Experiences of Israel while Touring Jerusalem and Bethlehem.nguptatravelscrapbook.blogspot.com

Blog number 23. Israel , Jordan and Palestine travels. nguptatravelscrapbook.blogspot.com The UK remains in the third complete lockdown since 5/01/2021. At the same time, a massive vaccination programme is in place in the UK. 21.02.2021

Experiences of Israel while touring Jerusalem,and Bethleham.

I have read the following books before my visit to Israel taken in Feb 2019.

Israel is Real by Rich Cohen: An obsessive quest to understand The Jewish Nation and its History.

Jerusalem: A Cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi, A famous Israeli Chef. I get inspired by his recipes and often refer to this book during special cooking sessions.

Dome of the Rock view from the Mount of Olive, Jerusalem

Israel is intense; Israel is real; Israel is high-tech.

It is a place where three continents, Africa, Asia ( Middle East) and Europe, meet; the landscape and people are a fusion of these three continents, with a mixture of conflict and harmony or rather a disharmony, if I may say! Israel's convoluted history draws visitors to its land either for tourism or for a Jewish, Christian or Muslim pilgrimage. The Middle East's mystique always allures me, having made it my home for nearly 13 years while working as a medical professional in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. We raised our two small children there who obtained a profound and thriving influence with engaging reminiscences of the Middle East that we, as a family, travelled on a widespread basis. Apart from Saudi Arabia, these countries included the UAE, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, and a bit further to Morocco and Tunisia.

Jerusalem

I had a long-seated desire to visit Israel during the same time but could not do so due to Saudi authorities' visa restrictions. With a wealth of incredible life-long Arab friends, I returned to the UK with a sincere hold on spoken Arabic language and a continued affair with the Arabic food, with ever persisting desire to return to bustling souks for, if nothing else, only to recharge my bargaining skills in Arabic. I loved it all while it lasted. I eventually got a chance to visit Israel in Feb 2019, backed with an abundance of assertive feedback from my daughter and her husband, who travelled to Israel a few months earlier. 

Israel is a densely-populated country on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, with the most Jewish population. A cheerful democracy in a diverse nation, a flourishing economy in an imbalanced society; a culture open to modern ways but preoccupied with the Holocaust and the Arab-Israeli conflict; a dominant member on the international stage whose existence is still disputed in the Middle East. Israel is a country made up of challenges.

Street scenes of West Bank, Bethlehem

At the same time, Israel travels offered us an unrivalled cultural and religious experience. As the prime destination for pilgrimages, the Holy Land offers, among many divine splendours, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Western Wall, the Dome of the Rock and the Aqsa Mosque, and that's just inside the walls of Jerusalem's Old City. Israel has beaches, mountains, deserts, rivers and then the Dead Sea, and the Sea of Galilee and beyond that, The Masada. Apart from being a high tech country with the most modern and advanced warfare, Israel holds place for innovations like Sat-Nav technology, USB, Nanotechnology in advances in the treatments for chronic diseases like Alzheimer's, Multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's, a world giant drug industry and a leading diamond exporter. Yet the streets are rustic, reminiscent of Middle eastern charms full of street-food stalls, restaurants, dishes prepared using Tahini, Sumac, Zatar and pomegranates, the aroma of deep-fried crispy felafels, oven-fresh bread in all shapes and sizes in bazaars and in the colourful markets dominating day to day life.

The Birth of a New Nation:

Six months before Israel's birth (1948), the United Nations had decided by a two-thirds majority that one resolution to the British departure from Palestine would be establishing Jewish and Arab states side by side. 

Israel Map

The indisputable truth remains: The Jews accepted that agreement; the Arabs renounced it with a vengeance. On the day the British pulled down their flag in Palestine, Arab forces attacked Israel. Israel prevailed; a miracle. But at a very high cost, millions of Palestinians were homeless or displaced due to a war designed to extinguish Israel at her birth. 

Arab Israeli Conflict lives on:

My opinions of continuing Arab Israeli conflict is not an academic one. Instead, it has been obtained thru my multiple discussions with Palestinian friends and other Arab colleagues when working and living in Riyadh in the eighties to nineties. Many of these perceptions were the sufferings and narratives of Palestinians colleagues amidst no homeland to go back to, their relatives and immediate families sheltering in refugee camps of West Bank and Gaza strip and a general sense of anti-Israel sentiment prevalent thru out the Arabic world that we travelled to. Thru their first-hand narrations, I learnt about the Palestinians' grievances, who before 1948 had been the indigenous majority who took core stage is now the Israel land and who remember the end of British control of Palestine and the formation of Israel and the subsequent displacement of Arab inhabitants. The Jewish community celebrated this moment as their independence, but the Palestinians remember it as the ultimate disaster and catastrophe! Much like the partition of the British controlled India into Pakistan and India, with East and West Pakistan flanking on either side of India in 1947.

While I withhold myself from expressing personal views on Arab Israeli issues, I have included some passage / or news sections depicting the bitter truth of conflict between Jews and the Arabs, with never settling heart-aching political matters.

