Well, I am on a trip that was probably one of the most eye-opening in my life. For the past few days, I have been staying in one of the most cities of anitiquity, the City of Zion, drumroll please...Jerusalem!
I took a very nice tour of the Old City yesterday, seeing the old style pavement mixed with the walls of past ancient eras of the Kingdom of David and Solomon, the Crusader Kingdom, Mamluks, the Kingdom of the Ottomans, the British, now the Israelis. History is rolled up into one ball you just gotta see it for yourself.
Yet yesterday, I went on a trip that was one of the most thought-provoking in my life: the West Bank.
If you aren't familiar with this area of Israel...its the area that is most highlighted on NBC News for all the violence, unrest, fights between Jews and Palenstinians, and fights over land. Its where all the stuff between Yasser Arafat and various prime ministers of Israel went down and the fight where Zionists (those who want to reclaim all of Israel, even by force) face off with Palestinians who have been forced out of the rest of Israel and in here.
It was a difficult place to see but a reality check if I needed one. I went to see two distinct cities, Hebron and Bethlehem, which are in the West Bank ("West" meaning that its west of the Jordan River)
Bethlehem was not as quite shocking as I thought it would be, but the stark reality kicked in when passed the first checkpoint. The wall that separates the West Bank and the rest of Israel, like the Berlin Wall, is very funny. Funny as in one side there is beautiful pictures of Jerusalem marbled on the wall, and then on the other side, the Palestinian side, there is mass grafitti with one poignant sign saying: "to exist is to resist."
Tour groups getting in and out of Bethlehem is more easy because that's where one of the most respected spots in Christianity is at: the Church of the Nativity, where Jesus was born. Our tour was part of "Alternative Tours Inc." This company provides political tours to show to tourists the other side of the politics of what goes besides terrorist bombings, Zionist attacks, and the stark distrust between Jews and Palestinians. Its very biased for Palestine, but that's the point of going on a tour like this, to see their point of view and try to make a judgment for one's self.
What's even more was the trip to Bethelem's "Deja Refugee Camp." (Spelling is very wrong, but that's how it is sounded) Going to a refugee camp, I thought it would be simply a place of tents like the ones you see in Darfur or something. In reality, its a very poor place of buildings piled on top of one another. We were briefed for a long time about how at the camp there is hardly any access to basic services and the aid is very minimum, even though it is free. The rep from the refugee camp called the United Nations' aid the "United Nothing." Nice. Walking through the camp, you see and hear about stories about "martyrs," or innocent people who were shot up by Israeli troops who violated curfew. Their pictures were painted on various walls of the camp. You could seeother Palestinian kids milling about saying hi or asking for money. Their existence is not good.
Hebron was a different story. That city experience hit me hard yesterday. Regardless of the horror stories we heard from our tour guide as he explained his version of the events, I didn't really need to hear them because just seeing the city itself was a huge reality check. There were many checkpoints at tourist and Holy sites which separated Muslims and Jews. Stories about a massacre at a Mosque by a Zionist idiot. Stories of stonings and trash thrown at Palestinian homes. Yet actually seeing a checkpoint that separated one Jewish settlement and a few steps the Palestinian quarter was really weird. What made it more funny was the checkpoints. Each checkpoint is housed by a few Israeli guards, age probably just 18-20 years old. These soldiers are kids with guns. That's what hit me hard...kids. They probably didn't want to be there and probably bored out of their minds. We watched them check various Palestinians for I.D.'s and at times it got testy between the guards and them. I mean, imagine what you were doing at 18? I was working at Chick-Fil-A scooping up fries. How about the Israeli youth? "Oh Shimon, what did you yesterday?" "Oh, I just ran a checkpoint with my M-16 on me." Instead of going to the prom, even female Israeli soldiers have to keep the peace as they serve from age 18 to age 20.
Hebron was a city, even though of Biblical importance (we visited the Tomb of Abraham there), was a city that was dilapidated and very poor. No one gets out. All the kids just play in the streets, peddling you as you walk by, saying stuff like "we don't like Israel, buy this key chain," and many don't have basic access to many services. Security is so tight you can't probably fart without someone knowing it. We visited one poor woman's house who her and her nine kids live in one room, and it smelled like urine. Yikes. Above her house was another Jewish settler's house, who on top of his house was an Israeli soldier protecting it. We heard stories of intimidation and rock throwing at her house. Even then, these Palestinians still treat each other like family and do their best to survive. They try to protect one another.
So, my first trip to the West Bank was something else. It challenged my thinking alot. When I was a kid, being a Christian and all, I was like, "Go Israel, take the land!" But its not that easy of a situation to discern. God loves His people, whom He called in Abrahamic Covenant in Genesis 12. They deserve a homeland. However, a one-state solution? A two-state solution? These were the many questions and debates we had yesterday in the van among our 6-person group. I know for sure no political solution will bring peace. Man is sinful, there will always be violence. That I conclude Biblically.
Yet when I read about a New Heaven and a New Earth, and a New Jerusalem (the book of Revelation)...that I count on for sure. Jesus is the only one who can bring that about, a land for those who trust in Him for their salvation and the forgiveness of sins. We can definitely live there together... with no checkpoints. The only checkpoint then is when God judges those and to see if their name is in the Book of Life. That's the scariest checkpoint of all.
P.S. Quote of the Day
I met a fellow Marylander named Bill Rhea on this tour to Hebron and Bethlehem. We watched the Shabbat (Sabbath) begin at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. We saw hordes of Israeli soldiers make their way to say prayers at the wall, all of them carrying their M-16s or M-1 guns with them (they are required to). Bill looks at me as we leave and says...
"More people should carry their guns to church."
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