Hebron: Enlightening, Inspiring, Amazing

Hello, dear readers!  Time to finally post about my incredible trip to Hebron in the West Bank last weekend.  Let me preface this by reminding you:  I consider myself relatively uneducated on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  I have been doing my best to listen and try to understand and form my own opinion.  But to be honest, these nine hours in Hebron were the single most eye-opening experience I've had.

In the morning, I met three sleepy friends at the student village (Steph, Arielle, and Charlotte) and we hailed a cab to the Notre Dame hotel, where we were to meet our ride to the West Bank.  We hopped in a van and drove into Bethlehem, where we would meet our tour guide and the rest of our party.  Despite being tired, the ride in was fascinating; our tour guide explained to us the three areas of Palestine (area A, under total Palestinian control, mostly major cities; area B, under Palestinian civilian control and under Israeli military control, the surrounding areas; and area C, under total Israeli control).  He also began introducing us to the idea of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.  These are settlements of Israeli citizens that are considered illegal by the Israeli government, but are still protected by the Israeli Defense Forces and often disrupt Palestinians' way of life.

Our first stop was the Abraham mosque, the location of the tombs of the patriarchs.  We saw Sarah...

 ...Rebecca...

 ...Isaac...

 ...and Abraham.

In 1994, a shooter entered the mosque during Ramadan and killed 29 people and injured 125.  Since then, the holy site has been divided into two sections, one for Muslims, and one for Jews.  Our tour guide informed us that whether or not we're actually Christian, for the purposes of visiting, we were Christian -- Muslims could not visit the Jewish side and vice versa.  The Muslim side had enormous security to get in; the Jewish side had none.  Sadly, because it was Shabbat, we could only enter the Muslim side; only Jews are allowed in the Jewish side on Shabbat and holidays.  Unfortunately, this also meant we missed seeing Jacob and Leah!  Oh well.

To get into the Muslim side, all the women were required to wear extremely fashionable hooded cloaks to cover themselves.  We decided we looked like hobbits.  Then we all claimed a hobbit!

From right to left, we are Merry (Steph), Sam (Arielle), Pippin (me), and Frodo (Charlotte).

After that, we sat and had coffee at one of the few shops that is still open.  Dozens of shops have been closed because Israeli settlers have moved to the area and need "safe passage" to the tombs of the patriarchs.  Our guide was not allowed to walk down the street with us because he is Palestinian.  One of the people in our group asked him, "Does it make you nervous, being here?"  "Yes," he replied, "I am always scared."  There is a red line in many parts of the city showing where Palestinians cannot cross.

So he sent us by ourselves to walk down the deserted street.  All the doors had been welded shut by the IDF, and several of the closed shop fronts had been defaced by settlers.

After that we walked into the Old City of Hebron.  There are a few settler families who live above the main street of the Old City, so they've installed a chain link fence over the top of the walkway so that the settlers can't assault the Palestinians.

While we were in the Old City, lots of children and young men followed us and tried to sell us things.  As hard as it was for all of us, especially when faced with such poverty, it was best not to engage with them.  We then went up to the roof of the Old City, and some of them followed us.  One of them tapped me, and gestured to a water tank next to us.

"This used to be my family's water," he told me.  "But the soldier ruined it.  It used to be enough water for 20 people."  Then he gestured out into the city. 

"Those water tanks are for the settlers.  There's more than enough for them, but not enough for us," he explained.  To be honest, speaking with that young man and hearing his personal story was probably one of the most powerful, touching experiences of the trip for me.  I gave him all the change I had, and he gave me a Palestine keychain.  (I'm hesitant to display it until I can have someone translate the Arabic for me!)

We headed over to where we would have lunch in the home of a Palestinian family, and on the way, our guide pointed out a school taken over by Israelis that was turned into a yeshiva.

Then we headed up to meet the family who was opening their home to us.  We came in the back door because, due to settlers, their front door has been welded shut.  Fortunately there were stairs up to a separate door at their home; in other places, people have had to affix ladders to back windows to get out of their houses.

