ISRAEL & PALESTINE __ Land of Contradictions Jerusalem / Bethlehem

Jewish cemetery on Mount of Olives

Saint Benoit with his famous Zeus pose

A Nigerian Christian group visiting the Holy Land

Inside the Holy Sepulchre  

Christian bowing before the supposed site of Jesus' death

Senem almost reaching nirvana

First stop after school is the candy shop

Kippahs of all colors and designs

Hasidics protecting their hats from rain with the plastic grocery bags

A Hasidim Jewish kid with the traditional hairstyle of side curls

Whether an Arab or a Jew, Coca Cola is on your side

Kids playing games on the rooftops

Posing for the camera with a smiley kippah

With the guidebook I was immersed in throughout the trip

Christians gathering for the Via Dolorosa walk

Two nuns praying at one of the Via Dolorosa stops

Stop #8 on Via Dolorosa

We headed for Mount of Olives the first thing in the morning. Overlooking the old Jerusalem, this small mount is considered to be very sacred as it contains one of the oldest Jewish cemetries and is believed to be the place of Jesus’ ascension to heaven. The faithful pay as much as 50.000 dollars for a grave here to get a stage front space as it’s also believed to be the site where the resurrection of the dead will take place on the judgement day. We make our way down the hill watching Jerusalem peacefully, away from its chaotic environment, and eventually find ourselves once again in the high-tension streets of the Old City. The old city is divided into Muslim, Christian and Jewish quarters. Muslim quarter depicts the order of the disorder that’s peculiar to Arabs, Christian quarter is filled with souvenir shops catering to the Christian pilgrims with the Jesuitical approach of “more the money better the worship”, and the Jewish quarter with its well organized streets and buildings that were all rebuilt after their destruction during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war and the calm daily life surrounding them, is in a complete contradiction with the rest. Including the rest of the country, but especially in Jerusalem, everywhere you look you’re bound to see children of all ages. The average number of children for a Jewish family is 3, with the number increasing to 4 to 5 in Jerusalem, and to a mind blowing 9 to 10 kids per family among the ultra orthodox Hasidic Jews that live in large numbers in Jerusalem. The beauty of little kids running all over the place is overshadowed by the political motives behind their existence. We go to the meeting point for the walk through Via Dolorosa that is organized every Friday, following the footsteps of Jesus from the place of his conviction to crucifixion, but find out that it was canceled due to the increased security measures taken after some incident occuring that morning between the Muslims and Israeli soldiers. With the help of our guide book we follow the route on our own, and head over to the Wailing Wall once again to watch the Jewish welcoming the arrival of Shabbat with prayers. Putting on our kippahs, Benoit, Giovanni and I mix in with the rest of the men in a separated area than the women’s section. Everyday I discover something new that’s common in both Judaism and Islam with ablution making the list that day. Before approaching the sacred Western Wall, all the Jewish wash their hands at a little fountain nearby. After walking around men of all ages reciting the Torah, we make our way towards the city center to have one last beer with Senem and Giovanni who were splitting from us and returning to Turkey. I make a mistake only a rookie guide would do, and don’t take into consideration that everything would be shut down because of the Shabbat by the time we get there. Streets that were so lively just a couple of hours ago were all deserted now, and all the shops were closed. Sadly, we had to say a “dry” farewell to each other. They returned to Tel Aviv to catch their flight back to Turkey, while we hopped on an Arab bus to cross over to Palestine. As soon as we got into the bus that was taking us to Bethlehem we noticed the Arab music playing on the radio, and realized how little of music we had heard so far in Israel. The night had fallen by the time we reached Bethlehem and we were quite tired. We made a deal with the first cab driver approaching us coming out of the bus on arrival and went straight to the hotel. With half of its population Muslim the other half Christian, there were Christmas festivities in the city center. After listening to children’s choir singing Christmas songs and watching a group of Syriac Christian men practicing their gig with Scottish pipe in the courtyard of an Armenian church, we spotted the busiest one of the restaurants and went in. When we request the menu the waiter tells us that hummus and falafel are their specialty and we should order those. Being fed up with eating hummus day and night we ask for any other dishes they might be serving but the waiter answers us so reluctantly that we become convinced that the other dishes must be way too terrible to eat and order ourselves some hummus and falafel as advised. Falafel really turns out to be better than any we had tried earlier, and the Palestinian beer Taybeh makes it all the better.