End of a West Bank Odyssey

East Jerusalem, Palestine

And so we returned to East Jerusalem. It is a measure of the tortuous situation here that I am not sure what to even write as my location; do I say Palestine, Occupied Territories, West Bank? There is not officially a country called Palestine yet, but most people including about 77% of Israelis, according to Jimmy Johnson of the Israeli Committee against House Demolitions (ICAHD), agree that there should be. A burly American-Israeli who has served in the US army, Jimmy gave us a talk one night at the Jerusalem Hotel about their work, as well as the current situation in the country.
(Palestine does however exist in cyberspace having been officially assigned ‘.ps’ as the two letter country identifier.)

Wire, wire, everywhere......

Something you will rarely read about in US media is the number of Israelis who know the current situation cannot and should not be allowed to continue, and are actively doing something about it; people like Jimmy and the ICAHD, others like Israel's settlement watchdog group Peace Now, www.peacenow.org.il and others such as Zochrot, which have been mentioned already. Meeting such people I would always ask myself why if everyone wanted peace, there was no headway. The political intransigence on the ‘Israeli’ side seems to come largely from the United States more than from Israel itself, where in the words of one; “they have never lived with it - they do not pay the price.” I suggest people read the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, www.haaretz.com, which I have mentioned before, for more factual, layered and in-depth information than you will find in US media.

The cartoon character to the right with his back to us is called 'Hanzalah' and he was the creation of the famed Palestinian political cartoonist Naji El-Ali who was mysteriously assassinated in London in 1987. He was never drawn any other way than with his back to the audience. It was said that when Palestinians regained their land he would show his face.........

Nablus; Defiance and Resistance

Nablus, Palestine

Most people nowadays do not visit Nablus. It is often under curfew by the Israeli army and getting in and out through the many checkpoints surrounding it would deter all but the most determined.

Ignore the poor quality of the photograph - it is merely meant to show the many checkpoints surrounding the city of Nablus.

Nablus is one of the West Bank cities where resistance to the Israeli occupation is fiercest. We arrived in Nablus on a Friday morning following a night during which a young boy had been killed by the Israeli army. Apparently his brother had been out laying a booby trap for the tanks when he was shot. He managed to escape but the mosque mistakenly broadcast his death early morning, his younger brother distraught at the news, dashed out into the street to go look for his brother’s body. He in turn was shot, this time fatally. He was 17. This was just another night in Balata refugee camp where the wholly abnormal has become commonplace.

Legend of the Myth of the Legend

East Jerusalem, Palestine

Nothing much happened the first few days I was in Jerusalem. I did not know anyone and with much of the Old City still closed for Eid, I took up Ibn Battuta's trail again.

“..on the further side of the valley called the Valley of Jahannum, to the east of the town, and on a lofty hill there, a building which is said to mark the place whence Jesus (on him be peace), ascended to heaven......in the hollow of the valley already mentioned is a church venerated by the Christians, who say that it contains the grave of Mary (peace be upon her).”

And so I walked to the Mount of Olives. It was a beautiful warm day but I was the only person walking along the East wall of the Old City which overlooks the Upper Kidron valley. First on the list was the Church and tomb of the Virgin Mary. (Ephesus in Turkey claims the same honor and as Ibn Battuta would say, "and we shall speak of this later if God wills".)

Jerusalem; One City, Three Faiths

East Jerusalem, Palestine

I arrived at Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem at 2.30am, deposited on the cobblestones opposite the citadel, under the balconies of the Imperial Hotel where I was staying. At 3.00am as I was about to nod off, a clanging of bells from one of the nearby churches jolted me awake - far from the gentle peal of an old English church, this was an exuberant cacophony. About an hour and a half later the muezzin rang out the first call to prayer from a nearby mosque and then the fearsomely joyous bells rang again at 0600. It all seemed a fairly fitting start to a stay in the city holy to the three monotheistic faiths.

When Ibn Battuta visited in 1326, the city was almost entirely Muslim. At the end of the 14th century under the Burji Mamluks, a building program of mosques, schools, hospitals, caravanserais and palaces left Jerusalem - along with Cairo, Damascus and Aleppo - with one of the most intact Islamic medieval cities in the world.

I decided to wander the streets the first day and get my bearings. It was the first day of Eid and much of the Old City was closed. (You will notice this part of my journey is entirely out of sequence. Unlike Ibn B. I will confess to this immediately. It is however due to 20th century politics which have already been much-mentioned so no need to go into it all again.)