Israel, Days 15-16: Kefar Azza, Sha'ar HaNegev, Be'er Sheba, and Unrecognized Bedouin Settlements

Now that I'm back home, and everything is pretty well wrapped up, I'll update everyone on the last few days of our class in Israel. Sunday, we woke up from our stay overnight in Be'er Sheba. We didn't do any touring there as there really isn't a whole lot of history in Be'er Sheba.

So first we headed to a small kibbutz called Kibbutz Kefar Azza. At first this kibbutz would have seemed like any other kibbutz that we had visited, only it had a very different feel. What made it different was that it was located on the border with Gaza. This kibbutz was founded in 1961, 6 years before the war that would bring the Gaza strip under the control of Israel.

The kibbutz had been under relatively peace until the second intifada started in 2004. Rockets, RPGs, and other homemade weapons have bombarded Kefar Azza and it's surrounding area every since. Chen, our guide on the tour of Kefar Azzza, told us that roughly 80% of the children under 18 on the kibbutz suffer from some sort of trauma or stress related to the conditions created by rockets and mortars from Gaza.

It's a strange place to walk around, every home and every building has its own bomb shelter. I got a very eerie feeling. It's got to be such a hard place to live. One minute you could be walking around going about your daily routine, then the code red siren could sound and you would literally have to drop everything your doing and head to the bomb shelter as quickly as you can. I wonder what kind of quality of life you could salvage while living in that kind of environment; I don't think I'd be able to do it.

After Kefar Azza, we went into the regional council area that Kefar Azza is apart of (many kibbutzim have joined together to create a 'regional council' that looks similar to a municipality in the US--many kibbutzim are too small to govern themselves alone so the join forces and pool resources and leadership). We toured the new school--completely fortified to withstand any bomb blast from Gaza. Around the buildings at the school, they've built 28 fortified bus stops, which double as bus stops. In case anyone is outside during a bombing, the shelters are strategically places so that anyone can get from anywhere on the property to a bomb shelter in less than 10 seconds (roughly the amount of time it takes a rocket launched in Gaza to reach Kefar Azza and the surrounding area).

We then headed to Be'er Sheba and the surrounding areas which mainly consist of unrecognized Bedouin settlements--settlements created after the nomadic Bedouins decided to settle in around the Be'er Sheba area. There are a lot of tensions between the Bedouins and Jews, the Bedouins and Palestinians, and the Bedouins and 'assimilated Bedouins'. They are a very proud and very secluded people. Unless you are invited into their home, they don't want you anywhere near them, and when they do invite you in, you're treated like royalty.

The places we visited are known as unrecognized settlements because they were created by nomadic Bedouins who just decided randomly where they were going to settle and expected the Israeli government to pay to have utilities and services sent to them. Just like in the US, you have to pay for land and apply for permits to have services sent to your land, i.e.: roads, water, electricity, sewer, and the like. Because the Bedouins settled such an expansive and distant area, the government decided that unless they move into predetermined areas paid for by the government, they weren't going to provide services. Each man 16 and older was offered a 1/4 acre of land that they could develop (worth roughly $75,000) but many refuse to take they offer because they want to live where they've settled. The main problems now are the unrecognized settlement issues and the coming battle of service provisions. Things are just starting to get heated there, and the battles between Israel and the Bedouins are starting to become intense.

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I enjoyed my time in Israel IMMENSELY. If I had the opportunity to go back, I'd go back in a heartbeat. There is so much rich history and beauty in Israel that I could spend a lifetime exploring there.

Everyday on our trip, I found myself thinking about the incredible complexity of the conflict. Each time we heard from someone on either side of the issue it seemed to get even more complicated. We talked with Bedouins, Christian Palestinians, Muslim Palestinians, Palestinian Israelis (yeah that's a complicated identity for sure!) Jordanians, Religious Jews, Secular Jews, American Jews, and everyone in between. Each time we heard a different story, a different perspective, and a different idea of what was the 'right solution' to the conflict; but one thing we found in common: there isn't one correct solution that will make the issue disappear.

There is no solution to this conflict where everyone comes out a winner, it's not possible. It's zero sum game--whoever gains something, gains it at the loss of the other side. Sure there are swaps and compromises but the essence of a swap or compromise is that you're giving something up in order to reach an agreement.

What I've taken away from this experience is that with radical groups on each side, there will never be a completely peaceful situation because the radicals on both sides won't stop until the other side is gone completely from what the radicals see as their land. It's an unfortunate reality that can only be resolved through education and tolerance which MUST start with the youth on all sides of the issue. Until the children from Gaza and the children from Kefar Azza can see each other as equals there will not be a peaceful ending to this conflict. When the 3rd grader from Sha'ar HaNegev can meet with the third grader from Gaza and not harbor any hatred, we know there is again a possibility for peace.

The sad thing is that it appears that the youth on both sides are only becoming more and more radicalized, and they're moving apart... One thing we heard from almost everyone--Palestinians and Jews--the greatest and likely last chance at peace was lost when Yitzhak Rabin was murdered by a Jewish zealot. Palestinians were going to get almost everything they had in 1967 and the Jews were so excited about peace that they (most of them anyway) were willing to give what it took for peace between two states. But when Yitzhak Rabin was murdered, many believe peace died with him.

Israel, Day 14: Mitzpe Ramon and Sde Boqer (A Kibbutz where Ben Gurion lived and is buried).

We said goodbye to Eilat this morning, and started making our way to Be’er Sheva, in the far northern part of the Negev Desert. We drove for roughly one hour where we stopped at a site called a makhtesh, something that looks similar to a crater. A makhtesh is a geological phenomenon that is caused by movement of the earth’s tectonic plates.

Tens of millions of years ago, there was a vast desert of sand dunes that existed on the land that is the state of Israel today. Slowly the ocean rose to cover those sand dunes. After millions of years of sedimentation, layers upon layers of calcium and other minerals were deposited on the floor of the ocean, covering the sand dunes that were swallowed up by the ocean.