The family we met had three ADORABLE children!  I only got a shot of the middle child because my camera started saying low battery and I wanted to preserve it...but he is SO adorable!  All of the children were just darling.

While we were there, we watched a video, which was basically documentary footage.  It showed the IDF coming in to the area we had just walked through, about ten months ago, and kicking out the shop owners and welding their doors shut.  The Palestinians were not allowed to retrieve their goods from the shops, and many of them were harassed by the soldiers.  The wife of the woman who made us lunch was one of the men affected.  The shop owners appealed to the Israeli high courts, and a month or two ago, the decision was reversed, and the shops were opened again.

We had a DELICIOUS lunch -- cooked rice, lentils, and onions with salat, Middle Eastern salad made of tomatoes and cucumbers.  Insanely delicious, especially on a chilly, grey, rainy day.  The weather did nothing to dampen our spirits though :)

Over lunch, we talked with our tour guide, and one of the things that came up was (naturally) the two-state solution.  To my mild surprise, he said he didn't support it -- his fear was that Israel and Palestine would both lean to the extreme and become purist states.  So, we inquired, what was the ideal solution for him?  He said he wants one state, but where it doesn't have to be a Jewish head of state of a Jewish majority in the Knesset.  Many Israelis would support a one-state solution, but would reject the idea of Muslim leadership.  And of course, if one state was created, the state would be majority Muslim.  It got me thinking...it's an impossible situation.  I still don't know what the "right" solution is; all I know is that the way it is now is NOT right.

After lunch, we continued walking.  We walked to the edge of the H2 area (under Israeli control, where Palestinians are subject to extreme restrictions) and looked into the H1 area (under full Palestinian control and bustling with activity).  The shift between the two was absolutely jarring.  After that, our guide showed us the route that had formerly been the route Palestinian children took to school, but was now blocked because of settlers.  Foreign parties contributed funds to create an alternate route, which we walked along.  On the way, we saw lots of urban art and defamatory graffiti.

There were symbols like these all over, layered with pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli sentiments:

Steph is considering getting this gorgeous design as a tattoo.  Above where it says "freedom" in English is the same in Arabic.

I was utterly shocked by this one, and disgusted that Jews would suggest using a torturous method of murder used against them by the Nazis against another group.  Especially with all I'm learning about the Holocaust this semester, it simply broke my heart.

After that, we headed to a textile factory that makes kaffiyeh, the head scarves Muslim women wear.  It was absolutely fascinating to watch them being made!

I walked away with two gorgeous kaffiyeh...one dark maroon, and one blue with a pattern that looks like tiny moustaches!

Finally we visited a glass blowing and ceramics workshop, which had unfortunately closed early due to the upcoming Muslim holiday.  Our guide showed us around and explained the process, and I bought a gorgeous mug and a little condiment bowl.  We drove back into Bethlehem, and our guide dropped us off at the bus stop to take the Arab 21 bus back to Jerusalem.  I sat and talked with Steph all the way back, and then we all split a cab back to the Kfar.  Before we all went our separate ways back to our rooms, Charlotte and I had to take one last picture.  Sisters in Vagina Monologues (she's acted in the show at American University for the last two years and is assistant directing this year, and I've directed at MHC for the last two years and am producing this year), we found amazing little purses that said "Women can do everything" on one side and "Palestine" on the other.  So we had to celebrate our fabulous purchases!  (My camera's rather old, so the quality's a bit wonky, but you get the gist!)

In sum:  I will DEFINITELY be going on more tours with Green Olives.  So far I already have relatively firm plans to visit Nablus, Sebastia, and Jenin with them next weekend, and Steph and I were discussing the tour of Bethlehem and Ramallah.  I'm hoping to send M&D on a tour of Bethlehem and Hebron with Green Olives during their visit as well!

