We've been here in Jerusalem almost a week and I haven't really blogged about it yet...partially this is because we've been super busy and I haven't had tons of free time. But mostly it's because I'm still trying to process all the information and stories presented to me. We've heard from a professor at Hebrew University about his opinion on the settlement "expansions", visited Yad Vashem (the Holocaust Museum), saw the motivation for Zionism in the Hertz Museum, and talked to Palestinians living under what they call an occupation of East Jerusalem. We visited the City of David, a tourist site run by Israelis where King David established his claim to the ancient holy city...and saw the surrounding poverty-stricken Palestinian village of Silwan. We sat on the roof yesterday listening to one Palestinian and one Israeli from and organization called Combatants for Peace talk about their passion for nonviolent efforts toward peace...and we heard when the bomb exploded in West Jerusalem, killing one and injuring many Israelis.
There are many narratives on the conflict and many opinions on the situation. I'm just beginning to delve into the sticky mess to figure out what is truth and what is politics. I can't say that I have opinions what should be done yet--I felt sad seeing the horrors the Jewish people went through in the Holocaust when I was in Yad Vashem, and I felt sad watching a documentary that showed a Palestinian family crying after their house was demolished by Israeli bulldozers. I haven't blogged about all this yet because I haven't figured out what to say.
If I've learned one thing for sure it's that I was very ignorant of the situation before this trip. When I set up this blog, I made links for all the countries I thought I might visit, so I could link the posts to their respective countries. I included an "Israel" link, but no "Palestine" link. That right there proves my limited knowledge previously--Israel is not an undisputed area. The fight over what is technically Israel and what is Palestine is one of the key issues. We will be visiting Palestinian land on this trip--East Jerusalem (though it has been annexed and is illegally occupied by Israel currently) and the West Bank. I'm adding a Palestine link for those blog posts.
In the meantime, I'm learning how much I didn't know about the truth on the ground here.
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