Final Thoughts on My Week in Palestine

During my week in Palestine, I was in the care of three great guides: Husam Jubran (hjubranus@yahoo.com), Kamal Mukarker (kamal_mukarker@hotmail.com), and Iyad Shrydeh (iyadsh_2004@yahoo.com). Each is a proud Palestinian who works routinely with American tourists. They are all licensed guides (charging $300 a day, possibly with a car) who work like any guide in Europe. The big difference is that most of their clients are religious or political tourists. Frankly, I can’t imagine enjoying a trip here without the help of professional guides like these. With Kamal, Iyad, and Husam, I felt safe and got the absolute most learning out of each day.

With a guide in Palestine, you’re likely to find yourself invited into a family’s home for dinner. I had a great evening with Kamal (seated next to his mother). His mother is also a guide.
With a guide in Palestine, you’re likely to find yourself invited into a family’s home for dinner. I had a great evening with Kamal (seated next to his mother). His mother is also a guide.

Traveling through the Holy Land, my heart is a shuttlecock, swinging from sympathy with Israel to solidarity with Palestine. I’m saddened by the people — like some who post on this blog and on Facebook — who are so hardened on one side or the other that they cannot allow themselves to find empathy with the society they consider the enemy. Even if one side is the enemy, it’s not the entire society but just its powerful or just its extremists. And the young generation on each side is simply living with the history it inherited. As is so often the case in tough situations like this, most people would be willing to find a way to coexist peacefully but extremists can only get traction by blasting out the middle and making things more radical.

Travelers entering Israel get a visa  — but it’s a separate sheet of paper clipped into your passport so that after your trip there’s no evidence that you’ve been in Israel (which is nice if you’re visiting some extreme Islamic countries). Palestine uses the same coins and currency as Israel and, strictly from a passport point of view, is like being in the same country. While crossing the border is complicated for Palestinians, for a Western tourist it's easy. Phones and ATMs work in Palestine as if you’re in Israel. There is plenty of good guidebook information for independent travelers in Palestine — either as part of Israel guidebooks or as books solely on Palestine. (Please note that I did not go to Gaza which is a much less tourist-friendly situation.)
Travelers entering Israel get a visa — but it’s a separate sheet of paper clipped into your passport so that after your trip there’s no evidence that you’ve been in Israel (which is nice if you’re visiting some extreme Islamic countries). Palestine uses the same coins and currency as Israel and, strictly from a passport point of view, is like being in the same country. While crossing the border is complicated for Palestinians, for a Western tourist it’s easy. Phones and ATMs work in Palestine as if you’re in Israel. There is plenty of good guidebook information for independent travelers in Palestine — either as part of Israel guidebooks or as books solely on Palestine. (Please note that I did not go to Gaza which is a much less tourist-friendly situation.)

When I consider the challenges facing the Holy Land, I think of the importance of Israelis and Palestinians having ways to connect. I’m haunted by the devastation the people of France and Germany suffered in World War I, and I’m equally haunted by the fact that few Germans and French on the front lines had ever met someone from the other country in 1914. I believe if they had met, studied, drank, and danced together, they would have found a way to avoid the slaughter.

Whichever side of the separation wall your heart resides on, you should be concerned that — as a result of the wall — people on both sides will not get to know each other. They will not understand that they all root for the same soccer teams. Israelis and Palestinians who are soccer fans, curiously, root for the Madrid and Barcelona teams — but they don’t even know the other side does the same thing. There’s no way mutual fans of Real Madrid could be mutual enemies.

In addition to Palestinian flags, this vendor is selling flags for FC Barcelona and Real Madrid — soccer teams that are extremely popular in Israel. I've also heard Muslim Palestinians and Israeli Jews refer to each other as cousins. While these days that might be a bit optimistic, both clans have the great patriarch Abraham in common.
In addition to Palestinian flags, this vendor is selling flags for FC Barcelona and Real Madrid — soccer teams that are extremely popular in Israel. I’ve also heard Muslim Palestinians and Israeli Jews refer to each other as cousins. While these days that might be a bit optimistic, both clans have the great patriarch Abraham in common.