Other recent news:  I woke up on Friday morning feeling terrible, so I wound up deciding to skip the Arad trip.  After a day in the Jordanian desert, I decided that I could live with myself if I missed a second desert trip!  (Plus I heard the hostel has a bad case of bed bugs, and that did NOT appeal to me...ick.)  Instead I've divided my weekend into two parts:  day one involved making soup (tons of chicken rice soup and corn chowder in the freezer now, yay for easy meals for Grace!) and being generally unproductive while catching up on TV; day two was devoted to doing schoolwork -- and once I finished reading for the week and my first midterm paper, more of the same :D My first midterm (now completed, woo!) is due Monday, and the last is due November 30th, so it's go time.  Fortunately, I was assigned relatively little reading this week, so I have more time to devote to Hebrew homework, take-home exams, and studying during the week.  Wish me luck as I slog through three take-home exams, two in-class exams, and one oral exam in the next 2.5 weeks!!!  I also have a field trip tomorrow to the Old City Southern Wall excavations and the Herodian villas.  Stay tuned for details soon...!

Kat's Visit: Part Three

Apologies for the hiatus, readers!  I am constantly up to my ears in reading for my classes, and midterms are looming on the horizon, so I've been hard-pressed to find time for blogging.  But now, we resume the adventure!

When last we saw our lovely heroines...

...they had eaten delicious soup in downtown Jerusalem and went home to bed.  The next day a bigger adventure was in store -- we visited Bethlehem!  Katherin's friend Jess has two friends, Jeff and Julie, who recently moved to Bethlehem, and she kindly connected us so that we'd be set with tour guides and transportation advisors =) Because Bethlehem is in the West Bank, it's a bit trickier to get to than some places I've visited, but it's definitely one of the easier cities to access.  We took one of the Arab buses right into the city, and were met by Jeff.

We chatted as we strolled through the souq (Arabic : souq :: Hebrew : shuk) to Nativity Square, where we sat and enjoyed some delicious mint lemonade.  Then Julie got out of her Arabic lesson and picked us up, and we went and had a delicious lunch at a restaurant called The Grotto overlooking Shepherd's Field (believed to be where the angel came and told the shepherds of Jesus' birth).  I had shrimp (yay non-kosher food), Kat had pigeon, Jeff and Julie had some amazing chicken, and we all shared some delicious salads and kubbeh, which is basically deep-fried lamb (sooo delicious).  Then after a quick drive through Bethlehem to see some of the urban art reacting to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict -- very cool.  Then we hit the tourist sites with Jeff:  Church of the Nativity...

















...the Milk Grotto...

...and a museum of creches from around the world.  Finally we grabbed a bus back to Jerusalem and packed our backpacks before going to bed early in order to rest up for our next adventures.


The next day, we hopped on the light rail to the Central Bus Station and took a bus to Masada, ruins from the Great Revolt of the Jews which was 66CE-70CE.  From up there, there's some gorgeous views of our next stop, the Dead Sea!

 The interesting thing about Masada, one of the last holdouts before being conquered by the Roman army, was that when the soldiers saw that they were going to lose, they all committed suicide rather than be enslaved by the Romans.

We took the cable car up (it was very hot, too hot for a 45-minute uphill hike) and wandered the ruins for a while.  The black line on the wall shows where the ruins were when they were found; they've since been built back up.

It was really interesting, and I can't wait to go back -- I'll have a field trip there with my Second Temple Judaism class, and I'm thinking about bringing M&D on a sunrise hike there when they visit.

We grabbed a quick lunch from the Masada shop, then caught a bus to Ein Bokek to have a float in the Dead Sea.

It was actually REALLY cool!  The Dead Sea is approximately 33% solid matter with all the minerals in it, and it is reputed to have remarkable healing powers.  But the awesome thing is that you can float around wherever you want and it's nearly impossible to sink.  We both went in for two floats and to take some pictures before we rinsed off and grabbed pizza, lemonade, and ice cream for dinner.

Finally we hopped on a bus to Eilat and went to the Corinne Hostel, where we spent about eight hours before departing on a tour to Jordan.  More on that next time -- the final installment of the Kat's visit epic!

