West Bank Adventure

December 31, 2010 at 7:27 pm | Posted in Jeusalem | Leave a comment

On December 27, my birthday, I took the express bus from Haifa to Jerusalem. After checking in at my favorite hotel, The Little House in the German Colony, I took a bus to the Old City. My plan for the day, which I succeeded in accomplishing, was to wander the Old City for while, eat some humus at a place I used to eat in back in the late 1960s, then head for the Kotel. In addition to being my birthday, it happened to be the one year anniversary of my mother’s death. I thought, what could be a better way to mark the occasion than to say Kaddish at the Wall.

The humus was as good as I remembered and so was the Kotel! I stood for a while to sense the energy there, then wandered into the cave opening where there are several prayer groups no matter what time of day or night it is. I joined one group, mostly Hassids, doing afternoon prayers, much too fast for me. But looking over a guy’s shoulder at the prayer book and recognizing parts of the prayers, I knew where we were in the service. When we got to the Mourners’ Kaddish and most men sat down, I had my chance. Although the men seemed previously to be totally into their own thing, when I (and a couple of others) finished, eye contact was made and I felt very welcomed. Of course I would, how could I not.

After sitting for a while and watching all the activity there, I went to the ticket booth to see if there was a chance to join a tour of the massive excavations under the Kotel that have been going on since the mid-1980s. There was a Hebrew language tour open at 4, so I signed up. It was amazing. Over an hour exploring the archeology, getting an explanation of the history, the scope of the First and Second Temples, and realization of how huge a structure it was. The now-visible part of the Wall is only a tiny section of the entire western side of the Temple. We got very close to where they think was the Holy of Holies, and we all stopped to say a prayer. In reality we were wandering under what is now the Muslim quarter of the Old City and exited not far from the Via Delarosa.

Back to Emek Rafaim Street in West Jerusalem for some Iraqi soup with Kubbe and to bed.

The next day was to be my big adventure. Elena Khoury is a student at Suffolk working on a joint MBA and law degree. She is a Christian Palestinian from the village of Taybeh in the West Bank. Her family owns the only brewery in the West Bank and I had been invited to visit. Her e-mail to me gave me simple directions on how to get there – just take a shared taxi to Ramallah (through the Kalandia checkpost) and then another shared taxi to Taybeh. Of course, Israeli citizens (me!) are prohibited from those areas. And most Israelis whose advice I sought told me that it was crazy and dangerous and no way! My friend Fred, and Israeli/American peace activist gave me another story. Perfectly safe and an easy trip, he said. Show them your US passport when you come back into Israel through the checkpost. You will “probably” be OK.

So I did it. The taxi drivers and passengers on the mini-bus were very friendly and helpful. I wandered a bit through the streets of Ramallah, and felt quite safe. I was delighted to see a bustling, growing city, construction everywhere and signs for high-tech prominent on the new buildings. Economically Ramallah is growing and that has to be a good thing.

The Khoury family welcomed me to their brewery, gave me a detailed tour, served me some very delicious beer, and answered a lot of business questions for me. And off I went for the return trip to Jerusalem. Crossing through the Kalandia checkpost was a bit dicy, but I have done this before (a trip to Bethlehem a couple of years ago). Most of the Palestinians got off the mini-bus at the checkpost and had to go through some sort of screening. The driver told me to stay on the bus, along with a couple other passengers (Arabs). Two armored and heavily armed police came on the bus and an Ethiopian woman soldier asked in Hebrew for my passport. I said I didn’t understand Hebrew so she asked in English (pretty clever of me!). I gave my US passport. She quickly looked at the picture and gave it back to me. If she had looked for the entry stamp, I would have been in trouble, since I entered Israel on my Israeli passport.