Jerusalem

Wednesday November 7th – Jerusalem
Gilbert and I decided to go to Jerusalem for the weekend. Fortunately for the good ties between Project Hope and CCF, we were able to get free housing for two nights at a CCF host. We decided to spend no more than 200 Shekels ($50 US) on the whole weekend which I thought was impossible.

I used to take cabs everywhere I go, and did things on the more expensive side up until this weekend. Since I had no idea how to go cheap, I was lucky that Gilbert was an expert in that area!

We started off walking down to the city center where there are service buses that go to Howarrah. Howarrah has always been the checkpoint I use to get out of Nablus. It is a miserable trip every time. Not only because you have to walk through the checkpoint, but also because there are different lanes for the different demographics of people. There are 5 lanes for Palestinian men under the age of 50. These lanes end with metal rotating doors which can let one person pass at a time. After passing the 8ft rotating door, they are searched, and so are their bags, before they are let out. There are two other lanes for women, men over 50, and foreigners. Of course these lanes pass much faster with two Israeli soldiers only checking IDs.
This time, there was a jam in those two lanes. As me and Gilbert were trying to make out what the problem was, a man approached us. He asked us in English with a strong Arabic accent “Are you American too?”. I left the talking to Gilbert because I wasn’t sure what was going on. Gilbert, who is anglo-saxon in appearance, said yes on behalf of both of us. The man asked us to follow him.

We left the area where people divided themselves into the different lanes, and climbed over to the side where cars would usually pass through (but with no cars passing through). As we walked towards the checkpoint, a soldier noticed us and screamed “STOP!!!” The man told us to hold up our passports so he sees that we are American. And so we did! We walked slowly, behind the man, holding our passports up. After the soldier yelled “STOP” a few times, he asked us to come up to him one by one. A minute later we were passed the checkpoint.

I was glad we passed, but in the same token I felt guilty for getting it so easy when all the Palestinians were still standing in lines, and being searched one by one by Israeli soldiers.

The man asked us where we were heading. Gilbert told him we are going to Ramallah which coincidently is his direction of travel as well. He offered to give us a ride to Ramallah’s taxi stand where we could take a bus to Jerusalem. Of course, wanting to be cheap, we accepted the offer!
The man was originally Palestinian. The funny thing is, he was not one of those Palestinians that can pass as a foreigner. He was dark skinned, with a thick black moustache and the thickest Arabic accent when he spoke in English. On the ride to Ramallah he spoke to us about the countless techniques he used to get through checkpoints. They all involved mentioning the word “American” in each sentence while talking to the Israeli soldiers, or flirting with them.

We got to a checkpoint called Atara. The road at the checkpoint divided into three lanes; Palestinian, Israeli settlers, and diplomatic (UN, Red Cross, and government cars). He drove into the Palestinian lane but after a few minutes of realising how slow it was moving, he squeezed into the diplomatic lane between UN cars! Gilbert and I were confused. How was he going to pull this off? As we got to the checkpoint booth, he rolled down Gilberts window and screamed out in this think accent “We are American from America, we are all American!!!” He told us to flash our blue passports while he said the word “American” and “America” over and over again. Surprisingly enough, we passed the checkpoint easily. Apparently the word “America” and “American” has a hypnotising effect on Israeli soldiers. Oh well, it worked!

He dropped us off and we took another service to Jerusalem. This time it was a long bus. Gilbert and I were the only foreigners. As we got to the checkpoint at Jerusalem (which is just an opening in the big “separation” wall), the bus stopped and all the passengers were inspected. Some left the bus because they had luggage that the Israelis need to search. When it came to our turn, again, we just had to flash the little blue book. Our bags were not even inspected.
We finally got to Jerusalem. We stopped at a falafel stand and bought some sandwiches. The locals of Nablus were right, falafels in Jerusalem are so much better! I spent two nights and three days in Jerusalem and I had falafel sandwiches from the same stand for breakfast, lunch, mid-day snack, and dinner!

The first night there, we spent walking around the old city. The old city is made out of four sectors: Arabic, Jewish, Christian, and Armenian. Staying cheap, we did not join any tourist groups or tours. We relied on a book we grabbed out of the Project Hope library, which gave us all the information we need about all the sights, and the maps around all site-seeing areas. We took a local bus to return to our host’s house for the night.

Thursday November 8th –
Following the tourist book, we visited all the important sights in the old city. I will rely on my readers to check out my pictures to see the sites. I wrote comments on most pictures so you can follow my footsteps. About 4pm we were on our way to the Olive Mount which is the hill facing Jerusalem. Being cheap, we walked there. We walked all the way down the Jerusalem mount, then all the way up Olive mount. Mind you, we did not take the tourist route. we went through a small street that goes straight up the mountain, between old homes. Gilbert relied on that stupid tourist book to find this hell road. Trust me folks, walking up a mountain is not easy! Especially when we were rushing to catch the sunset over Jerusalem and the Dome of the Rock! After 15 minutes of HELL, we finally reached a spot where we could see all of Jerusalem. We caught the sunset! We took so many pictures of it and I asked Gilbert if we can stay there until night-time so I can take shots of Jerusalem at night. I lied! I only wanted to stay longer because I was so tired and was not ready to get up again and walk all the way back to the bus stop to go home.

Friday November 9th
It was my birthday. I ate mangoes for Breakfast. Gilbert thought that was a sufficient birthday breakfast. We took the bus to the old city and had falafels for breakfast. All we wanted to do today was watch Shabbat at the Wailing Wall. Shabbat begins sunset on Friday and ends on sunset Saturday. We spent most of the day shopping in the old city. Right before sunset we found some Jewish men in silk black robes, fur hats, and white stockings rushing down the lanes of the old city. We followed them. Gilbert had a yarmulke which was given to him when we visited the Wall the day before. He put it on and we got into the express Jewish line into the Western Wall Plaza. Of course it is not called the “express line”, but I just thought it is suitable since their line was much faster than the tourist one!

We stood in the plaza (which was created by bulldozing a whole Palestinian neighbourhood after the Six Day War in 1967), watching the crowds of Jews in their black silk coats. Their ages ranged from 10 year olds to 80 year olds. They were either singing ritualistically, bobbing their heads, rocking backwards and forwards, and/or reading their holy book. Some had ritualistic dances in front of the wall; A couple were shuffling their feet in a rhythm, some were moving back and forth then side to side, some bobbed only their head while others bobbed their whole body till they lose balance!

One this I don’t understand is how Jerusalem works. There are both Palestinians and Israelis living together but in different areas. They live their life as if the other doesn’t even exist. They completely ignore each other, and the Israelis live a completely western life, while the Palestinians live a completely Palestinian Arabic life. There is such a great divide between them that it made it so difficult to understand how they live together, despite each other, and act as the other doesn’t exist at all. Very weird.

Anyways, surprisingly, i did make it out of Jerusalem only spending $50!

Check out Gilberts blog for his thoughts of this weird weekend in Jerusalem: http://gilbertglad.wordpress.com/ (November 12 post)

<-----Also don;t forget to see the pictures!!! Left hand side