In other news, I had an interview with the summer job I'm dying to get.  It wasn't fabulous, but I think it went fine...keep your fingers crossed for me!  It's now time to wait, I won't hear back until the middle of December.  This weekend I went on a day trip to Hebron with Green Olive Tours, a really amazing tour company that helps tourists get an inside look at life in the Middle East.  It was an incredible day with three dear friends:  Charlotte, Arielle, and Steph!  It merits a blog post all its own, so I will update on that once I finish Kat's trip -- soon, I hope!  My internship is going swimmingly, and I will be sad to have to miss it next week, but with good reason -- I am going on a weekend trip sponsored by the school to Arad in the Negev desert.  Here's the description the madrichim gave us of the trip:  "Friday will be dedicated to a short beautiful hike in Abuv Stream.  We will return to the hostel in time for Kabalat Shabbat and Friday night Dinner which will be followed by our traditional Friday Night Activity!  Saturday will be a relaxing fun day - you'll get to choose between interesting indoor and outdoor Shabbat activities which will be suitable for Shomer Shabbat students."  Should be fun!  But it means I've got to get my academic butt in gear this week so that I don't have to bring too many course readers and midterm papers with me...ouch.  So far so good -- I'm done with my reading through Tuesday, so I can spend the rest of the week finishing the rest of my reading and getting ahead on the next week!  There also may be a general strike in Israel tomorrow, and the student union has pledged to stand with the strike, so if a strike is declared, classes will be canceled.  While it would be sad to miss my once-a-week seminar, but it would be nice to have the extra time to finish reading and work on my midterms -- especially because Monday is my absolute busiest day!  And now, considering that there may be a strike tomorrow, I should visit the grocery store...until next time, dear ones!

Kat's Visit: Part Two

Hello readers!  Let's pick right back up where we left off, shall we? =) Also, a quick note:  most of the pictures in here are stolen from my sister, who is a far more avid photographer than I!

On Saturday we decided to do a couple of tours.  When in the Old City, we'd stopped by the tourist information center and picked up a bunch of brochures.  One advertised "free tour, art, and hummus" -- all good things, we thought!  So we walked downtown to Safra Square, and we took off on a three-hour walking tour of the Musrara neighborhood.  The tour discussed the Black Panther movement in Israel.  Unlike in the United States, where the movement was working for civil rights for African Americans, in Israel the movement fought against the Ashkenazi domination in the Knesset.  There was some really interesting urban art, and our tour guide was awesome -- she always left it up to our interpretation whether something was "art" or not.  The below was next to a sign pointing out a bomb shelter, except it says "ahava," Hebrew for "love."

We wound up at a hummus/falafel joint.  Now, dear readers, I must confess that I lied to you.  Accidentally!  French Hill Falafel is not, in fact, the best falafel in Israel.  It's from this tiny little place outside Damascus Gate.  All the signage is in Arabic, so I don't know what it's called!  But it was amazing.

After eating our delicious falafel, we scurried through the Old City to Jaffa Gate where we were going to pick up a tour of the Mount of Olives.  Sadly, we were the only two to show up, and the minimum they require to hold a tour is four.  Disappointing!  So we went back into the tourist information center and asked for some advice.  They suggested the ramparts walk or Mount Zion.  We decided we definitely wanted to do both, so we saved the ramparts walk for another day and headed to Mount Zion.  There we visited the site of the Last Supper, King David's tomb, Oskar Schindler's grave, and Dormition Abbey (believed to be the site of the Virgin Mary's death, or "eternal sleep").  

Finally we were getting tired and hungry, and restaurants were still closed for Shabbat, so we headed back to my apartment where I ate Ramen and Kat bought falafel from French Hill when they opened.

