Today was by far the most intense but also enjoyable days of our
'quest' in Israel-Palestine. Like much of this experience it hasn't really sunk in yet and I will need weeks back home in Madison to decompress before I can really tell how much this trip has changed me and my views of this land. So this diary will simply be an account of our day without much commentary or opinion. It's all still a bit too close for that.
We began our day by boarding our bus on a visit to the West Bank political and finanical capital of Ramallah. We had been going back and forth on whether or not to include a visit to Ramallah in our trip, but after being assured by many people that it would be safe we decided to go. We were meeting with a Palestinian-American from Ohio who had returned to Ramallah several years ago to help develop the area financially. He gave us a tour of a shopping mall. While a mall in Ramallah may not seem like much of a peace promoting initiative, it is actually quite vital. It gives the people there a sense of normalcy in a city dealing with the day to day struggles of occupation.
After touring the mall, we met with the former Palestinian Minister for Telecommunications. Since Hamas' election, he has left the government and is currently working as a consultant in the private sector. We talked mostly about internal Palestinian politics, especially the Fatah-Hamas tension that is running very high in Gaza. I enjoyed his perspective as he was much more critical about the U.S. role in the region (meaning Israel-Palestine, Iraq and the middle east in general). It has seemed that other Palestinians we have spoke with have had similar sentiments but brushed over them somewhat in an effort to be civil. After the meeting we all dined at a local falafel shop and relaxed for a bit. I remember thinking what a nice pleasant city Ramallah was and that our fears about safety where misplaced.
I had boarded our bus a bit earlier than most others and was looking out of the window at the falefel stand where we had just eaten. I remember seeing a man with a microphone that said BBC on it and wondering if perhaps he wanted to interview us since I am quite sure we were the only American tourists in Ramallah today. Then I heard many car horns start honking behind our bus and seeing the falafel stand and other stores begin closing their stores. Although I didn't know what was happening, I could clearly sense a tension in the air that wasn't present before.
From what the others in our group tell me, a man ran into the coffee house where the rest of our group was finishing up and said something to our bus driver Mohammed that clearly worried him greatly, as he rushed everyone out of the coffeehouse and on to the bus.
We drove away a little nervous, but mostly confused as to what was happening to make these stores close in the middle of the day made our driver so nervous. As we drove off we could see a plume of smoke rising from behind us, near where we had just been.
As all of that drama was left behind we resumed our normal schedule for the day. We stopped and got off the bus at the Ramallah-Jerusalem checkpoint in order to get the first hand experience of actually walking through the checkpoints instead of just being waved through on our bus with Israeli license plates.
As we should of expected, it took much longer to get through the checkpoint on foot than we had anticipated, so we were already running late for our next meeting with the group Rabbis for Human Rights in West Jerusalem. There we met with the group's director Rabbi Arik Ascherman. He gave us an amazing and impassioned talk about Jewish values and human rights.
On our way back to the hotel we decided to get dropped off on the other side of Jerusalem's Old City and walk the ancient ramparts around to our hotel. The views were amazing and when we were finished we visited the Wailing Wall on our way back through the city. I was much more moved by visiting the wall than I had expected to be, and we enjoyed several deep spritual conversations with some rabbis and orthodox Jews.
Back at our hotel, our last meeting of the day was with Eliahu Mclean who works on interfaith dailogues with an amazing organizaiton called the Sulha Peace Project. Along with an incredible Sufi sheyk whose name escapes me now we discussed spirituality and the connection of the 3 Aberhamic faiths to the One God. The discussion was one of faith, hope and promise which was a refreshing and much needed respite to the poverty, violence and oppresion we have witnessed on this trip so far. We concluded with two prayers, the first being a Jewish prayer for peace to prevail in the hearts of the peoples of this land. The second a Sufi dihkr which entials a rythmic chanting of the various names of God. For a trip comprised overwhelmingly of Christian students this was an overwhelmingly powerful and moving experience.
After the prayer session one of us popped open thier laptop to check if there was any news about what happened in Ramallah earlier. There was in fact a gun battle between the IDF and some Palestinian militants. This all took place less than 3 or 4 blocks from where we ate lunch and escaped from just minutes before.
As I said, no commentary or opinions in this diary, I'm too worn out for that right now. They will come later I'm sure as it all sinks in. Tommorow is a much easier day as we travel to Masada and the Dead Sea.