The next bit of our trip
(Follow on from previous article 'Palestine or Israel')
While I still should have been in maths class, I was headed to Galiath Killer King David's City - where Jerusalem was first founded 3000 years ago. We headed to the old water entrance to the city, where David's soldies entered the city to recapture it... It must have been very scary not knowing if the enemy were going to ambush you at any moment - plus it was pitch black...
It was a 40 minute wade with just the torch on Tom's phone to give us light. At one point we thought about turning around because we thought we'd gotten lost! But we finally saw the light at the end on the tunnel, and headed for the bus stop, to catch a bus to Bethlehem.
Palestine: My first impression of Palestine was that it was quite a bit poorer - the streets narrower and dirtier, but that might have been more evident because of coming from ulta - modern Jerusalem.
We walked through the market selling fruit and veg, and it was soooo busy! First we headed for the Church of Nativity, where Jesus is said to have been born. His shriney thing that everyone was kissing was in a little grotto under the church, and there were millions of tourists and some priests. Unfortunately for one priest, he knocked everything over when he went for his moment alone with Jeslus! Robyn remarked that 'he might go to hell now....'
Outside the church there was a big board with lots of propaganda, which we read. It was very interesting, and I've used some of it for the Palestinian propaganda of the last post. The online site is : http://atouristsguidetotheoccupation.blogspot.co.uk , and it's worth a read.
Afterwards we stopped off at a felafel shop before heading for the wall seperating part of Palestine from the Israeli - controlled other part of Palestine. In Bethlehem it's 8 metres high - twice the hight of the Berlin wall - with watchtowers with armed Israeli soldiers. It was my first impression of the conflict, and it was very intimidating. Israelis can cross the border at will, but as each people are terrified of the other, nobody does.
I think the fear of each other is one of the main reasons peace can not be reached. The closest they ever got to a possibe peace deal was in 1995, between Israeli prime mintster Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, agreeing a peace deal where Israel withrew all of their soldiers from the West Bank and Gaza, with the borders remaining as they were, and elections to be held in Palestine the next year. Unfortunately Rabin was assasinated before the deal could be made by Yigal Amir, a member of current prime minister Netenjahu's party, and the next prime minister did not agree on the terms. Both of the politicians are held as heroes in their home countries.