Eventually the ocean began to recede again and the plates on the earth’s crust began to move. The crust started to elevate in one spot, creating anticline planes—a ridge with one very steep side and one very shallow side. Because the top rocks (usually limestone) are very hard and brittle, they break very easily when stress is put on them. Stress cracks began to form and eventually the peak of the new ridge split and created a large fissure. This fissure grew wider and wider as millions of years passed.

Now what you have today is a very large crater shaped valley in the desert of Israel. In the bottom—after the limestone ridges were forced open and away from each other—the sand dunes that were once buried under millions of years of sedimentation are now exposed. A makhtesh is usually drained by one narrow river or stream, which is dry during much of the year as there is little rainfall.

We got the best view of Makhtesh Ramon from the small town of Mitzpe Ramon, a town situated on one of the ridges on the north side of the makhtesh, where we also had lunch. We then moved on up the road to the outskirts of the Kibbutz where David Ben Gurion is buried with his wife Paula.

As one of the founders and the first prime minister of Israel, Ben Gurion is admired by many Israelis. As a socialist and a Zionist, Ben Gurion’s dream was to create a state where resources where shared with everyone, to allow everyone to prosper in Israel. One of Ben Gurion’s great visions rose out of the 1947 partition plan, which relegated Israel to a small parcel of land in the north, and nearly all of the desert land in the south.

Because much of the land that was given to Israel was desert land, Gurion’s vision was to convert the desert to make it prosperous and useful. He envisioned small kibbutzim and villages across the desert; little oases across the desert making infertile land fertile and versatile. That dream has become partially true. Although the mass movement of people towards the desert that Gurion envisioned didn’t happen, his dream of using the desert as a place of growth and production did come true as most of the produce that Israel exports comes from the Negev desert.

After learning about Ben Gurion’s dream for Israel we took a short hike through a valley nearby. The valley, the Tsin Valley, is a former Nabatean trade route which stretches all the way to Petra, Jordan. Ben Gurion’s grave sits at the spot he frequented after his retirement. He moved to a small kibbutz—Sde Boqer—in the desert after retirement and walked to a ridge overlooking the Tsin Valley; he is now buried at that ridge.

After all this we made our final trek to our hotel in Be’er Sheva. Tomorrow we’re headed to a Bedouin community, and then a city that borders with Gaza to learn about relations with the Bedouins of the Negev desert and relations with Gaza. Afterwards we’ll be making our last stop once again in Tel Aviv, and in three short days we’ll be heading home! (Sorry, no pictures this time because the connection is too slow! I'll add them at our next stop in Tel Aviv!)

Israel (Jordan technically), Day 13: Petra

Today we made our way to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Currently under governance by King Abdullah II , Jordan is now on it's third king. King Abdullah's predecessors: his father King Hussein reigned from 1951-1999, and his grandfather King Abdullah reigned from 1921-1951.

The border entry gate between Israel and Jordan. This took us an hour, but it was worth it. I'd definitely go back to Jordan any day.

The King is held in extremely high regards in Jordan, his picture--along with the pictures of his father and grandfather are displayed prominently across Jordan. We saw at least 5 different displays of King Abdullah II on our way between the Israeli border patrol office and the entrance to Jordan. He was appointed the Crown Prince of Jordan only weeks before his father passed away from leukemia--at Mayo Clinic in fact.

The country of Jordan is a monarchic country, the monarchic family is the Abdullah family, descendants of the Hashemite family who ruled the Hashemite kingdom before and during the time of Mohammed. They family does have a direct connection to Mohammed, by blood and therefore have declared Jordan to be a Hashemite kingdom.

The sign welcoming us all to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. We had to present our passports a total of 5 times to enter the country, and 4 times to return to Israel. It was surprising, but understandable.

We went through border security, it took about an hour for us all to get through. The main chunk of time (about 45 minutes) is when we had to give up our passports for them to be inspected, stamped, and checked by the Royal Jordanian Military. We were then given the all clear to enter the country and make our way to Petra. As we started to head up the mountains it got incredibly foggy. After about half an hour of driving, we noticed this little sight:

Look very carefully at the sand on the other side of the road......

Yup. That's snow. It snowed in the desert... That says something about winter in Minnesota this year. They got about 4 inches of snow here in Jordan (it clearly didn't stay, but 4 inches of snow fell overnight and this morning), pretty sad considering Minnesota can barely keep any snow on the ground at all this winter.

After a 2 hour drive through the pea soup fog in the Jordanian mountains, we reached the city of Wadi Moussa--the city that surrounds the ancient city of Petra. Petra was discovered in 1831 by Francis Burkhart of Switzerland. During an exploratory mission through the Jordanian desert, Burkhart noticed there was a facade that was sticking out of the ground. He sent word back to Switzerland, where a crew was sent to start excavations around the facade. That's when they discovered this: a large temple/monument carved into the sandstone. After heavy research, the building was dated at over 1850 years old (now over 2000 years old).

The original discovery made by Francis Burkhart. He only found the top 5 feet or so, but  this is what was uncovered during excavation.

The ancient city of Petra stretches for miles and miles through the canyons and crevasses in the sandy desert in the center of Jordan. We were able to climb up some of the old steps of the city and get a panoramic view of the old city, which you can see stretches for miles in the distance.

After we were all exhausted from hiking down the canyon, to see one of the new 7 wonders of the world, we boarded the bus and headed up the hill in Wadi Moussa. We stopped at the Amra Palace Hotel--a 5 star hotel that over looks the city and the Petra entrance facilities--and had a wonderful buffet lunch. I had THE BEST dessert I have ever had in my entire life. It's called Om Ali. It's an Egyptian dessert--literally translated it means mother of Ali. It's similar to bread pudding. It usually includes phyllo dough, dried fruit--strawberries of cranberries, any kind of nuts, heavy whipping cream, and cinnamon. It's baked and served warm, and is absolutely amazing.

Om Ali, the best dessert I have ever had... ever!

