Trips

 

Tues., 2/7/23 - Bethlehem and Hebron

It rained all day today, sometimes very hard. There was lots of water on the streets running like rivers down the hills we were driving on. It also snowed at the higher elevations and made walking in the slush rather slippery.
Hebron is an hour drive south of Bethlehem. It is called the City of Patriarchs by the Jews because Abraham, his wife Sarah, Jacob, Rebecca, and Leah are all buried there.
On the way we passed some of the 402 km of wall dividing “Israel” from “Palestine.” Israel plans to add 300 more kilometers of wall. Hebron is an A region of Palestine and is controlled and “owned” by the Palestinian Authority. We took photos of the large red roadside sign at a checkpoint stating we were entering an A region. However, there are 15 Israeli Jewish settlements around Hebron and five inside the city limits.

Bethlehem - as we were leaving for the day in Hebron	Bethlehem - as we were leaving for the day in Hebron
Bethlehem - Love the purple doors	Entry sign warning Israeli citizens that they may not enter Palestinian territory
After our arrival at a parking area some distance from our final destination, the site of the Tomb (or Cave) of the Patriarchs, we walked along wet, cobbled streets in a very old part of Hebron. Eventually, we walked through a market area that was once full of 500 small shops, only a few of which are still in operation. The area was once covered but now there is only a canvas "roof" in some places and the rest is open to the elements. It was very wet and damp with rain beating on the canvas tarps and water pouring out of leaks in the walls.
Walking to the Tomb of the Patriarchs
Former market area that we passed through while walking to the Tomb of the Patriarchs	Former market area
Leaks in the walls in the former market area that we passed through while walking to the Tomb of the Patriarchs	Shop along the way
Another shop - really miserable walk	Eventually, we arrived at the mosque containing the Tomb of the Patriarchs. The building sits above a cave. According to the Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Islam, and Judaism), the cave and an adjoining field were purchased by Abraham as a burial plot. The large rectangular enclosure that sits over the site of the cave dates from the Herodian era. During Byzantine rule, a Christian basilica was built on the site. This became the Ibrahimi Mosque after the Muslim conquest in the 12th century. In 1119 CE, the cave was "rediscovered" and bones were found inside. These were believed to be the bones of the patriarchs. After the 1967 Six-Day War, the mosque was divided and half of it was converted into a Jewish synagogue.
Ibrahimi Mosque	Stairs leading up to the Ibrahimi Mosque
We first visited the mosque. The interior of of which contains some beautiful tile work on the walls and ceiling. The interior also contains cenotaphs (an empty grave, tomb, or monument erected to honor a person or group) dedicated to Isaac and Rebecca. A nearby area contains separate octagonal room with cenotaphs dedicated to Abraham and Sarah and another for Jacob and Leah.
Ibrahimi Mosque - Interior	Ibrahimi Mosque
Ibrahimi Mosque	Ibrahimi Mosque
Ibrahimi Mosque	Ibrahimi Mosque - ceiling decoration
Ibrahimi Mosque - Cenotaph of Abraham	Ibrahimi Mosque - Cenotaph of Abraham
Ibrahimi Mosque - Cenotaph of Abraham	Stone canopy above the entrance to the caves at the Tomb of the Patriarchs
The actual tombs are in the caves located about 15 meters below the floor. The caves are generally not accessible. There are only two known entrances, one of which is sealed. The other entrance is near Abraham's cenotaph. It is a narrow shaft, covered by a decorative grate, and leads down the 15 feet to Abraham’s tomb. While we were there, officials drew up a chain with four wicks in olive oil cups. They lit and lowered the candles back down into the shaft so we could look at the grave site below.
Decorative grate and the opening to the shaft leading to the burial cave	Lighting the lamp to be lowered into the Tomb of the Patriarchs
Lowering the lamp into the Tomb of the Patriarchs	Looking down into the Tomb of the Patriarchs
We exited the mosque in the Muslim section of the building and walked through pouring rain to the Jewish half of the building. Ahmad, being a Palestinian Muslem, was not allowed to accompany us. We walked up a lot of stairs to an entry past Israeli military carrying high powered rifles, then up more stairs to enter the building. We wandered through three library/reading/study rooms and found a place with a partition separating a women’s area and a men’s area and assumed it was used as the synagog.	Jewish area at the Tomb of the Patriarchs
