West Bank: Bethlehem/Jericho

The next day we were going to the West Bank. When I booked the tour months before I had to give all our passport information to the Israelis to get an Israeli permit as well as a Palestinian permit (we never actually saw these permits though.) The Israelis and Palestinians also wanted to make sure that no Israeli citizens were going on the tour since both sides forbid Israelis from going to the Palestinian-controlled parts of the West Bank. So Israelis aren’t allowed in the Palestinian-controlled parts of the West Bank and the Palestinians aren’t allowed in the Israeli-controlled parts of the West Bank or in Israel itself.  I was a little apprehensive to leave Israel and go to the West Bank, but at the same time I wanted to go there since not many people visit. We started the tour in a small van and then changed into a big bus in Jerusalem. We had an Israeli tour guide (a few Israeli guides are given permission by both the Israelis and the Palestinians to enter the West Bank to take non-Israeli tourists around.) We had some traffic within Jerusalem (because of the holiday and road closures) while picking-up people from their hotels. We then entered the Israeli-controlled part of the West Bank – there was an Israeli check-point, but we didn’t even slow down for it. Then we started seeing very scary warning signs in Hebrew, Arabic and English about how dangerous it is inside the West Bank and reminding Israelis that they aren’t allowed there. We entered the Palestinian-controlled part of the West Bank. There was a Palestinian check-point but again we didn’t even have to slow down. Right after the check-point we stopped and picked-up a local Palestinian guide. She kept telling us (in English, French and Spanish – even though it was an English-only tour) that she was a Palestinian Christian and that Christians used to be the majority in Bethlehem, but now the Christians are the minority and the Muslims are the majority there. I didn’t care for the Palestinian guide. She was very pushy, spent more time talking in French and Spanish than she did in English and kept saying “Listen my brothers and sisters in Christ….” before every sentence.  Even our Israeli tour guide (who stayed with us) kept getting annoyed with her and snapped at her several times – which was funny. We got off the bus and walked to Manger Square and then to the Church of the Nativity (where Jesus was born.) Everywhere we went people gave us the “Peace” sign and kept telling us how peaceful Bethlehem was while at the same time you could see posters praising different martyrs (terrorists who bombed targets in Israel and Israeli-controlled West Bank) so what the people were saying wasn’t what they were preaching. You could also see several areas of destroyed homes from Israeli retaliation raids. I continued to feel uncomfortable the whole time I was in the West Bank.

We started at the Church of the Nativity and no one had told us beforehand that most of the Church was being renovated and that whole areas – especially the areas we had to wait to get to the actual spot where Mary, Joseph and Jesus had been – were covered-up. It was very crowded and took a long time to go anywhere. Our Palestinian guide kept trying to push us (literally) to spread-out only to then have to push to get into a small door. I eventually told her to leave me alone. After that she didn’t dare touch me or try to tell me what to do. After the Church of the Nativity we went to a Souvenir Shop that was associated with the tour company. It had all the same basic souvenirs as every other shop around Israel and the West Bank.

There are two people from this tour (besides my sister and me) that stand out. One is a guy from France whom the Israeli tour guide kept calling “Paris.” “Paris”  - I never learned his name  - was always just a few feet away from my sister and me and that became a running joke between her and I. I even took a picture of my sister and when I looked at it back at the hotel I saw that “Paris” was in it right next to her too. The second person was an American whom the Israeli tour guide called “New Jersey.” She was pretty odd. She was short and had a very high-pitched voice (like Bernadette from “The Big Bang Theory.”) She just seemed to keep popping-up one minute by my sister and myself and then the next minute she had disappeared. I even heard her talking to “Paris” and when “Paris” asked her if she was from near New York City she said “No” even though New Jersey is closer to New York City than France is to New York City. A side-note: the Israeli tour guide was talking to some girls from Switzerland and said he had visited their country before and mentioned the name of some town and asked if it was near where they were from. The girls said “No. It is very far away - - a whole 45 minutes away.”  Again they were closer to this town at 45 minutes away than the Swiss town was to Israel.

After the Souvenir Shop we went to Sheppard’s Field and visited a nice, little, old church there. After visiting this church the Palestinian guide left – since she wasn’t allowed inside Israel -  and we left the West Bank (again we didn’t have to stop at either the Palestinian or Israeli check-points.) For some reason our tour company (Bein Harim) thought it was a smart idea to leave Bethlehem and the West Bank to re-enter Israel, go to Jerusalem to drop a handful of people off at their hotels. We spent 3 hours in traffic in Jerusalem because of the holiday road closures only to re-enter the West Bank (again no issues with any check-points) and go to Jericho.

Jericho was clearly more militant-looking than Bethlehem was especially when first you first entered that part of the Palestinian-controlled West Bank. We still saw the different martyr posters along with many military-style clothing (not from anyone who looked like an official.) Like in Bethlehem we didn’t personally experience any issues in Jericho, but you could feel tension right below the surface (like I did when I was in Northern Ireland.) Jericho is known as the oldest, inhabited town in the world. Most of the town looked like a Third World town with bomb damage, etc. We had a buffet lunch at a restaurant  - where you paid one price for the food and could have as much as you wanted and only had to keep paying for your drinks. I had the best pita pizza – tomato sauce and cheese on pita bread – there. It was pretty good.

After lunch we went to the ruins of old Jericho. We watched a short video in English about the history of Jericho and its ruins and then walked around the ruins themselves. It was like a mini-Masada (although Masada is better.) Our tour guide told lots of stories from the Bible – especially those pertaining to Jericho. After the ruins we stopped at a look-out point and saw a monastery on a mountain (we didn’t actually go anywhere near the monastery) and had some figs. I’m not a huge fan of figs, but they were free. It was getting close to being dark and we left Jericho and the West Bank. I was relieved once we were back in Israel. I wouldn’t recommend people going to the West Bank by themselves or staying after dark. From the West Bank we drove back to Jerusalem and this time the tour guide didn’t try to stop at every hotel like he tried to earlier in the day when we got stuck for 3 hours. He dropped everyone off who was staying in Jerusalem at the Light Rail Station (an American woman was killed by a Palestinian terrorist on the Light Rail earlier this year so it most have been a little nerve-wracking for these tourists to have to use the train.) We then headed back to Tel Aviv.