After our wonderful dessert, we boarded the bus and all lapsed into a coma until we reached the border with Israel again.

Tomorrow we're headed to Beersheba, 'the capital of the Negev (desert)'. It's home to Beersheba University one of the largest universities in Israel, and is also located near the grave of Ben Gurion, considered the George Washington of Israel.

I'll have an updated on our excursion in Beersheba later tomorrow night, unless we don't have internet access.

Thanks again for reading everyone!

Israel, Day 12: Eilat

Today was a free day... IT WAS SPECTACULAR! We started out by getting to sleep in! (I hear a choir of angels when I woke up this morning.) I woke up and went down to breakfast at 9:45. Then at 10 we were given a "tour of Eilat". Basically our tour guide showed us how to sneak into the big fancy hotels to steal the services: internet, the pool, the bar, the restaurants, private beach access, etc.

Then we went to a jewelry manufacturer to see the biggest manufacturer of the Eilat stone in the world. Eilat stone is a semi precious stone that is a result of copper mining, secondary copper mining materials: malachite, turquoise, pseudomalachite, azurite, and chrysocolla. They are blue and green and are found in copper mines after mining is finished.

The stones are easy to cut, shape, and polish making them one of the cheaper semi precious stones, yet they have the beauty of the higher end of semi precious stones.

After that we headed south along the coast to the border with Egypt to see the border crossing. I would have gone across the border to get the Egypt stamp in my passport but there is an incredible entry tax that I didn't want to pay. We saw places where you could ride the dolphins of the Red Sea, rent scuba equipment to see the coral reefs, rent boating and fishing equipment, and even go dune buggy riding. I decided I wanted a relaxing day on the beach so I grabbed my swimsuit, my towel, a book and my computer and headed to the nicer beaches in front of the 5 star hotels on the north side of Eilat.

Probably the best day I've had since we got here. :) So amazing!

It was amazing, I finally got time to be lazy. I laid on the beach on a beach chair, listened to music on my iPod, and just vegged. Then I went to lunch at a restaurant on the boardwalk called CafeCafe. I had a Halloumi salad (Halloumi is basically cheese curds... SO GOOD), and a coke.

My Halloumi salad, bread, and a coke. Next to the beach. So wonderful!

Afterwards, I walked along the boardwalk for a while looking in the different shops in the area. Then I stopped in a small store, grabbed a beer and went back to the beach to relax in the sun again.

This has been by far the best day we've had yet. It was a wonderful 72 degrees here (when the sun was out), the water was warm, and the food was excellent. I really wanna stay here! :D

The view from the hotel at the end of the day. :) Eilat is amazing!

Look for another blog post either later tonight (so for you between 4 and 6 pm), or sometime tomorrow. We're going to Petra, Jordan tomorrow and it's going to be a long day, we may not get back to Eilat until 10 pm.

That's all I've got, ta ta for now!

Israel, Days 10-11, Ein Gedi, The Dead Sea, Masada, and Eilat.

After an overnight stay at Kibbutz Ashdot Ya'akov, we headed south a little ways to the small city of Beit She'an on day 10. The city of Beit She'an is located just above an ancient city of Beit She'an, a former Roman empire city.

We entered the site and immediately saw the incredibly enormous size of the city. According to the census by the Romans that year there were about 50,000 citizens. The Romans, built all of their new cities with the same general plan, they made a North-South running road called the Cardo--the heart line road, and an East-West running road, called the Decumanus--the 10 workers line. It isn't known why these streets were called this, but that's what they're know by.

The city of Beit She'an (ancient). The street you can see is the Cardo--the heart line. The columns on either side were to support a roof over the adjacent sidewalks that led past shops and merchants.

The streets were often set up so that the city could be surrounded by walls and fortified so it was easy to defend, and each end of the 2 main streets was to end at a gate on one of the 4 city walls. These gates were entrance and exit points of trade for the city. People would then go to the city center or the acropolis to trade, buy, and sell their goods. Since the acropolis was built way upon a hill in Beit She'an, they lines of the main roads don't intersect at the top of the hill but at the bottom, so a city center was built which housed shops, contained sidewalks and streets, much like what a downtown might look like in America today.

Every Roman city also had a public bath house, since the Romans were obsessed with their cleanliness, they built massive public bath houses for places for people to bathe and keep themselves clean. There were extremely large rooms for saunas, hot baths, and pools. The first room was enormous and had walls that were 3 feet thick. They walls held the heat from the saunas in. The heat for the saunas was pumped in with massive blowers by slaves who blew hot air from furnaces under the floor of the sauna, this would then heat a large bowl of water.

The floor supports that left air room under the floor to allow hot air to be blown in, usually by animal or slaves. The hot air was blown in from the furnace, which was outside the sauna room through the small passages on the left wall.

After condensing on the ceiling, the water would wash down the walls into cisterns that would put the warm water into a large hot tub that had 'jets' usually human or animal faces that shot water out of their mouths onto a person's head or shoulders--like a modern jaccuzzi tub.

After we toured Beit She'an, we got back into the bus and we headed down the road to the Dead Sea. We drove along the sea and listened as our tour guide Amir explained to us about the Dead Sea Scrolls, their discovery and their eventual collection.

The Dead Sea Scrolls were found in caves around the Dead Sea in 1947. Shortly after having found a couple large pots with scrolls from the Torah in them, the Bedouin tribes that live in the area moved into the surrounding caves and raided the scrolls. Thinking they could harvest a lot of money from them, the Bedouins ripped the scrolls into tiny pieces and sold them to people all around the world. This created a nightmare for the people who had to reassemble them and try to decipher their meanings.

The majority of the Dead Sea scrolls were found in this cave. Located just steps away from the archaeological dig of a monastery that was supposed to find them. This cave was invaded by the Bedouins and the rest of the scrolls inside were taken and ripped apart to be sold world wide.