There’s a place on the Palestine side of the wall where passengers can conveniently change from a Palestinian car to an Israeli one. When I left Palestine, my Israeli driver waited there for my Palestinian driver to drop me off. I’ll never forget their handshake — in the shadow of an ominous Israeli watchtower painted black by the flames of burning tires and with angry Palestinian art on the wall. These men were each beautiful, caring people, caught in a problem much bigger than either of them. The exchange was little more than a suitcase shuttling from one back seat to the other. I watched as they quietly shook hands, looked into each other’s eyes, and said a solemn and heartfelt “Shalom.” After my week in Palestine, driving 300 yards through that security gate into Israel was like driving from Guatemala to San Diego. And I thought, “With all these good people, on both sides, there has got to be a solution — and a big part of it will be grassroots, people-to-people connections.”

As always, by traveling to a country that seems hard to get your brain around, you realize it’s filled with people just like you and me (but who really know how to wear a scarf). Consider a trip to the Holy Land. And when you do, visit both Israel and Palestine. Do it for peace.
As always, by traveling to a country that seems hard to get your brain around, you realize it’s filled with people just like you and me (but who really know how to wear a scarf). Consider a trip to the Holy Land. And when you do, visit both Israel and Palestine. Do it for peace.
Comments

11 Replies to “Final Thoughts on My Week in Palestine”

  1. Thank you for your courage and sensitive reporting about traveling in Israel/Palestine. Amen to your remarks about each side needing to know “the other”. Good people on both sides of the wall wish to live in peace and welcome travelers into their homes and lives. We, in the US, need to be open to seeing and hearing each ones voice.

  2. Can you make a stop in Jordan? I found it a wonderful and amazing place with more biblical sites than I ever knew. (They also showed me the “real site” of Jesus’ baptism. And they had reasonable archeological evidence from before 300 AD.
    I was in Israel before the first intifada. At that time Arab and Jewish police would work as partners in the same patrol car. There were many more Christians at that time in the west bank area and our Israeli guide was able to drive us there. As you point out polarization has increased. With the current school text and educational system, Jews have been depersonalized in much of the Arab world and a high percentage of them favor the extermination of the Jewish State.

  3. I was in Israel in 2009 with a group. One of the highlights was an evening with Dalia Eshkenazi Landau whose family immigrated to Isreal in 1948 and were given a home in Ramla. Many years later she met the Palestinian man whose father had built the house and in which he had grown up. Their long friendship is an amazing story and told in the book, The Lemon Tree. Again, as Rick points out, it is individuals finding a way to make contact and listen to one another.

  4. I don’t think we would call it partisanship to speak for Jews/Gypsies/handicapped over Nazis, Black South Africans over Boers, slaves over slaveholders. We would not speak for balance.
    Why do we defend Israel’s failure to comply with 4th Geneva Conventions, International Declaration of Human Rights, over 60 UN Resolutions? Why is Israel permitted an undeclared nuclear weapons program? Why are Palestinians paying the price for a legacy of Western anti-semitism?

  5. Esther: you obviously have an agenda as farad Jews are concern. Where is your bleeding heart while 80,000 Syrians are being killed and more each day. Oh..maybe because Syria is living up to all it’s UN obligations, while slaughtering its people. The only ” crime” you seem to care about is Israel building a wall to kep the murderers out.
    Take a look at what happened in London today. I bet that soldiers family thinks that someobe should have been a little less politically correct. Their son might be alive today.

  6. There is an organization which I learned about a few years ago which has been working to bring people/youth from opposing sides in order to get to know each other on a personal basis. It is called Seeds of Peace and originated in Maine. It started with youths from the Middle East a few decades ago bring them to Maine. The organization now unites youth from other parts of the world who are on opposing sides and meet in other parts of the world as well as Maine.

