Israel
Israel has a way of intensifying these emotions, and I feel like this part of
the journey was far more about observing, listening, and processing. Myself
being one of only two people on my tour with faith, the richness and
significance of the area to me personally was at times conflicting with the
jokes and temperament of the rest of the group, but at the same time it was
interesting to me to see things a little from their perspective.
Upon delivery to the border we made our way through the
security checks and customs. They were polite, but very thorough, taking one
member of our group in for further questioning because apparently her name had
Arabic origins, so our departure from the border was delayed. On the other
side, we met our Israeli guide, and once we were all processed, we headed off
in our bus.
Enjoying the toilet stops (perhaps a little too much!) with
their airconditioning and free WiFi, toilet paper and soap, without needing to
pay pee pounds, we made our way to the Dead Sea, where we stopped for a dip. On
the way, we passed several important landmarks, including Masada, the location
of the last stand against the Romans where apparently the Israeli soldiers are
taken as part of their training to swear it will never fall again. The Dead Sea
was an experience hard to describe, and if you ever have the opportunity, well
worth it. As the lowest point on earth, 400m below sea level, even the air
pressure is different, and floating in the water is crazy strange.
Arriving in Jerusalem on the last day of Passover and right
before the start of Shabbat, not much was open, so we ended up eating in the
hotel restaurant for dinner. Because we were staying in a kosher hotel, dairy
and meat are not allowed to be served together, so dinner was dairy free and
breakfast was meat free.
The following day, we went for a bit of a tour of Jerusalem
and then Bethlehem. Being Shabbat, there were few cars on the road, with
blockades up in the areas of the ultra Orthodox Jews, where apparently if you
try driving down the roads on Shabbat they’ll throw rocks at your car. Handy
tip – don’t do it! We went up the Mount of Olives, to a beautiful view of the
city then carried on down to the Church of All Nations, a church built on
donations from Christians all round the world, located next to the Garden of
Gethsemane, where Jesus went to pray, a unique symbol of unity in the midst of
the most divisive city in the world. Because it was Easter weekend for the
Orthodox Christians, everywhere we went was full of pilgrims, making their way
through the days leading up to the resurrection.
Heading next to the Church of the Nativity where Jesus was
meant to have been born, we passed into Palestine, and my heart broke a little
on the inside to see the walls, the burnt tyres, the division, to hear the
stories of an ongoing conflict with no foreseeable resolution. The church
itself was built by Constantine’s mother, the oldest surviving church in
Israel, not destroyed by the Muslims or the Ottomans, or the Crusaders. 
The
cave was walled off into two sections, and with long queues waiting to
go into the part where they said the manger was, we went into the other part,
where there was a memorial to the guy who translated the Bible into Latin.
We then visited the Shepherds’ Fields, followed by the Upper
Room and the Tomb of David, both of which left me feeling a little ripped off,
as the Upper Room building was built well after Jesus’ time, and the Tomb of
David couldn’t have been his actual tomb as they would never have built
dwellings over a tomb. Even so, it was meant to be the location of the Last
Supper, and where Holy Spirit fell, even if not the actual building, so it was
still pretty awesome.
Sunday started off with a visit to the Old City of
Jerusalem, where we stopped at the Wailing Wall before being given a tour of
the different quarters within the Old City. We went up through the Temple Mount
and stopped outside the Dome of the Rock, and were told a bit about the history
before taking some photos of the incredible views.
We then went down from the
Muslim Quarter to the Armenian Christian Quarter, and were shown through the
markets and to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a church built over the
location of Golgotha and Jesus’ tomb. Again, the queues were ridiculous because
of the Orthodox pilgrims but I had a few quite moments outside the mausoleum
for reflection.
After some free time to wander the markets, we headed off
for Jericho, again within Palestinian territory. The guide had considered
stopping there on the way into Jerusalem and commented that it was good we
hadn’t, as they were rioting and burning tyres. We went up to the place where
Jesus was tempted in the mountains, then came down and stopped at Elisha’s
spring, a beautiful Oasis said to be where Elisha cleansed the bitter water.
It had been an intense couple of days and it was a very
eye-opening experience for me, and it was hard in a way, as someone who likes
to wrap things up in nice tidy resolutions to be in a place where every
decision made is driven by fear and where resolution is complicated by messy
histories and past grievances on both sides.
What made it all the more
difficult was that for me as a tourist, I found the hospitality and the
attitudes of nearly everyone I encountered, except a couple of overly
aggressive salesmen in the markets, to be open and positive, in stark contrast to our
Cairo encounters. It left me with a deep sense of sadness that so many such
beautiful people could live so trapped in a world of conflict with each other. The
verse “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem” has taken a whole new level of significance
for me personally.
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