In the 1950's through the 1980's the Dead Sea Scrolls were slowly bought or gifted back and pieced back together to help try and decipher what it was these scrolls were saying. It was eventually found that they scrolls were original prints of the books of the Torah. We stopped for a while near the Dead Sea to have a look at the sight where they found the most Dead Sea Scrolls in one cave.

Then we drove all along the Sea to the town of Ein Gedi to stay overnight.

Today, we woke up at about 6 am in order to leave the hostel at 7am. Our plans today included heading to Masada, which is a very tall mountain that is near Ein Gedi. It is the location of an old, old Roman/Jewish city. King Herod chose this place, on a relatively flat mountain top, to be his palace because it was nearly impossible to penetrate.

The faint path you can see zigzagging up the side of the mountain is the path we took up. It took me 50 minutes to go up and 20 minutes to come down. What a great way to start the day... with an intense uphill work out! :)

It takes about an hour or a little less to hike up the side of the mountain to the top, and about 20 minutes to a half an hour to get back down again. I could have taken the cable car but 1) I wanted the exercise and 2) I didn't want to pay $15 to get up there, when I could do it for free.

We spent roughly 2 hours on Masada touring around. Afterwards we headed to the Dead Sea to go for a little swim. :) The Dead Sea is the most saline body of water on earth, it's also the lowest point on earth (1400 feet below sea level!). People with asthma can breath easier because there is more oxygen the lower you go on earth, and the salt water helps people's muscles and joints because it contains bromide, a commonly used substance for tranquilizing.

Me floating on the water! It's weird by it feels so good in the sun!

When you enter the water, you can immediately feel the difference between this water and normal lake water. This water almost feels like you're walking into a giant lake of olive oil, it's very slippery and greasy. It's good for your skin though, I can attest that I don't think I've ever felt my skin as soft as it is today! :D

After this short trip, we went headed our way down to the city of Eilat, the southern most city in Israel, and a large sourthern port. On our way there, we took a detour to the border with Jordan, which is interesting because it's not hardly fortified at all... all there is, is a small barbed wire fence that looks no different from a common barbed wire fence used to divide land in America. But there are signs signifying the danger of the possibility of lost land mines near the border fence.

Hundreds of greenhouses line the Negev Desert and grow crops year around. The greenhouses are completely computerized so as not to create any error in the cultivation the plants. Peppers, eggplants, and tomatoes are the main crops grown here.

Interestingly, Israel's largest agricultural region is in the Negev Desert in the south of the country. Irrigation and rich minerals help the plants grow quickly. The use of a mixture of aquifer water and salt water helps make produce more sweet as the plants over produce sugar to counterbalance the salt. A very creative and clever way to make your produce worth more!

After a short stop on the border with Jordan, we finally got to Eilat, where I have this view from my room, where I am sitting right now!

I hope you all enjoy these updates. I truly enjoy sharing my experiences with you all! :) Look for my next update soon!

Israel, Days 8-9: Kibbutz Gonen, the Sea of Galilee, and Kibbutz Ashdot Ya'akov

We began day 8, Sunday, with a trip from our stay at Kibbutz Gonen, located at the foot of the mountains in the Golan Heights, to the Golan Heights region.

These flowers are all over every kibbutz or moshav we visit. They're beautiful year around, which seems marvelously outrageous because we'd never have anything that could live outside all the time during the month of January.

We spent our day winding our way up the mountains to get a glimpse into Syria from the top of some high ridges. We heard briefly about the fear of the Israeli government that when the Syrian dictator, Assad, falls there will be a flood of Syrian refugees who leave the country for Israel. They're working furiously to protect the border so when/if it does happen, there will be no problems with illegal crossings.

We then stopped at a coffee shop at the peak of the mountains in the Golan Heights to talk about the war of 1967 and the continued mortar attacks against the kibbutzes along the border with Syria. The Syrians used to sit on the top of the mountains and fire rockets and mortars down the hill and they tried to blow up as many houses and civilians as they could, so the Israeli army, in 1967, decided to invade Syria (along with the West Bank, and the Sinai peninsula. They whole point of the invasions was to conquer land with which to trade back in exchange for peace and recognition of Israel as a state.

The sun cuts through the clouds making for a spectacular scene. It almost didn't look real to me!

After some time spent in the Golan Heights, we worked our way down to the southern tip of the Golan Heights, to the upper Galilee region. There we stopped at the small town (now a tourist site and excavation area) of Capernaum. The city's name interestingly means nothing, there is no work for it in any language. It was an attempt by the Romans to name the city based off of its Hebrew name, they just added letters and switched the meaning of the word so that it now means nothing.

Capernaum, or known to many orthodox/eastern Christians as the Capharnaum. The place where Jesus centered his teachings.

This is the city where Jesus met Simon (Peter). Jesus' main center for teaching the bible was here and he first met Simon here. The city sits right next to the Sea of Galilee (which is really just a lake--smaller than many lakes in Minnesota). The Sea is the only fresh body of water in Israel. It provides fresh water to all of Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, and parts of western Jordan. The legend is that Jesus walked on water here, when really, the lake is so shallow when it first starts out that one could walk the length of a football field and it would only be up to your knees.

We didn't spend too much time at Capernaum, so when we started going again, we stopped at the part of the Jordan river that is south of the Sea of Galilee, it looks much more healthy than the northern part of the stream. The lake acts like a natural barrier to much of the muck the river picks up on it's way down stream.

Another radiant beam of sunshine. When you don't see the sun for 4 days of vacation, when you do see sun it's amazing! :)

After seeing some live Jordan River baptisms, we decided to head to our hotel for the night which was Kibbutz Ashdot Ya'akov.

Israel, Days 6-7: Haifa and Kibbutz Gonen

So, since Thursday was my last blog, I need to put an update. Friday night we had a hotel with internet, but I didn't post a blog because by the time we were done with class, I literally couldn't keep my eyes open. Saturday and Sunday, we were at places that didn't have internet connections (wireless anyways), and today, I have to sit in the dining hall to find some free internet.

So I'll give an update on all the happenings as of late, and direct you to my Facebook page to look at the last three photo albums I've added (Day 6, Days 7&8, and Day 9).

