Middle East Trip #4
Well Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday have been very interesting indeed.
Monday, we took a day trip to Tel Aviv. On the way, we stopped at an intention community founded some time ago named Neve Shalom, http://www.nswas.net/. We’ve lived in a community simular to this during our time in Chicago. So, the stories told to us by our host, Rayek Rizek (the Mayor) who shared very honestly with us, prompted by Pam’s question. He shared candidly, that it’s very difficult to come from so many different backgrounds…..Israeli, Palestinian, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, etc. and think one can live in one great big happy family trouble free. It takes work. I appreciated his earnest presentation of this unique community and certainly applaud their efforts.
We left there for Tel Aviv proper. We arrived at lunch time and grab it on our own on the beach. We was simply great to spend some time taking in the sea. Tel Aviv is on the Western side of Israel on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. We had lunch with two of our traveling companions. Have a wonderful lunch by the sea. Leaving there, we were off to meetings with two organizations, Physicians for Human Rights and New Profile (an anti-militarism grassroots group). Both representatives were passionate about their work.
I was struck by the ordinary’ness’ of Tel Aviv. This was explained to us as "how regular Israelis live." Very western. Very modern. Highways, city and suburbs. Very familiar.
Tuesday was a special day for us. We decided not to go with the group to Gaza. Just didn’t feel safe with us as a family traveling into a very difficult setting there in Gaza. So we decided to head off on our own with the help of Alternate Travel Tours and our guide/driver Hosama we took off to Nazerath. We visited the city of Nazerath, Cana, Tiberias, the Sea of Galilee, Capernaum and holy sites in between. We spent a wonderful tourist day.
We visited the Wedding Church of Cana where Jesus performed his first miracle, we visited the church at Tabgha where Jesus performed the feeding of the multitute with fish and loaves of bread, we visited the River Jordan near the place where Jesus was baptized of his cousin John. This was a holy and fun time. We ate at a restaurant by the Sea of Galilee, a wonderful meal. We ended our day at the Dead Sea.
Wednesday was a short day with meeting with B’tselem (a human right watch group) whose work focuses on monitoring human rights violations in Israel. Then we made a very difficult journery to the village of Nu’eman which is between Jerusalem and Bethleham. We had to walk I would say a mile to a mile and a half up and down hills on a dirt road full of trash along the sides. Made this way by the government to keep the villagers from using this way in and out of the village. Once we arrived in the village, we were quite a spectacle. We met a woman, who spoke to us about the difficulty of life for her family in this village. I was very moved by her story. We also met with a leader of the village sharing a cup of tea with his family. They shared their story as well and thanked us for making the difficult trek to his village. I was moved again by this man’s story, he and his family’s example of courage and perserverance against such oppression and poverty.
Thursday, the 10th is a travel day for us. We will journey from Tel Aviv to Amman, Jordan and then on to Cairo, Egpyt.
Blessings,
+JS
