Well I didn't make it to Bethlehem but I did spend most of the day in Muqata, the Palestinian President's residence which is in the Palestinian territory, in Ramallah. We left Jerusalem in armored buses for the 45 minute drive through the mountains of Israel and the West Bank. It's actually only about 10 miles away as the crow flies but those curvy roads through the mountains made it a long ride through dense fog. Along the way, we passed through a checkpoint but made it through without any problems. It was amazing to see the difference once we hit the West Bank because there were definitely many more tanks and military vehicles along the way and there was more litter along the road. Oh and there was a huge cement wall with barbed wire fence at the top.
The buses we were riding in were armored in the sense that they had double paned, bullet-proof glass in the windows. (Thus when you eventually see my pictures, you'll understand why they didn't come out so great from the bus.) Also before we left, they were taping white tape over the logos and any Israeli symbols or signs on the bus because these were Israeli buses that normally transport settlers and they didn't want to have any hassles getting through the checkpoint. They took so many precautions that they took the normal drivers off the bus and had Arab-Israelis drive, even though they had never driven those particular buses, just so there wouldn't be any problems.
Once we got to Abbas's compound, we went straight into the press room where the press conference was to be. The first thing we noticed was that there was a picture of Arafat right above where the President was going to stand. (He couldn't have been happy to see that since he wasn't the biggest fan of Arafat and many say he stayed away from the peace process because he didn't want to deal with him.) Obviously the Palestinians set up the room! The presser was relatively uneventful- not much news except President Bush boldly said there would be a peace agreement by the time he left office. The most remarkable thing about this presser was the shear number of cameras and journalists in the room. It was so incredibly crowded! We also were able to see the bullet holes in the wall from where Arafat was holed up in this compound in 2002. Apparently we were very close to where Arafat was buried but we didn't see that. Maybe the next time I spend quality time in Ramallah!!
When we got back to Jerusalem, I had a little bit of down time so I took the opportunity to be a tourist for a short while. One of my cameramen, Khalil is Palestinian, born in Jerusalem so I enlisted his services as a tour guide. We went through the Jaffa Gate and walked through the Old City. It's a lot like the Khan el Kalili in Cairo that I went to last March when I was there on vacation with my friend Kristen. I asked him to take me to the Church of the Sepulchre because that is where they say Jesus died and was crucified. Well Khalil was gracious to lead me there and we walked around but being that Khalil is Muslim, he didn't really know all that we were looking at and some of it wasn't obvious. But he did the best he could. I felt like we hadn't seen everything because I was pretty sure that was where Jesus was crucified and we hadn't seen anything like that. So we randomly walked up some stairs and saw a group of tourists with an English speaking guide. So as I'm trying to figure out what we are looking at, I run into a friend of mine from my church in Alexandria!! What a small world! Anyway, I had my picture taken at the place where Jesus's cross supposedly was. (For the record, I absolutely 100% believe that Jesus died on the cross for our sins but I do question how they know the exact location.)
After the Church, Khalil took me to the Arab part of the Old City in which he thought it would be a good idea to cover my head. I never knew that there was a difference between the Christian section and the Arab section but boy is there!! Almost immediately, there is trash every where and it's just dirty. Khalil was telling me the background to the difference and I learned a lot through his unique perspective. We also tried to get into the Holy Shrine (a.k.a. the Dome of the Rock) but somehow the Israeli guards didn't believe me that I was his Muslim wife. I just don't know what gave it away!!! The fact that you could definitely see my blonde hair from under my head scarf?? So the guard decided to let Khalil in and I could stay by the armed guards with machine guns. Thankfully, after the second attempt at getting in failed in the same way, we decided to move on. We walked down parts of the Via Dolorosa but there are some things that I didn't get to which will be put on the list to do the next time I'm here.
All in all, it was a very interesting day which is likely not to be repeated any time in the near future!! I'll work on putting a link to my pictures very soon!
The buses we were riding in were armored in the sense that they had double paned, bullet-proof glass in the windows. (Thus when you eventually see my pictures, you'll understand why they didn't come out so great from the bus.) Also before we left, they were taping white tape over the logos and any Israeli symbols or signs on the bus because these were Israeli buses that normally transport settlers and they didn't want to have any hassles getting through the checkpoint. They took so many precautions that they took the normal drivers off the bus and had Arab-Israelis drive, even though they had never driven those particular buses, just so there wouldn't be any problems.
Once we got to Abbas's compound, we went straight into the press room where the press conference was to be. The first thing we noticed was that there was a picture of Arafat right above where the President was going to stand. (He couldn't have been happy to see that since he wasn't the biggest fan of Arafat and many say he stayed away from the peace process because he didn't want to deal with him.) Obviously the Palestinians set up the room! The presser was relatively uneventful- not much news except President Bush boldly said there would be a peace agreement by the time he left office. The most remarkable thing about this presser was the shear number of cameras and journalists in the room. It was so incredibly crowded! We also were able to see the bullet holes in the wall from where Arafat was holed up in this compound in 2002. Apparently we were very close to where Arafat was buried but we didn't see that. Maybe the next time I spend quality time in Ramallah!!
When we got back to Jerusalem, I had a little bit of down time so I took the opportunity to be a tourist for a short while. One of my cameramen, Khalil is Palestinian, born in Jerusalem so I enlisted his services as a tour guide. We went through the Jaffa Gate and walked through the Old City. It's a lot like the Khan el Kalili in Cairo that I went to last March when I was there on vacation with my friend Kristen. I asked him to take me to the Church of the Sepulchre because that is where they say Jesus died and was crucified. Well Khalil was gracious to lead me there and we walked around but being that Khalil is Muslim, he didn't really know all that we were looking at and some of it wasn't obvious. But he did the best he could. I felt like we hadn't seen everything because I was pretty sure that was where Jesus was crucified and we hadn't seen anything like that. So we randomly walked up some stairs and saw a group of tourists with an English speaking guide. So as I'm trying to figure out what we are looking at, I run into a friend of mine from my church in Alexandria!! What a small world! Anyway, I had my picture taken at the place where Jesus's cross supposedly was. (For the record, I absolutely 100% believe that Jesus died on the cross for our sins but I do question how they know the exact location.)
After the Church, Khalil took me to the Arab part of the Old City in which he thought it would be a good idea to cover my head. I never knew that there was a difference between the Christian section and the Arab section but boy is there!! Almost immediately, there is trash every where and it's just dirty. Khalil was telling me the background to the difference and I learned a lot through his unique perspective. We also tried to get into the Holy Shrine (a.k.a. the Dome of the Rock) but somehow the Israeli guards didn't believe me that I was his Muslim wife. I just don't know what gave it away!!! The fact that you could definitely see my blonde hair from under my head scarf?? So the guard decided to let Khalil in and I could stay by the armed guards with machine guns. Thankfully, after the second attempt at getting in failed in the same way, we decided to move on. We walked down parts of the Via Dolorosa but there are some things that I didn't get to which will be put on the list to do the next time I'm here.
All in all, it was a very interesting day which is likely not to be repeated any time in the near future!! I'll work on putting a link to my pictures very soon!
1 comment:
Boy do we miss our Beck Beck Sillygirl, but what an awesome adventure! Only you would run into someone from church! Keep being safe! We love you!
Laura, George, and Cayton
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