On Saturday, we spent the day making our way from Tel Aviv to Haifa. Normally, the drive from Tel Aviv to Haifa would take about 45 minutes, but we took a detour to the east on our way there. First, we stopped in Nazareth (a surprisingly small and unimpressive village), where we talked to a man named Rassan, a Sufi sheikh who started a center for peace and coexistence in a town where hostilities, especially between Christians and Muslims have hit a peak.

Nazareth, a formerly entirely Christian town started slowly declining in its Christian population, has started to become more and more Muslim. As the Muslims move in, they begin to create hostilities with Christians; small acts of violence started in the mid-90's, but reached a peak during the second intifada in 2004. Rassan told us a story about his son. Shortly after he and his partner, a Christian minister from the Basilica of Annunciation, founded their peace center, Rassan's family began to experience attacks for being "traitors of the Palestinian cause" even though his family is Palestinian.

One day, during the height of the intifada, Rassan's son was brutally beaten until he went into a coma for two weeks. The incredible tension that has built up between the Christians and the Muslims has even created inter-Muslim fighting because they see people who work for peace as "collaborators" with the Israelis who want to squash the Palestinian cause... But the vast (and very silent) majority of Muslims do not agree that Muslims who want peace are traitors--because many of them are for peace.

In fact, many of them are interested in a solution as soon as possible. I was surprised to hear from both Palestinians that we've talked with, that they want to see a SINGLE state solution, preferably an ISRAELI state... I was blown away when I heard this from the mouths of Palestinians. Their explanation of this view is is that the interim government is too corrupt and they'd rather live under the Israeli government, then their own, corrupt government.

This sounds like a happy solution to the conflict, but not so. Israel wants nothing to do with the West Bank. Israel, founded as a Jewish state, does not want to annex the West Bank because there are enough Muslims living in the West Bank that the balance of Jewish to Muslim citizens inside the state of Israel would swing towards the Muslims, who would then constitute the majority in Israel. The Israeli's fear is that if this happens, the populous will vote more Muslims into parliament and the Israelis will go to being a suppressed minority in what was supposed to be their own country.

This is what makes this struggle so difficult. There are so many different eccentricities to every detail of society, that when people that don't live here try to help solve the conflict, there are aspects that get overlooked and there is an upheaval of discontent to each agreement that is made. Of course there is no perfect solution that will make everyone happy, but there is a solution that could make the most people happy, and it's just a matter of achieving that goal.

After Nazareth we headed to Moshav Nahalal (from here out Nahalal). A Moshav is much like a kibbutz, but less communal. At Nahalal, there are 75 families that live in the same area (that has now become a town called Nahalal). The organization of the city is in the shape of an oval, with a center plot of land that has an oval shaped road that goes around it, and each family with an equal plot of land that surrounds the oval. In the center there are all the essential services for the Moshav: post office, supermarket, schools, the dairy, small shops, and the town hall.

Around the outside of the road, every family has their home built next to the road, with their 12.5 acre plot of land extending out behind their homes in a wedge shape; this makes for an incredible overhead view. :)

Moshav Nahalal as seen from the air.

We had the best lunch I have EVER had in my entire life, and it was vegetarian surprisingly. It was a 3 course meal that was served at Nahalal by a man who was generous enough to share his home with us. His wife cooked for us and he told us his story. In short, he's the fifth generation of his family to live in Nahalal (he's in his 60's) and the sixth and seventh generations now live there as well.

Nahalal has a wide variety of different flowers, fruit trees, and wonderful other products of all different varieties. They sell their produce collectively outside of Nahalal all across Israel, whatever one contributes to be sold, they will receive in return after the produce has been sold. It's essentially a capitalist kibbutz.

While in Haifa, we spent most of our time visiting the Baha'i center for the Baha'i religion. A religion that I've found fits all my beliefs, almost exactly. It's a religion that follows the teachings of all the major religions throughout the world. It recognizes all the prophets from Moses to Mohammed, and also recognizes it's own prophets: the Bab, and Baha'u'llah, prophets who heard messages from God saying that humans should recognize the oneness of humanity, the equality of everyone, men, women, all races etc., it recognizes Baha'u'llah's teachings about humanity, and the idea of service to mankind as a central part of religion.

The Baha'is have a SPECTACULAR garden located on Mount Carmel in Haifa, the gardens descend down from the top of the mountain to the Mediterranean Sea. Filled with different varieties of flower, trees, and shrubs, the gardens are a place of peace and reflection for people of all faiths, especially the Baha'is. The Baha'is are a religion of peace and promote the equality of all. There are roughly 6 million Baha'i people world wide. The Baha'i religion started in Iran, but the Baha'is were badly persecuted during the Iranian revolution in 1979 and have since left in great numbers for Africa and South America. Although the gardens were closed due to the rain making the limestone paths incredibly slippery, we were able to get some great pictures of the gardens.

The next day, we spent the day driving up the coast to Rosh HaNikra, the part of the border between Lebanon and Israel that touches the Mediterranean. At this point, there are giant cliffs of chalk that touch the ocean, and for thousands of years, the sea has slowly been eroding the chalk away from the cliffs and has opened large grottoes, or caves, in the side of the mountain. Today the grottoes are a big tourist attraction, that we visited.

After Rosh HaNikra, we drove along the Lebanese border to Kibbutz Gonen, a small kibbutz on the border with Syria... it's located in the 'finger' of Israel, the farthest norther tip of Israel that extends partly into Lebanon and partly into Syria. We spent our night there and awoke the next day to learn more about kibbutz living and troubles on the border with Syria.