On Sunday we visited Yad Vashem, which I have written about here before.  The light rail workers were on strike, which made it a bit trickier to get there, but Kat loved the experience.  After a few weeks of my Holocaust class, I saw it a bit differently, too!  I can't wait to spend six hours there with my class at the end of the semester -- I think it will be absolutely incredible.  We didn't finish up until about 2:00, by which time we were both starving, so we grabbed lunch and cake from the restaurant in Yad Vashem, then hustled to the Old City to try and get tickets for the ramparts walk -- we'd been told the last tickets were sold at 4:00.  Alas, we didn't make it in until 4:20 or so, so we just wandered for a while trying to find something to do.  Most things were closing, and we weren't ready for dinner yet, so we decided to walk toward downtown to see what we could find.  On our way out of Jaffa Gate, Kat suggested we check and see if they were still selling tickets, just in case.  And they were!  So we walked the ramparts of the Old City at twilight -- very cool experience.

When we returned to solid ground near Zion Gate, we decided to grab a drink in the Armenian Quarter before heading out to grab dinner.  We went to a really interesting pub and got two Taybehs, one of the big Middle Eastern beers.  Then we headed downtown to a funky soup place we'd read about in my guidebook.  The soup and bread were delicious, and we went home tired and full!

Whew.  Again, that's all for now.  We're halfway through the trip now, I think!  In current events, I had a lovely weekend.  After my tattoo, I had Skype dates with three of my dearest friends at MHC.  I began my internship on Friday, and it was SUCH a joy to be working with kids again -- I never realize how much I miss it until I'm in it!  Then I spent the weekend making chicken soup and corn chowder (yum -- can't wait to try and improve the chicken soup when we run out) and doing my reading and homework for the first couple days of the week.  Last night we got our fifth and final roommate, Rachel!  She is from Boston and spent the last two years studying at UMass Amherst -- oh hey neighbor =P But she decided it wasn't for her, so she's come to Israel to make aliyah!  Tonight is "chocolate night" in the Kfar -- an appropriate date for an event devoted to making chocolatey treats!  After my busy Monday, my week improves -- tomorrow I'll spend the day getting ahead on reading before my one class, Wednesday I'm on campus all day but with a long break, and Thursday I'm done at 10AM!  This weekend I'm looking forward to resuming my internship (and possibly going to the shuk again to buy more soup ingredients), and a trip to Hebron with my friend Steph.  Stay tuned...!

Kat's Visit: Part One

Greetings readers!  As I predicted, I've been off the air for a while, and I apologize for that.  I barely touched my computer during the 10 days of Kat's visit, we were busy nonstop!  And then classes resuming sort of knocked me around for a while -- I'm finally back in the academic swing of things now, I think.  I also apologize in advance for the fact that my recap of this visit will be in multiple parts:  now that classes have resumed, I have plenty of reading and homework to occupy my time and only limited time to devote to blogging.  I'll be sure to include a quick paragraph at the end of each update about what's going on now as well!  Now let's jump in =)

My adventures began while Kat was still in the air (or possibly in Heathrow on her layover) as I made my way to Tel Aviv to meet her at the airport.  I took the light rail to the central bus station and I bought a ticket to Tel Aviv and hopped right on the bus!  After arriving in Tel Aviv, after having a surprising amount of difficulty finding the exit from the bus station, I made my way to the Florentine Backpacker's Hostel.  I got slightly mislaid (the map in my guidebook didn't include the street that the hostel was on), but made it without too much struggle.  I met some nice people, shared bread and hummus for dinner, and around 10:00, decided I really ought to get some sleep since I'd be getting up at 4:00 to go to the airport.  Unfortunately, my online reservation hadn't gone through, so I was sleeping on the terraced rooftop.  No problem, I thought.  Except:  problem.  The rooftop is the one common space, so as I was trying to sleep, various others were still up drinking and chatting.  I dozed off a couple of times, but largely just rested.  The second time I fell asleep, I was rudely awakened by something wet on my face.  Frustrated, I pulled my blanket over my head and tried to go back to sleep.  Then the guy from the hostel came over and told us it was raining, and we could come sleep on the couches that were more sheltered.  What a mess!  So I grabbed another hour of sleep before taking a taxi to Ben Gurion airport, where I met my lovely sister =)