Jewish area at the Tomb of the Patriarchs	Jewish area at the Tomb of the Patriarchs
Calendar in the Jewish area at the Tomb of the Patriarchs	Library in the Jewish area at the Tomb of the Patriarchs
On the way back through the damp tunnels to our bus, we stopped at a glassblowing shop but there was no demonstration, only a store full of fragile glass ornaments and mosiac tiles.	Glass blower's shop
Glass blower's shop	Glass blower's shop
Glass blower's shop	Glass blower's shop
By the time we were ready to move on to our next experience, we were soaking wet and freezing cold. An hour later we visited a Bedouin community and sat in the “living room” of one of the eleven families inthe community. Twenty people live in this house and we met the grandmother, two sons, and one mother of six of the children. All of this visit was confusing. The families run 30,000 sheep and 1,500 camels. They make and sell cheese and milk and slaughter sheep for religious traditional observances. We were given tea (it was good to hold the hot glass cups because there was no heat in the house) and listened as Ahmad translated. The sheep were all in a shelter and the children had no school today because of the weather (by then it was snowing). The Bedouins have taken land and built concrete houses but have no heat - they get warm by sitting in an unfinished cement building where they have a fire burning in the middle of the concrete floor. Their land has well-water to trade to Bethlehem for electricity. This family/tribe is fighting another tribe for land that resulted in a shooting. Seems a common problem here. The next stop was at the home of an American Jewish man living in a very nice Israeli settlement in the West Bank (an A Palestinian area). He and his wife moved here in 1985 and lived there and raised a family in that same house. He talked about “finding himself” as a secular Jew and feeling at home on a visit to Israel and decided to come back to stay. He would like to see all C regions of Palestine become part of Israel because they are an integral part of the area now and would gain all the freedoms Israeli’s had and that are denied to Palestinians now. He says only the Orthodox Jews from America are still interested in moving to Israel.	Very nasty weather - snow!
Bedouin community - Home visit - we nearly froze to death!	Bedouin community - Home visit
Bedouin community - Home visit - typical dress	Bedouin community
Lovely!	Home of Jewish settler on the West Bank
It was 2 PM and we needed lunch. The roads to the Palestinian community we were supposed to eat at were flooded so Ahmad took us to a new place OAT had not been to yet. It was very nice, but also unheated!. The ceiling was decorated with colorful blankets making it feel like we were in a tent and the walls were painted with a Bedouin camp scene. We were asked if we wanted to put Palestinian robes over our clothes to wear as we ate - for the full flavor of the experience. We declined. “Momama” made a wonderful Makloba, upside down chicken, rice, and cauliflower dish. It is cooked in a steam bowl and then flipped upside down on a tray to be served. It was hot and delicious.
Wall murals at our lunch restaurant - it was unheated!	Wall murals at our lunch restaurant
Makloba - prepared by Momma	Makloba - prepared by Momma
Makloba - prepared by Momma	Makloba - it was tasty
Our last stop was at a gate going into the Aida Refugee Camp. The gate has a large key above it. Many Palestinians were forced out of their homes during the Israeli wars. They locked their houses and took their keys thinking they would return in a few days. They eventually fled to North Africa or Spain and now try to return but are held in these several refugee camps. There is a poster of a child shot in the street where we were standing and a list of names of children killed by Israelis in 2014.	Aida Refugee Camp - the Key gate with the "key of return" above the gate The Palestinian key is the Palestinian symbol of their homes lost in 1948, when more than half of the population of Mandatory Palestine were either expelled or fled violence in the 1948 Palestinian exodus and subsequently were denied the right to return. Almost 75 years later the key remains a potent symbol and reminder of physical and emotional loss and injustice.
List of Palestinian children killed during an Israeli assault in July 2014 (See another link about children in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.)

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