Sorry I didn't get a post up sooner, and I'm missing pictures, but the internet access is very spotty to non existence in the kibbutzes. If you would like to see some of the 300 pictures I took in the past 4 days, you can go to my Facebook page to see them:  http://www.facebook.com/danielgerdes2011/photos

Israel, Day 5: Tel Aviv-Jaffa

This has been a great a great day so far. We were allowed to sleep in until 10am today. It was glorious. I feel so rested that after I post this I think I'm going to go out on an adventure in Tel Aviv! :D

The highlight of the day was our discussion at the group meeting this evening. We were talking about the things that we've noticed and have been thinking about since our last group discussion (three days ago) and we got onto the topic of the Palestinian perspective and how we all agree that it has been lost on our trip. We have a WONDERFUL tour guide named Amir. He's an Israeli native who grew up in Jerusalem on a kibbutz. His family helped fight in the war of independence in 1948 and he has been a part of the Labor party ever since he could vote. Although we all love Amir, his perspective is blatantly biased towards the Israeli side of every issue. Although it's great to hear the Israeli's side to every event, we would rather have that side also told with the opposing (or not so opposing) view point from the Palestinians.

There is a nice quality to learning about a topic and you hear about it from more than one (or even two) sides. I feel like we're incredibly heavy on the Israeli side and it makes it extremely difficult to sift through all the information without opposing view points. The other day, we talked with a Palestinian Christian named Ibrihim. He explained to us that many Palestinians don't believe what most of the Arab countries believe, he thinks that there should be a peaceful end to the conflict, and he believes that Israel should be the one and only state that exists on the land.

To many of you, this may seem shocking, "How could a Palestinian want Israel to be the only state that prevails out of the two state conflict that exists today?!" Well it's actually a relatively easy but unrealized answer. Ibrihim is Christian, a very small minority in the Israel and the rest of the Middle East these days. The Christians are all pushing for either an Arab nationalist state or the State of Israel to prevail out of the conflict. Christians know they will be heavily persecuted if Palestine prevails and an Islamic republic is installed, because under an Islamic republic, Islam is the one and only allowable religion. Therefore, if a secular Arab state or a Jewish state is created or kept in power, the Christians will be left largely alone and they will most likely not be affected.

Beautiful view of a mosque which sits roughly 20 feet from the Mediterranean Sea.

The rest of the day today besides discussing the Palestinian side of the conflict was spent touring Tel Aviv and the old city of Jaffa (they are now considered to be the same city). The first site (and only) site we stopped at in Tel Aviv was the site where Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by a religious Jewish zealot. Rabin was the first Prime Minister of Israel to open talks directly with Yasser Arafat. He was willing to make concessions and deal directly with Arafat to create a solid and lasting peace with the Palestinian people. Shortly after his announcement of planned peace talks at the Tel Aviv government square, Rabin was shot in the back three times by a radical religious Jew who was mad at Rabin for even suggesting negotiating territory away with the Palestinians.

Memorial for Yitzhak Rabin.

After we left the site of Rabin's assassination, we headed to the old city of Jaffa, and toured the currently-being-revitalized port and old city district in Jaffa. There is a beautiful contrast of old and new in Jaffa. Many old buildings that have fallen deep into disrepair are brought back from the brink of devastation and given new life by wealthy real estate moguls who want to revitalize the 'tired city of Jaffa'. We stopped at two places in the old city that really stood out for me. We stopped at the shop of a Yemenite Jew who immigrated from Yemen right before WWII. This man, Ben Zion David makes Yemeni jewelry, mainly out of silver, using generations old tools and techniques that have been handed down through his family since the 1700s. After observing some silversmith-ing at work, we moved on to a very special theater. Its name is Please Touch, its a theater company in which all the actors are blind, deaf, or both. This theater was one of the first things in the dilapidated old port district of Jaffa that is now being beautifully renovated. This theater company has captured region wide appraisal for it's incredible contribution to the community, and the world of artwork--where no disabilities can prevent you from creating your own kind of are.

David Ben Zion, the Yemenite silversmith who showed us his craft by creating a piece of jewelry in 10 minutes. It was incredible!

The theater company's review by the Guardian: "It's a test of theater itself, the way good work can communicate across the boundaries of darkness and silence."

That's all I have for this day. Tomorrow we'll be heading to Haifa, the 'working city' in Israel! Stay tuned!

Israel, Day 3: Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Har Gillo (Israeli 'Settlement')

Today was a very interesting day. We spent most of our day in the West Bank city of Bethlehem.

We arrived at the border checkpoint--run by Israelis to keep Israelis out, not to keep Palestinians out-- and the first thing we saw was this sign:

This meant that our main tour guide, Amir, couldn't go with us because he has an Israeli passport; and although Nurith (my professor) was a citizen of Israel, she is now an American citizen with an American passport. If the guards at the gate chose to question her, they could have but because she didn't say anything and they didn't hear her accent, she was able to pass through the checkpoint just fine.

When we arrived in Bethlehem, we met our tour guide from Palestine where she took us to the Church of the Holy Nativity, one of the most well known and holy sites for Christians. We arrived in the Nativity plaza (if anyone has ever seen the Christmas programs from Bethlehem on TV or the internet, this is the place you've seen on TV). My professor told us that the last time she was there, there was a huge Hamas protest in the Nativity plaza right after they were there (there were no such protests while we were there--thankfully we have had a quite uneventful trip so far).

This door is incredibly small. Roughly 3 feet 9 inches. There used to be a door  there where the archway was (you might be able to see it filled in with stone).

This door replaced the old archway which allowed animals to enter the church, but under the rule of the British, the door was changed when the British wanted to disallow animals from entering the church. When you enter the church, you can see the ancient Byzantine floors that were found by the British under their rule, they did research on the age and ancient use tiles and mosaic in the building. There are now pieces of the mosaic floor that can be seen when opening the wooden hatches on the floor.

The church of the nativity is also built over what is believed to be the birth place of Jesus Christ... unlike what many people believe, the inn and stable that Mary and Joseph were supposed to have tried to stay in were actually a cave. We saw the site that is believed to be where Mary gave birth to Jesus, and we also saw where historians believed the manger was located.

The supposed birth place of Jesus, the star is said to show the location of Mary when she gave birth to Jesus.

