The West Bank

Today was filled with a visit to the West Bank including Bethlehem and Palestinian controlled territory, where we saw the main holy sites: Sheperd's Field, the Milk Grotto and the Church of the Nativity.

Photo 1:Sheperd's Field
An angel announced the birth of Jesus at this location.

The Milk Grotto
This is the location where Mary first nursed the baby Jesus. A droplet of her milk was said to have fallen on the ground and turned the limestone a creamy white colour. Women and couples who have been unable to conceive have continued to come to this location to Mary in the hopes that they will be blessed with children.

The Church of the Nativity

Christ's birthplace which is now predominantly a Greek Orthodox place of worship. The Armenian Orthodox and Catholic populations of the city also have small areas of the church in which they are permitted to worship. It is incredibly ornate throughout including in the grotto. A star marks the exact location of Jesus' birth.

After we explored these holy sites we were taken for a walk through some of the streets of Palestine and I have included just a few photos here. There was so much to see and these photos by no means do the city justice.

There were many sites such as in this next photo where a message of peace was written on the door of a heavily fortified Christian church.

My impression of the Palestinians that I met were that they were gracious people who seemed to make the most of what they had. We were not checked at the border but I assume that this was because we were on a tour bus. There was a rather large sign that said that citizens of Israel were not permitted to cross the border and they did so at their own peril. I was not allowed to photograph this. My first impression of the wall built between Palestine and Israel is that it is very big but I was surprised that it did not seem to have a military presence along it. In contrast the military are everywhere in large numbers in Israel. The wall is covered in anti-Israel and anti-Trump graffiti on the Palestinian side. Again an area that I could not photograph.

When we returned to Jerusalem I went on the Rampart Walk along the top of the old walls that surround the Old City. Here are just a few photos of the city beyond the walls.

In the following two photos you can see the wall that divides Israel and Palestine and this gives an idea of how close the areas are.

We continued on from our walk to see the Western Wall or Wailing Wall, one of the holiest of Jewish sites where Jews traditionally pour their hearts out to God. The area is divided into men and women and I found it very interesting to see that the women all walk away from the wall backwards so as not to turn their backs on its importance. This did not seem to be observed by the men. The first photo is the men's area and in the second you can see the gold partition that divides the men and women.

After our walk we went back into the Old City to have a refreshing freshly squeezed pomegranate juice. Yummy! I also saw a really cool Israeli crafted fruit bowl and once I have practiced my haggling skills I am going to go back and try to get it for a bargain.

Tonight after dinner (I will post photos of the breakfast and dinner buffets in tomorrow's blog) I met with all my other teaching colleagues who have made the trip to Jerusalem to take part in this Shoah scholarship. The program over the next 18 days is intensive, filled both with lectures and touring, but will no doubt be a unique and fun experience.

Hello Tel Aviv!

After a 25 hour journey I have finally arrived in Israel. I had heard from other travellers, most recently from colleagues who had arrived before myself, that the Israeli border control was intimidating and interrogation could be lengthy. I was prepared for this and nervously clutched my documents in my hand as I approached the officer. He inquired "have you been to Israel before Miss?" to which I obviously replied in the negative. He then asked "do you intend to work whilst you are here?" which was again denied. I was given an entry ticket and he wished me well. I would say that this process took no more than a minute and I was immensely relieved as all I wanted to do was be away from the airport. The entry ticket is in lieu of a passport stamp as many other Middle Eastern countries will then give you trouble if you try to enter them with evidence in your passport of a recent visit to Israel.

The shuttle service that took me from the airport to the Prima Kings Hotel in Jerusalem was equally as efficient due to the Saturday being the second day of Shabbat, the holy time in which the city only maintains minimal services. Amongst many other forms of observance, not driving is one of them so the streets were empty. Once leaving my bags at the hotel a few other inter-state teachers who were also on my flight decided to use the 4 hour wait for our rooms to be ready to explore the Old City of Jerusalem. Although many of the small traders were closed the Arab Quarter was still quite lively and we were able to explore the small cobbled streets and even stopped for a yummy traditional Israeli lunch.

 Photo 1: Entry into the Old City

Photo 2: Me in front of the Damascus Gate. Note to the left hand side the heavily armed guards. These guards were on almost every corner throughout the Old City and sit behind barricades. There were sometimes a few as in this photo but on larger corners there could be up to ten.

Photo 3: Cobbled streets

Photo 4: Our yummy first lunch. Pita bread, chilli, pickles, a delicious carrot salad, hummus and pickled red cabbage. I wouldn't mind this for lunch every day!

Our final stop was the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This church is found in the Christian Quarter of the Old City and contains two of the holiest sites in Christianity. The site of Jesus of Nazareth's crucifixion and Jesus's empty tomb where he was buried and resurrected. There was tight security and any type of disturbance was quickly dealt with. While we were there a group of men began singing gospel style hymns praising Jesus Christ and there was no time wasted by security in escorting them away.

Finally I just thought I might add a short video here of the 'call to prayer'. This was heard many times at regular intervals across the morning.

Tomorrow's schedule includes a half day tour to Bethlehem and then the official start to the Holocaust Studies program in the evening.

Coming soon - 31st December 2017 to 18th January 2018