Israel trip part 5 - Days 6 & 7

Israel Trip - Day 6 - Saturday

A morning for shopping in Bethlehem, leaving the hotel at 10.00. I went with a group and the guy from Holy Land Trust and visited the 'Grotto of the Milk' - an offshoot of the cult of the Lactating Virgin in the middle ages - supposedly some of Mary's milk dribbled from Jesus' mouth onto a stone here!!! Various pious people and an anatomically poor painting of Mary with her right boob out feeding the infant, but nothing of interest. We then had a coffee and a sit-down, I did a little more shopping & then lunch, after which we set off for Nablus on the coach, passing the Lion's Gate into Jerusalem on the way.

On arrival some of us (after checking in at the Al Qasr hotel & dumping bags in our rooms) immediately got back onto the coach & went to the old town of Nablus - which was called Sychar in biblical times - through the souq where we had some 'kanafeh' - and watched them making it. Huge round trays of (goat?) cheese mixed with sugar and (vermicelli?) and topped with ground (maize?), then to visit the Turkish Baths built in 1225AD - we went in, but only as far as the first chamber as it was in use at the time and we had women with us. In the souq there is a street called The Street of Martyrs, commemorating Palestinians who fell in the Second Intifada – with posters of their pictures (and of Arafat) everywhere. Nablus was one of the ‘hottest’ areas during the 2^nd Intifada, with the old town being a particularly hard nut for the Israeli forces to crack, so there were quite a few casualties. Then back to the hotel in the new part of the city for supper on the roof-terrace before bed. Glorious views from the roof terrace spoiled by settlements & security fences on all the surrounding hill-tops....

(no reflection today!)

Day 7 - Pentecost Sunday

We left Nablus and the Hill Country Of Jerusalem, into very fertile plains, and went to a town called Al Zababdeh (south of Jenin) which is a Christian stronghold with several Catholic (different denominations) and Anglican churches, where we would have had the Eucharist, but most of the congregation had got passes to go to Jerusalem for Pentecost so there was no service. We had one of our own - a few short prayers & a reading - in the Episcopal church which had inscriptions everywhere in Arabic, very familiar-looking hymn books - the tunes were the same and so were the hymns except that they were written in Arabic) and an OHP displaying things in English! If I remember correctly the inscription on the pulpit is ‘Yea though I walk through the valley of the Shadow of Death, Yet will I fear no evil’ in the top half and ‘Dedicated to the memory of…’ in the bottom. We were shown round their facilities (including 2 guest rooms), which are supported by the Diocese of Jerusalem, had lunch with them and then went to Jenin, which is the centre of the olive oil industry, but sadly with no time to stop & shop... We went straight to the Freedom Theatre in the heart of the refugee camp - though it did not look much different from the rest of the town!

The Freedom Theatre was founded by a lady who had been in one of the terrorist gangs that had pushed the Palestinians out in '48, but later married a Palestinian and came to realise what she had done so tried to do something to make up for it. Her son (an actor) then joined her; and when she died of cancer he took over. He was shot a few years ago. No-one has been arrested - the authorities think they know who did it but can't get the proof required. It is the only theatre in the area, and Jenin, like Nablus, was a hot-bed of resistance to Israeli rule so there were a lot of kids with PTSD (especially after the second intifada) so theatre & visual arts generally are really important.

As we were about to leave Jenin we dropped off our guide since he, being Palestinian, would not be able to cross over into Israel (Galilee area being completely Israeli), and headed off for Nazareth across the Plains of Megido. Huge open spaces with very fertile agricultural land. Ahead as we approached was the Mount of Transfiguration. Then up the steep slope into Nazareth town - no longer a village! -to the Golden Crown Hotel. When we got there we got all excited - it had a swimming pool - but sadly this was the new Golden Crown, not the Golden Crown (Old Town)...   :-(   The right hotel, when we got there, only has a reception foyer on the ground floor, no bar or other facilities to speak of and no staircases you can use (emergency use only). Just 2 lifts, and a very limited bar in the restaurant, not even a lounge area. NOT somewhere I would have chosen, but there you go.

I went for a wander with another couple into the old town (& the Palestinian quarter) and the (Catholic) Church of the Annunciation (called the Church of all Nations, then back for supper. Nothing was planned for the evening so I went out with my book & found a bar …

Reflection: It brought it home to me just how pervasive the control is, that, for a whole block of people in Zone B to get passes into Jerusalem, the reason needed to be so good a that it had to be for a festival like Pentecost – and these are Christians (clearly, since it was for a Christian festival!) not Muslims, so unlikely to be suicide bombers (no ‘instant transport to heaven & 100 virgins’ for a martyr) – in fact the Christian section of the Palestinian population mostly stayed out of the armed struggle. Similarly the fact that we could not take our Palestinian guide into Galilee – though that is less surprising since at least part of Palestine is a separate country – albeit heavily controlled by Israel – but it does show that they treat it as a separate country when it suits them! The evidence of English influence on the Christian churches was very clear – the tunes in the hymn books (and the lay-out, albeit reversed), the style of architecture of many of the smaller ones, and even the use of English in (for example) the OHP… more than I would have expected for the short time we were in charge there. The contrast between the mountain country of Jerusalem & the fertile plains was huge, and very sudden – almost like a knife-cut.