The supposed location of Jesus' manger is on the right side, where the large slab of marble is.

After we visited the Church of the Nativity, we talked with a Palestinian Christian what he thinks about the conflict and his ideas for the solution. He believed, like many other Palestinians, that there should be a one state solution so that everyone can live in the same place, instead of being a crazy mess.

We then moved onto talk at a house on a settlement in Jerusalem. It just so happens that when we got inside, he told us that the house was his! It was  a total shock, and we didn't know what to do or to ask... we didn't want to offend our tour guide and we didn't want to be seen as unknowing either, so there were long awkward silences pauses,but the time was definitely worth the discussion.

Just behind this group of houses (owned by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchy) is Har Gillo, a Jewish settlement in the West Bank. This is where the house we visited was located.

                                                                                                                                                                                              The next day, we gathered an hour later, after packing and began to leave the city. We first took a short tour of the government hill with a tour around the supreme court and the Knesset (the Israeli Parliament). Then we worked our way down the road to Tel Aviv by learning about the battles that were fought over the road from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv in the war for independence. We stopped at some of the battle grounds to find out about the different struggles and how it was possible for a small Israeli population of 600,000 people (men women, and children) to defeat 6 mighty Arab armies: Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, and Syria.

I'll throw another blog post up tomorrow depending on how much we end up doing tomorrow... we may get a leisure day tomorrow! Thanks again for reading!

Israel, Day 2: Jerusalem

Today was again a very long, but very informational and eye opening day. We started out the day, by going to the Temple Mount, the 'holiest of the holy' in the city of Jerusalem.

For nearly 1300 years, Muslims have been in continuous control of the Temple Mount. After Omar conquered the Romans in the 7th century, the Muslims have had their holy site located at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Although this is a holy site for Muslims, it is a cause for great controversy in the Muslim community with relation to their traditions. Traditionally, Muslims pray with their faces towards Mecca, but when the Islamic Umayyad Dynasty (661-780 AD) took over the area around Jerusalem, they transferred their capitol to Syria, far away from the Muslim holy sites of Mecca and Medina, there was a great outcry from the citizens of Mecca (the location of the Hajj--a compulsory pilgrimage required of all Muslims) that the Holy city was being betrayed because the religious center of Islam was--and according to many Muslims always should be--Mecca.

Having no affect on their outcry to the leaders of the Umayyad Dynasty, the citizens of Mecca barred pilgrimage to the city unless they swore allegiance to the holy city of Mecca. For those who did not swear allegiance to Mecca were still in need of a destination for their pilgrimage. So the religious leaders of the Umayyads decided that Jerusalem could the the alternative destination for the Hajj. Their justification for this is that in the Koran, it says that Mohammed had a dream before he died that he ascended to heaven from the rock atop Mount Moriah in Jerusalem, so the next holiest site behind Mecca and Medina is Jerusalem and Muslims looking for pilgrimage could go there.

This is how the current Muslim control of the Temple Mount came to be. 200-300 years after the Umayyads established Jerusalem as the third holiest site in Islam, the Dome of the Rock was completed and was a prominent Muslim destination that could be seen from all over the area.

The front of the Al-aqsa mosque. We weren't allowed in, as we were  not Muslim, and non-Muslims are not allowed in the Al-aqsa mosque. The justification is that non-Muslims with make the Holy house of Allah will become unholy if people who don't believe in Mohammed the prophet will make it unholy.

The lesser known of the 2 mosques located on the Temple Mount--the Al-aqsa mosque was established long before the Dome of the Rock. Before Islam spread so quickly across the known world, Omar, the third great Muslim religious leader came to Jerusalem to attempt to conquer the place (at that time controlled by Christian Assyrians). Omar rode led his horse into Jerusalem to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where he could speak with the Christian religious leaders. They invited him to pray in their church, but he declined saying that if he prayed there he would have to conquer the church as his own because that was the tradition of his culture. So he asked if he could start his own site of worship in a place that "would be untouched by invaders."

The Dome of the Rock. It can be seen from nearly any ridge in the area, and is one of the most visible sights in Jerusalem because of it's golden dome.

So the Christians told him he could build his mosque on the southwest corner of the Temple Mound. Since the beginning of the 600s the Al-aqsa mosque has stood prominently at the south west corner of the Temple Mound. Several hundred years later the Dome of the Rock was completed and it has overshadowed the Al-aqsa ever since. Non-Muslims are allowed to be on the Temple Mound everyday from 9am-10am and from 2pm-3pm (during hours Muslims are not in prayer.) We visited from 9am to 10am. The security check point before entering the Temple mound is just like airport security, metal detectors, bag scanners, and random pat downs.

We then visited the wailing (also known as the Western) wall, the holiest site on earth for Jews. This large wall located on the west side of the Temple Mound is one of the oldest parts of the city (that is still in tact), dating back the the time of King Herod over 2000 years ago. This wall is sacred to the Jews because it was designated as the part of the Temple Mound that Jews could visit where they would not make the house of God unclean. Entering the Temple Mound--for religious Jews--is seen as sacrilege because it is bringing an unworthy human into the holy place of God, making it unholy. Jews view the western wall as a location to get closer to God, without making his house unholy.

The wailing wall is considered the most holy site for Jews today. It's located at the oldest wall still in tact in Jerusalem, nearly 2100 years old. The wall is crowded like this everyday from sunrise to sunset.

After our visit to the wailing wall, we went to the Jewish Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem. Known to Israelis as Yad Vashem, the site is one of the most visited non-religious sites in Jerusalem. Yad Vashem in Hebrew means tombstone and a person's name. For ancient Jews passing on you name was a monumental thing. Passing on your name meant that your name would live on forever. This practice is common even today. In the Bible, God says that for those who do not live to pass their name on, their name will be given a place to live on forever in the house of the Lord--in ancient times, names of people who passed on without having children or grandchildren would have their name inscribed in the walls of the Temple on the Temple Mound. Yad Vashem is a place where the names of the millions of Jews who died in the Holocaust will have their names live on forever whether or not they had children or grandchildren.

