Jerusalem! The 8 days we spent there were amazing...full of fun sightseeing, exploring the Old City market, eating schwarma and pita and hummus and smoking hookah and hanging out...We also were confronted with an army of opinions and loud voices concerning the Israel-Palestine conflict. It's so good to see the issues we're learning about first-hand...walking through the Palestinian town of Silwan in East Jerusalem and seeing the Israeli settlements, complete with soldiers and flags, planted there illegally. We talked with people on all ends of the spectrum--an Israeli professor at Hebrew University, a Palestinian working for peace through non-violence, and an organization called Combatants for Peace which embodies ex-fighters from both sides working together. We heard the technical side of the story--the "final status" issues like who gets Jerusalem, what to do with the settlements and refugees, etc. We heard the personal sides of each story--eating Shabat dinners with an Israeli family on Friday night and talking to them about how they just want to live their daily lives like any normal family. Homestays in Bethlehem with a wonderful Christian Palestinian family made me ache for their story--losing 40 acres to the IDF and settlers in 1998 with no way to get that property back. Or talking to Palestinian refugees who just want the right to return to their home of years ago. It's a crazy, complicated situation, and at times it makes me really sad to see what humanity has done to itself. But at the end of the day, there are enough people devoting their work and life towards a peaceful solution and the end of the illegal Israeli occupation that I have hope for the future of the Middle East. Enough Israelis and Palestinians are living and working peacefully side-by-side today that I can see it's not a fundamental Judaism vs. Islam conflict; it's not a historical conflict that is destined to go on forever either--it's a politically focused conflict that thrives on flaws in leadership and not enough international pressure on Israel to end the occupation. But things are changing, awareness is being spread, support for a Palestinian state is being raised and the people are working towards peace. Someday soon the wall will fall. I'd love to go into full explanations of all this--call me up when I get home and I can tell you about the people I met and things I saw in more detail!
On a lighter note, I've got some awesome pictures of our time in and near Jerusalem:
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| The view from our roof. You can see the Dome of the Rock in the distance. |
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| Church of the Holy Sepulchre |
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| Chapel marking where Jesus is said to have been buried and rose again. |
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| Super Jew! |
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| The Western Wall |
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| An orthodox Jew in the Old City |
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| Israeli flag |
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| Me, Sarah & Kelsey at the Dome of the Rock on Temple Mount |
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| Jerusalem's first ever marathon! |
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| Old city in the distance with Palestinian villages and Israeli settlements in the foreground |
More photos to come later! Stay posted!
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