We grabbed a sherut (shared taxi) back to Jerusalem.  We got lucky -- these taxis only leave when full, and she and I were the last two to board!  Plus we were only the third stop.  We decided given our mutual lack of sleep, we should nap for a couple of hours and then decide where to go from there.  Kat arrived on the first day of Sukkot, so a lot of things were closed.  After we awoke, we decided to walk into the Old City.  I had never really explored the Muslim quarter, so when we entered Damascus Gate, we just wandered for a while.  This was one of the first things we saw, and I had to take a picture:

PT friends, I will try to go back sometime and see if they are in fact "very good meals!"  Then we ran into Sammy, our initially awesome and later vaguely creepy tour guide.

He offered to show us to a delicious kebab restaurant for lunch (OMG so good and worth every penny) and then he gave us a walking tour of the Via Dolorosa.

The food was delicious as promised, and I was glad to finally walk the Via Dolorosa -- I've been wanting to do it since I arrived!  One of my favourite parts was the picture below:  Jesus braced himself on that stone the first time he stumbled.  And my teeny tiny hand got to touch it!  Way cool.

We were fading fast, so after grabbing a quick ice cafe, we took a taxi back to the Kfar for another nap, followed by Kat's first Israeli falafel -- from French Hill, of course!

On Friday we rose early and caught a bus to the Israel Museum, home to exhibits on Jewish life and culture, art, archaeology, a scale model of Jerusalem in the second temple period, and the Dead Sea Scrolls.  We spent quite some time in archaeology, heading through faster as the time periods got more recent.  We did a drive-by of Jewish life, and wound up with the Dead Sea Scrolls.  It was really cool, I highly recommend it!  I hope to go back soon, as there's so much more we didn't see.  The first picture below is of me in front of the dome that houses the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the second is a famous scale model of Jerusalem in the Second Temple Period.

But it was time for a traditional Jerusalem shabbat!  We began by visiting the shuk, which, as usual on a Friday, was teeming with Jews buying their last-minute Shabbat dinner ingredients.

We visited my favourite spice shop, and Kat bought them out!  No, really, she went home with $60 of spices and tea.  But she was happy with her purchases =)

After a quick lunch downtown, we visited the Western Wall, which is quite an experience on Shabbat.  We sat and people-watched and chatted for a while...it was really nice!

We headed home so I could take a quick nap to alleviate a headache, then went to a traditional Shabbat dinner.  It was a lot of fun -- we met lots of other foreigners, and the food was INSANELY good.  Plus we learned all about Sukkot!  Definitely worth it =)

Whew, I think that's all for now on the trip recap...more soon, I promise!  In other news, I've got quite a few things on my plate right now!  Now that Kat's visit is done, it's time to start planning for M&D's arrival in December.  I also need to work on my application for the Mount Holyoke teacher licensure program; it's due the day after I return to the US, so it all needs to be submitted while I'm still here!  I've been in close contact with the teacher licensure advisor as I try and figure out how to apply from abroad, and she has been wonderfully helpful!  In other MHC-related things, the class schedules for spring were just posted, and for the first time ever, none of the classes I need to take conflict with each other, and I have achieved the dream schedule:  no classes before 11AM, no classes on Fridays.  I guess 5 consecutive semesters of waking up at or before 7:45 finally paid off!  I also got a tattoo last week!  I had been thinking about getting a tattoo in Jerusalem, and when Kat was here, she suggested a cross of Jerusalem.  I referred this to my tattoo designer (my boyfriend Ian), and on Thursday, I got inked!

Finally, I'm holding my breath about a summer job I've applied for; I really want it, so I don't want to jinx it by telling you more about it.  But please send me good vibes =) Thinking of all my East Coast friends trapped in the snow -- MoHo has a snow day tomorrow!  Have a wonderful week, all!