Passages from News fronts :

• If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would not be any more violence. If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel. By Benjamin Netanyahu.
• How can we speak to each other like equals when one of us is holding a gun? Cliff James, The Times.
• Come to think of it; I am more than a little tired of hearing about Jews' stole land from Arabs in Palestine. The facts are quite different! A lot of good money changed hands, and a lot of Arabs became very rich. Golda Meir.
• On the 70th anniversary of Auschwitz, mourning dead Jews is easy. And to forgive me is cheap. Want to truly honour the dead? Show solidarity with the living- Israel and its six million Jews. Make 'never again' more than an empty phrase. It took Nazi germans to kill six million Jews in seven years. It would take a nuclear Iran just one day!. Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post.
• On the day the Arabs and the Palestinians decide to accept the Jewish state, there will be peace, as Israel proved with its treaties with Egypt and Jordan. Charles Krauthammer, Editor Washington Post.
• I think it was smart that you are wary of using the word terrorism. If you talk about the cycle of violence or an eye for an eye, you could be perpetuating the idea that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a balanced conflict instead of a largely unarmed people against the fourth most powerful military in the world. Rachel Corrie
• We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.   Nelson Mandela.

Israel is locked in conflict with the Arabs over the control and ownership of land considered holy by Jews, Christians and Muslims alike. There lies the basic need of a home at the heart of the matter; one needs to belong somewhere and feel safe enough. This need is shared and understood globally. The tragedy of Israel and Palestine has led to brutal unending rivalry while establishing their respective homelands.

Jerusalem and West Bank Map

The Old City of Jerusalem.

Our guide spent the full day with us, taking us to the Old City of Jerusalem and then to Bethlehem, in occupied West Bank, with the settlement of Palestinian refugees in Ramallah on the way. For many visitors, The Old City of Jerusalem is a place of more than 4000 years of human experience. It is the holiest city for the three great religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The whole city is divided into four significant quarters, including the Muslim, the Christian, The Armenian and the Jewish quarters. Though there are no physical borders, the neighbourhood divisions are hard to miss. Many of the main sites are on top of one another. The silver domed Aqsa Mosque is the largest and the essential place of Islamic prayer after Mecca. The 24 -Karat gold-covered dome marks the Temple Mount, Dome of the Rock built circa 690 CE.

The Western Wall (or Kotel, in Hebrew) was part of the Second Temple, built by the great King Herod, which was destroyed in the year 70 CE. 

The western wall was left of the Main temple, and for centuries Jewish People have been attending there to mourn. We found hundreds of people of different nationalities and religions draining their hearts with prayers and emotions. The wall is believed to have enormous spiritual significance, considering that it will be communicated to God. Standing near the wailing wall was a lifetime experience for us. 

The Western Wall

Around the Western Wall

I wondered the innumerable number of times we had seen the pictures of The Holy wall in the media, usually concerning the Arab Israeli conflict news.

Walk along Via Dolorosa in the old city of Jerusalem:

Entrance to the Church of Holy sepulchre

Inside the Church of Holy Sepulchre

Via Dolorosa

Each year tens of thousands of pilgrims follow the Via Dolorosa past the Cross's stations on the route Christ is believed to have taken as he carried his cross to his crucifixion. Standing above Calvary, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher is Christianity's holiest place covering the sites of Jesus' crucifixion, burial and resurrection.

The Church of Nativity in Bethlehem, West Bank

For many people, visiting the West Bank is probably not on the bucket list due to the ever-present risk of violence being erupted in the area. Once our tourist bus made the way through intense security and checkouts, the locals welcomed the tourists.

Nativity Church

Scenes from Nativity Church, Bethlehem

 Greetings of Ahlan Wahsalan and Marhaba were in exchange everywhere. But the highlight of the half-day trip to Bethlehem was the chaotic, atmospheric mess that is the birthplace of Jesus. Originally commissioned in 326 CE by Emperor Constantine, the Nativity Church has the impressive reputation of being the longest-running church globally. Like many Israel sites, it is managed by the Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Armenian Apostolic and Syrian Orthodox Churches jointly involving themselves in regular conflicts, minor though! The church holds special religious significance for Christians as the location of the birthplace of Jesus. 

The star is considered the actual Birth spot of Lord Jesus in the Nativity Church, Bethlehem.

The exact spot is in the Nativity Grotto, a small and dingy cave under the main altar that could do with a cloud of good dust. A 14-point star proudly marks the spot of Jesus's birth, which is laid into marble and surrounded by 15 silver lamps.

Tel Aviv, City that never sleeps!

The high tech boom of Tel Aviv in the 1990s fits nicely in the now true identity of the city, being young, dynamic, leading-edge, innovative and cool.

Modern Tel Aviv and Jaffa 

Modern and artistic skyscrapers and gleaming beaches of Tel Aviv with flocks of tourists everywhere reconfirming that Tel Aviv is the commercial powerhouse of Israel, providing a fusion of cultures, ethnicities and ancient history. We walked along many tree-lined avenues, including the Rothschild Boulevard, admiring the 1930s Bauhaus architecture. The traffic was terrible, with narrow streets crowded with parked cars everywhere. But the real charm was in these narrow streets with pretty, bougainvillaea-fronted houses, often with graffiti and murals on blank walls that serve as a tongue-in-cheek expression of the city's history and political identity. Another fun way to get around the city was by electric scooters, a massive craze amongst travellers and locals alike but full of hazards for us, the senior citizens!

The foodie scenes in Tel Aviv

Instead, we made special efforts to endure Carmel Market's magic, a real foodie scene. I have posted some pictures of this market for you to browse thru kindly. Tel Aviv is one of the great places in the world to enjoy vegan food.

Foodie scenes

More scenes from Carmel Market

It is no longer a novelty: Israel's entertainment capital is recognized for its endless and renewed offer for vegans. There are several gastronomic tours in which you can try delicious ice cream without milk or plant-based Mexican food. 

Carmel market

Tel Aviv is a modern, memorable and fun city with a great, vibrant atmosphere, a creative and innovative city with a unique heritage, museums, music, and good gastronomy. 

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I intend to write the next travel blog on South Africa, its  Garden route and Vineyards.