Israel or Palestine?
The political side of things
You all probably know the background, that both countries claim the land as their own, but following my visit, this is my personal perspective on the issue. The Jews fled the land nearly 2 milleniums ago and returned in the 1940s, due to their persecution, to find that the Palestinians had been living there for the past 2000 years. Both of the peoples have a good reason to claim the land, so in 1947 a partition was planned separating the land into two states, the palestinian and the israeli. Soon after, Israel committed 16 massacres of Palestinian people, and the surrounding Arab countries attacked Israel. The Israelis outnumbered them and won, taking over much of Palestine and Syria.
Maps showing separation of the country, and Israeli invasion.
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Since then, Israel has attacked Palestine a further 9 times, in 1956, 1967, 1978, 1982, 1985, 2002, 2006, 2008, and 2014.
In 2007, the Israelis decided to build a wall around the west bank, to keep out suicide bombers. Suicide bombers are held as heroes in Palestine, and in the past 8 years there have been less bombings than before, although the wall has limited lots of Palestinians’ access to their olive groves etc.
Israeli propaganda
''Israel deserves the land much more than Palestine - they have irrigated the desert and turned it into cultivated land, and populated the most remote places. They protect their citizens by using bunkers - not their soldiers by using children as human shields. This is the land given to us from god - and in his name we shall keep it. It is the land of our proud ancestors and even after the Jewish suffering during the 2000 years after the diaspora, we have returned and revived it with Jews.''
Palestinian propaganda
Since 1948, Israel has used its army, the fourth most powerful in the world, to mount at least nine massive attacks against Palestinians. In 2008-2009, Israel bombed Gaza, killing over 1400 people, a third of them children, wounding over 5000, destroying homes, schools, mosques, offices, and hospitals. Israel continues to bomb Gaza on a regular basis, killing Palestinians and destroying more homes and infrastructure. In the 2014 attack on Gaza, 71 Israelis were killed - 66 of them soldiers, compared to Palestine's 2131 - 1473 of them civilians and half women and children.
Other viewpoints: Online blogger: ''Contrary to what's been reported in the news for years, there is no Israeli-Palestinian conflict. None. I can say with confidence that Palestinians have no agency. The Israeli government controls everything in the country. This total control which is most magnified in the West Bank, concerns everything from where Palestinians are permitted to travel, to how much water they consume per month. Currently, there is no 'conflict,' only the omnipresent power of the Israeli government and those who resist it. This is important to understand.''
Our trip
So, my brother, Tom, had been in Israel and Palestine in the November before the trip, and since we were wondering where to go travelling at Easter, he reccomended the Holy Land. In November he had met some American Orthodox Jews hiking in the Golan Heights, and had tagged along. Apparently they were full of enthusiasm for the place, and would have liked to move there if it wasn't for the persecution of the Palestinians - that was the major drawback.
Afterwards, in Febuary, he went back, and found a job in Ramallah, the capital of Palestine, working on writing proposals to the EU asking for grants for Palestinian projects. It sounds like a very interesting job in my opinion, but he didn't like it because he was ''still sitting at a desk every day''. He also said to me that he didn't think his job was doing any good, because when the EU gave Palestine loans, they invested it all on one project, and the economy is becoming unstable because of it, for example the road system is at a very good
standard.
Anyway, on March 29, my younger sister and I flew out to Tel Aviv. There we met my other brother, Jordan, and the adventure began.
On the flight, all the air-stewardesses were extra-nice to us, and an Israeli man sitting next to us told us that if there was anything we needed in Tel Aviv to just let him know. We actually didn't stay in Tel Aviv at all, but it was very kind of him and our first taste of Israeli hospitality. It was also our first taste of Hebrew writing, because he was reading a book back to front, which we both found very strange. I also found it amazing, because just 100 years ago Hebrew was a dead language, before being revived by the zionists. Now it is the mother-tongue of over 5 million people.
As we approached the other side of the Mediterranian I was overwhelmed by the sight - Tel Aviv, complete with the harbour, the beach, and the skyscrapers. We were going so low I could see individual people.
Just out of the plane we were met by a stiff young Jewish man, who spoke English, but it didn't really matter because he didn't use it apart from very formally asking an 11 year old and a 12 year old how their flight was. ''Slight turbulance but otherwise very good indeed''. He led us through passport control where we got to skip the long queue and the thorough questioning, because we were unaccompanied kids.
Past passport control, we spotted a tramp sleeping on a bench, and my sister, Robyn, nudged me, and pointed out that he had the same water bottle as me. Only then we realized that the 'tramp' was our brother supposedly looking out for us.
We caught up with the airport man who was striding ahead and informed him, before hugging Jordan very tightly. Jord had flown from Barcelona in the early morning, so needed his sleep.
You may have wondered about the 'Table 36 Productions' sign on this site. It is a film productions company created by him and his fellow graduates from Otoxo film course, who have started the company in Barcelona.
Jordan signed the correct papers with one shoe off, and then put his shoe on to set off. We took a group selfie and what's apped it to mum and dad, to tell them that we had landed safely. Then we got on the bus to Jerusalem and a man who told us which bus to take gave us a chocolate bar.
In Jerusalem, we sat outside the bus station and had lunch, before following Tom's directions to his friend Uri's flat. We stayed there for 3 days while Uri was away in Georgia. On the way we bumped into Tom on the street! We thought he was still in Ramallah working, but he had taken a while off to come and meet us. Both big brothers in one day!
We walked for about half an hour down the highstreet until the old town, where we walked through all the wee stalls and shops selling fruit, veg, souvenirs, and some delicious coconut cake things. We then got a felafel. It is pretty much like a Greek gyros - meat, salad and chips, but with some super nice fried chick peas in.
We checked out the church built over the place Jesus was
supposed to have been crucified, in the Christian quarter, before heading through the Arab and Jewish parts of town up to the hill of olives, overlooking Jerusalem. There was an enormous graveyard covering the whole hill with all of the important Jewish families buried there, which made it look like a concrete hill from a distance.
At the foot of the hill we bumped into a procession for Palm Sunday, similar to the Greek independance day marches, before walking along the route that Jesus took before his crucifiction, but turned off at the Western Wall Plaza. I put on a tourist skull cap, or kippa in Hebrew, and silently wailed. There were all the Orthodox Jews headbanging and actually wailing their wishes to the ancient wall; even the kids were dressed in the suits and ties and the big hats.
All on day one and I was impressed how comfortable I already felt in such a different culture - not once did we feel threatened or was it even noticeable yet that we were travelling in a conflict zone. However the evidence is there.....