    There others who have been trying for decades to bring people from opposing sides together and get to know one another.

  7. Dennis – why do you assume that someone who thinks the Palestinians are getting a raw deal would be unmoved by the tragic situation in Syria? That makes no sense.

  8. I also want to say a big thank you for the blog. Very interesting, and I’m looking forward to the TV show, lol. I am sorry you have skipped Jordan and Lebanon, though.

    I used to be a big supporter of Israel, now I have more sympathy for the Palestinians, but there is more than enough blame to go around all parties (I’m not excluding the European leaders post WWI, and certainly not the Nazis), but blame isn’t going to fix this situation, which cries out for fixing. Israel, at least at present, has control of the ball, but doesn’t seem to be doing much helpful with it. It’s become a cliche that Israel must choose between being Jewish or democratic, but it’s not clear how viable, on a truly long term basis, opting for Jewish would be. Bullies prosper in the short term, but not always the long, and Israel is looks a lot like a bully these days.

  9. Kathy,
    I still support Israel and have great sympathy for the Palestinians. It is a rough neighborhood. I look at it this way: Which country would I rather live in? Make a choice. Most Muslims in Eastern Jerusalem would rather be under Israel than the PLO or Hamas governments in the Palestinian territories. If you go to a ice cream shop that has only vanilla and chocolate, You just cant get strawberry. I prefer the way the west exploits women better than the way the Arabs protect women. I understand the other side, but given the option I take the west, recognizing that we do exploit women’s bodies.
    Israel does look like a bully. Why? What we believe we know about the situation may or may not be true. For a look at how the press can make most anything look as the editors wish google CAMERA. I have seen things on news magazines about which I was very knowledgeable, amazingly distorted. Laws can mean whatever lawyers want them to be. Recall that segregated schools were ruled constitutional until it was ruled unconstitutional.
    Rick is absolutely correct that you must travel and talk to a lot of people to get a feel for a country. I think he did a beautiful job of reporting his understanding in this blog. I have never seen anyone do it better.
    If Israel did not defend itself it would not exist as a Jewish state. It would be an Islamic state where Jews would be as tolerated as they (and Christians) in its neighbors.
    There are refugees and displaced people all over the world. After the end of WWII, millions of German nationals and ethnic Germans were forcibly expelled from both territory Germany had annexed, and formerly German lands that were transferred to Poland and the Soviet Union. The estimated numbers of Germans involved ranges from 12 to 14 million, with a further estimate of between 500,000 and 2 million dying during the expulsion. When visiting these areas I found folks with strong feelings about this. What I don’t see is either group trying to exterminate the other today.
    Sharon,
    There are similar organizations in Jerusalem.

  10. Rick: I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed traveling (vicariously) with you through Egypt, Israel, and Palestine this past month … I enjoyed your insights and detailed documentation of both your thoughts and your experiences through lands that most (including myself) know mostly through news clips and political talking points. It’s a good reminder that, at the end of the day, despite our many differences, and the history, culture, and economic and political systems we’re embedded in, people are people–with their own unique hopes and fears–and a “country” is made up of individuals just trying to get through their day to day lives the best they can. When I’m tempted to make sweeping generalizations about other people’s cultures, I always think: what would I be like if I was born in (fill in the blank: Israel, Palestine, Iran, North Korea, etc., etc.)? What would I believe, what would my life be like? Your trip through a troubled but dynamic region is a nice reminder of this ethos.

    I always enjoy your European travel insights, but I very much enjoy your trips off the beaten path … especially when they involve travel to places you haven’t visited before. I know just keeping up with the places already in your wheelhouse is a full time job, but if possible, please try to visit as many new places as possible in the future … and share your thoughts and experiences! Safe travels.

  11. Posting links here doesn’t always work, so I’ll just suggest going over to the New York Times web site and looking for an op-ed piece for Sunday May 26th titled “What Mideast Crisis? Israelis Have Moved On”. Sounds less like moving on than emulating ostriches.

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