded by the military so that I could not get in.  Even photographs of "military installations" is prohibited and a small gate made of huge concrete blocks where stands a soldier with his gun is a military installation, so up close photos were not allowed. It is tragic that fear, suspicion and hate are cutting off people from learning and sharing their heritage.

In fact, the old Hebron is now a Jewish settlement, of sorts, with about 400 Jews living in quarters in or near the old city protected from the Palestinians by a garrison of estimated 1200 armed IDF troops.  In addition, the normal corridors and small roads that lead in and out of the old city, where once was a thriving market place, have been sealed so that there are only a few access points into the city and then only through check points.  For a while, arabs were not allowed in at all, although now, access is granted, however, the route Palestinians must take to gain access is so long and circuitous that they do not come in.  Result, the Palestinian merchants have left and whole streets which were once thriving markets are now shuttered.

There are some Palestinian merchants that are taking a chance on coming back into the market place.  I stopped to visit a merchant of carpets and fabrics and was introduced to his father, with whom I am talking.  He is a fine gentleman, considered to be a wise judge of the Palestinian people to whom many go for advice and settlement of family or civil issues, and, coincidentally, has a book for sale.  Hmmmm.

Outside of the old city of Hebron, where a more normal life exists for the Palestinians, shopping must include a stop at a shop like this for typical arab food staples, nuts, beans, herbs, leaves, which will become hummus, falafel and various salads and side dishes into which one dips pita bread. 
This day included a tour of Bethlahem, however, I will see this again on my Pilgramage tour next week.

Richard

7. An Amazing Day

As Fred, my driver/guide, a Jew living just outside of Tel Aviv, who was born in Scotland, lived for several years in the US, drove me away from my luxurious accomodations on the beach on the way to Jerusalem, I began to get a glimpse of just how incomplete my unfolding story of life in Israel is turning out. 

The life of a Palestinian is made very difficult by the layers of bureaucracy and restrictions on everything from housing, jobs, travel, schools, even praying in the manner of your own religious preference imposed by the Israeli government and enforced by the Israeli Defence Force and the Border Police.

To get to Jerusalem, a distance of about forty miles, we passed several check points that Palestinians could not pass, went by newly created settlements, cities created by the State of Israel but restricted to Jews and protected by huge concrete walls to keep the Palestinians out, other cities occupied by Palestinians surrounded by walls to keep the Palestinians in and a net work of roads that only certain people can use.

As we drove, Fred explained in great detail, the rules by which the Palestinians are obligated to live in this world.  The Jews have an entirely different set of rules that, frankly, permit a not to shabby life style.

P:erhaps a more detailed outline of what I learned about the treatment of Palestinians is in order later.  Only for now, just know that to get to the old city of Jerusalem is as challenging as the city is old.  The city is complicated by having to accomodate to the very special  traditions of three very different religions; Jewish, Muslim and Christian all of whom regard Jerusalem as the center of their universe, the home of their "mother church".

The golden dome is the grand mosque, the holy spot for Muslims, the western wall or wailing wall, a sacred spot for Jewish prayer and behind, the Mount of Olives.  Old Jerusalem is a fascinating stone record of history from 700 BCE to ...well...today....they are still building in the old city of Jerusalem.

After touring much of the modern city of Jerusalem in the afternoon, I was taken to the home of a Palestinian family where I will be spending the next several nights.  They are wonderful people, they have opened their home to me and made me feel comfortable.

This blog will require some expansion to discuss what all I have learned from this day, but it will have to wait until tomorrow.





6. A Day of Ease in Tel Aviv

One of my "reads" (see blog #2), Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, suggests that Tel Qasile, an archeological dig located inside the campus of Eretz-Israel Museum, is worth a visit so I dedicated this day to a visit to what the tourism promoters call the most wonderful museum in Israel.

Indeed, the Museum sits on a very picturesque large plat of several hectares near the Tel Aviv University and includes many separate buildings, each with its own special exhibit, one on postage, one on glass making, one on ancient pottery, one that houses olive presses, another that houses dioramic exhibits of crafts (carpentry, metal work, etc.) with the tools of the period (although it was not clear what the period was).

Some of the buildings are quite well done architecturally, but, frankly the curation of the museum as a whole leaves a lot to be desired.  Maybe it is the season of the year, maybe the budget, but the place is not well groomed...nice landscaping, overall, but not well cared for.  The available descriptions are in Hebrew and English but very minimal and there is no walking catalog of their collections in English available for use or purchase.  I did have free run of the whole campus without guides, docents or attendants.

The Tel was not being worked.  That could be because typically, archeological digs are worked during the college summer break and, this early in May, the University archeological project teams that work these digs are not here yet.  The Tel appears to be the remnants of a small Philistine community, likely about C 12 BCE.

Here are the remains of shops and housing at a location on the top of the hill overlooking modern Tel Aviv.  Below is an excavation of three temples, a lower, a middle and an upper.  This picture captures the middle level temple.

One has to be amazed at the patience and persistence of the archeological teams that clean away the debris to reveal these remarkable structures, but more importantly, one has to be in awe of the archticectural prowess of the people who designed and built these structures, essentially out of the stones and sands of the desert in which they found themselves.   In another part of the museum was a display of the pots made during these times.  They, too, reflect a pretty capable cadre of craftsmen and artisans that produced them.

My visit to Tel Aviv is about over.  When I write next it will be from near Jerusalem.  I finished a paper which reviewed one other of my "reads", Caplan's analysis of the Israel-Palestine Conflict.  It is too early in my visit to be coming to conclusions about the conflict, but I can say that Caplan presented a very balanced and factual presentation of the issues.  I can also say that it is a lot easier to grasp some of the points he makes when you can look out your window and see what he is talking about.

So, Shalom.

Dick