Well there's been a bit of a break in the blogging here for me, sorry guys! We had a pretty packed last few weeks, combined with very few opportunities for Internet. Now I'll play catch-up to keep you all in the know about where I've been recently.
After the Jesus Trail ended, we explored Capernaum and its surrounding areas. We visited the Church of the Beatitudes, on a hill overlooking the Sea of Galilee where Jesus is thought to have preached his Sermon on the Mount in Matthew. This church visit was quite eye-opening for me, because after seeing the inside our group met outside in the gardens to read the Sermon on the Mount. It was ridiculously windy and bright, I could barely read the words on my Bible or hear Bruce reading a few feet away. After a three-day hike through the land Jesus would have walked, this hit home. These experiences were showing me the humanity of Christ--he had to walk through mud and probably got splinters, he maybe even had to shout and lose his voice to preach on this mountaintop so people could hear him over the wind.
After leaving the Galilee area, we made our way up through the north of Israel to the Golan Heights, a plateau area at the center of Israel and Syria's border disputes. Israel has claimed control of the Golan, and uses it as highly militarized area to keep the border secure. Thus, many Arab Israelis have been forcefully evacuated from this area as well, contributing to the refugee problem. Currently, about 20,000 Israelis and 20,000 Druze live in the Golan. (The Druze are a splinter sect of Islam, but they are loyal to Israel so allowed to remain in their homes).
The Golan was gorgeous! We hiked through some old Roman ruins, temples and waterfalls--all surrounded by bright green plants and trees. Though my blistered feet didn't really want to do more hiking.
After the Golan we headed back down towards Jerusalem again, stopping at Acco (a town on the coast with remains of Herod's manmade harbor), and Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv was an experience all its own--it was basically Israel's Santa Monica, with beaches and shopping and rollerblading and sushi. We had a much-needed free day and spent it playing volleyball and swimming at one of the beaches. Relaxing in a city like this, it was easy to see how some Israelis are so ignorant about the conflict--they just don't know or care what human rights are being obstructed a few hours away because they're living normal lives in a very Westernized city. The "burden of knowledge" (as Chris Lim puts it) expands to more than just the Israeli-Palestinian conflict though. How can I criticize ignorant Israelis when I might not know all about human trafficking in LA or something similar to that? I'm putting huge responsibility on myself now, to be aware of what goes on beneath the radar around me and act on it. "Once you see, you can't un-see."
To bookend our month in Israel and Palestine, we ended up back in Jerusalem. This time staying in a French convent on Via Dolarosa, we were awarded gorgeous nighttime views of the Dome of the Rock from our roof. We spent the last four days in this amazing city seeing the Mount of Olives, Gethsemane, and the Israel Museum. We also had our Palm Sunday here, observing a procession through the Old City streets of pilgrims and tourists from around the world. And we got to spend some time also in West Jerusalem and Jaffa St, where we actually had an assignment to interview Jews. We asked them questions about Israel, security, Palestinians, etc. The most interesting responses I got from my street interviews were to these questions:
*What do the Palestinians want from Israel?
--Five of my six interviews had the exact same answer: "They want to kill us."
*What is Israel's biggest threat?
--Some said the Arabs, others said the disunity of the Israeli people and the government's selfish nature
*Should the Palestinians get their own state?
--Most said no, one said "Sure, but not here. They have 22 other Arab states to go to and we only have 1 Jewish state." And one older gentleman said, "Yes, why not?" as if that was the most obvious answer to this question.
To end our time in Israel, we drove south through the Negev to the bottom of Israel, where we had a day tour learning about the Bedouin. Another problem all their own, the Bedouin are Israel's pastoral native population, traveling around the desert with herds in specific tribes. The Israeli government has tried to settle them into towns, most of which are ill-equipped and poverty-ridden. Some Bedouin have made their own villages, however the government refuses to recognize these are they are cut off from service like water, electricity, and schools. Of course, Israeli towns right next door receive all these services. We had lunch in an unrecognized Bedouin village, and talked with the locals about their situation. It was a sad story, but just another side of things gone wrong in Israel.
Our bus driver dropped us off, we put on our bulging backpacks yet again, and trudged out into the Eilat border crossing between Israel and Egypt, ready for the next adventure!
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