It was a difficult day: we traveled from Ramallah to the world famous Kalandia refugee camp and Israeli checkpoint… and beyond. Beyond belief. It’s like seeing Yann Tiersen playing on piano, right next to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. Here, more precisely, humanity has long been abandoned. Hope had the same faith. Palestinians are just fed up and bowed to faith. I saw deep sadness of their eyes as we drove from the bus station in Ramallah, the capital city of Palestine to the checkpoint and wall just some kilometers away.
Click on the first picture for more…
We left Ramallah again. This time for good, heading for Hebron. This old man was the good-bye messenger…
Travelling by minibus makes one dig deep into the local society. There were all kind of people on the vehicle: old and young, women and men. An amalgam of the Palestinian society. And a Palestinian-American lady who said in spite of having an American passport she’s been discriminated against every time she passes at the Ben Gurion International Airport
We passed near the Kalandia refugee camp. In fact, it’s not a refugee camp in the classical sense of the word. In the last decades Palestinians built houses, opened shops and managed to have a… difficult life. We approached Kalandia. I’m a journalist for the last 23 years (I started when I was 19), I was in difficult stations, but this time I ad butterflies in my stomach. What is going to happen?
The Palestinian bus suddenly stopped. Palestinians with permits got off and went through the gates. Foreigners stayed. An armed soldier got on. Looked around in silence. His colleague, David, followed shortly after. Both looked in silence. Intimidation. Psychology at it’s best. Then he asked for the passports. A handicapped person was escorted down. Nobody dared to ask anything. The bus went on, collected the Palestinians who went through the security check, suddenly turned right and stopped. Everybody got off, so did we. The passengers were herded towards a much larger vehicle: a bus with Israeli number plates. I managed to snap this picture before boarding it. Soldiers, guns, barbed wire everywhere. Sadness also…
A truly sad place. They say, it’s necessary. How much longer separation will last? I’d say until we colonize the Moon. I hope it’s going to be a Swedish or a Norwegian. If it’s going to be a Palestinian or a Jew, the earthly satiation will continue there… 🙂
What we experienced is that nothing is really under the control of the Palestinian Authority…
Bus station close to Jerusalem
Bianka hasn’t been to the Western/Wailing/ Al-Buraq Wall. The Western Wall is considered holy due to its connection to the Temple Mount. Because of the Temple Mount entry restrictions, the Wall is the holiest place where Jews are permitted to pray, though the holiest site in the Jewish faith lies behind it…
… meaning this…
According to the Bible, the Jewish Temples stood on the Temple Mount. According to Jewish tradition and scripture, the First Temple was built by King Solomon the son of King David in 957 BCE and destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. The second was constructed under the auspices of Zerubbabel in 516 BCE and destroyed by the Roman Empire in 70 CE. Jewish tradition maintains it is here that a third and final Temple will also be built. The location is the holiest site in Judaism and is the place Jews turn towards during prayer. Due to its extreme sanctity, many Jews will not walk on the Mount itself, to avoid unintentionally entering the area where the Holy of Holies stood, since according to Rabbinical law, some aspect of the divine presence is still present at the site. Among Sunni Muslims, the Mount is widely considered the third holiest site in Islam.
Next time we’ll certainly buy one
From above
In the evening we reached Hebron, via Bethlehem. In Hebron, where Basem Abu Khalf helped us find our wonderful CouchSurfing host, Mo…!
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