The roof of the holocaust museum at the Israel Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem. The architect chose to make the building very symbolic, as described in the final paragraph. The aerial picture at the bottom shows a thin line that protrudes from the ground... that is this structure. A ten foot tall triangular dome atop the museum. (See description in the last paragraph.)

The most moving experience at the museum is the children's memorial, I have almost no words to describe it besides absolutely moving. When you enter the first room of the children's memorial you see mirrors with pictures of children who died in the holocaust, and as you move along the darkly lit corridor (so dark you can't see and have to hold onto the banister to find your way through) the pictures fade away and new pictures of different children appear. Then you turn the corner into another room. I was overwhelmed with awe when I entered this room. I entered a room roughly 3 stories high that was completely pitch black... except for what appeared to be millions of candles all over the room. One candle for each child. To best describe it: see the video I posted on Facebook of it: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150480992073170

Entrance to the most incredible holocaust memorial I have ever seen. This memorial was absolutely moving.

The last piece I will share today, is the spectacular museum of the Holocaust located at Yad Vashem. Shaped as a large triangular building that goes through one side of the mountain and exits on the other side. The architect made the building symbolic of the Holocaust and the Jewish people. The entrance to the museum, hangs over the cliff, it's called Over the Edge. This part of the museum is dedicated to the diversity of the different national groups that Jews represented before the Holocaust, and it shows their proud nationalistic feelings they had before the Holocaust began. As you move through the museum, the floor plan is a maze with no set direction of how you're supposed to get through... there is no clear path to the end, just as it was for many Jews during the Holocaust. And as you make your way to the end of the long museum building, the floor begins to ascend and you step out onto an observation deck overlooking the city of Jerusalem, where the walls peel off from each other and light pours in, symbolizing the Jews' rise from the dark era of the Holocaust and signifying Israel as the answer to Hitler and all the antisemitic people in the world. I would have put less description of this place and more pictures but no photographs are allowed inside the museum so I'll show you what it looks like from the outside:

The museum is the long piece that pierces right the center of the compound. 'Over the Edge' is located near the center of the picture, and the exit into the light is located near the top left of the picture. The significance of the middle is that it's underground. This symbolizes the way the holocaust was visible to people at the time, but what what under the surface (underground) was unknown to people and people refused to look under the surface to find out what was really happening during the 'Final Solution'.

I know there is a lot of information here, but it makes up for the very short post from yesterday! I hope you enjoy. Tomorrow will be about our first visit to the West Bank. We'll be visiting the city of Bethlehem, the acting capitol of the West Bank, Ramallah, and various sites along the border of the West Bank and Israel.

Israel, Day 1: Jerusalem

My blog will mainly consist of my link to my facebook photo album from my first day in Jerusalem.

We mainly followed the Christian story in Jerusalem today. We followed the Via Dolorosa (the way of agony), the Holy Week for Christians. We saw the Temple Mount former religious center for the Jews and Christians; now ruled by Muslims. We went to some historically significant sites like the Roman excavations and ancient walls which protected the ancient city.

We learned how Jerusalem even became the epicenter of three major monotheistic religions. We were 'reminded' that the Jews were not the ones responsible for the death of Jesus, the Romans were.

I'll have more posts with more information on Jerusalem in the next few days, but as I said, an enormous amount of information can be found on my new Facebook album; located here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150478640878170.362559.576288169&type=1

Airports... Airplanes... and Israeli Security

I started my journey to the Israel on Saturday, January 7^th, 2012. We took off from Minneapolis Saint Paul International at 3:50 pm, and flew to New York City. The flight from MSP to NYC was very nice, and quiet. We even landed about ½ an hour early!

We landed in NYC at 7:00 on Saturday night. We all spread out throughout the airport to look for dinner and a little time to relax. At 8:30, were to meet back up near the ticket gate so that we could start preparing for security and ticketing.

You might think that security for a flight headed to Israel is the same as if you were traveling to any other place abroad, but it’s not. El Al (Israeli Airlines) provides its own security screening for all flights in and out of Israel. So about 8:45, we all got in line to start the security process. To set the scene: the front of the airport at the ticket counters in the airport is nearly empty at this time, except for the area around the El Al ticket counter, where there are roughly 500 people who must go through Israeli security before they get on the plane.

If you have an Israeli passport, you need only go through ‘basic security’. If you have a foreign passport, you are required to go through the ‘foreign security’ line. In the ticket counter area, there were extremely long lines that started at the security check point, which was located about 100 feet from the ticket counter that went far down the ticket counter area. At the security checkpoint there stands 8 Israeli security agents with black music stands, long lists of expected passengers, and handheld scanners for passports.

When it was my turn to go through security, I walked up to one of the agents and handed her my passport. She began by asking questions like: what is your name, where did you come from today, where are you going in Israel, how long are you staying, etc. Then she asked some more obscure questions such as: do you know anyone in Israel? … I paused for a slight moment… I said yes (mistakenly saying I knew someone from Israel, when in fact I know someone from Occupied Palestine). She then asked for the name of the person (Martha Younan). This immediately aroused suspicions. She left me standing at the music stand and walked over to a very large man in all black with sun glasses on (I started to get nervous as this started happening).

She came back and immediately started with more questions. How did you meet her (the National Lutheran Youth Gathering in 2009), how long have you known her (2.5 years), did she know you were coming to Israel or did you tell her (I told her), have we kept in touch since we first met (yes I have, over Facebook), do you know where she lives (Jerusalem). She left abruptly, returning to the large man in all black. She then returned with a barrage of questions. Did you contact her about your visit or did she ask if you were coming to Israel (I contacted her), where did you pack your bags (home), who packed them (me), was anyone with you (no), are you carrying anything from someone else (no), did someone else put anything in your bags (no), are you carrying any weapons, sharp objects, or anything that can be used as a weapon or tool to bring down the aircraft (no), do you know where she lives in Jerusalem (no), do you know her family or friends (no), do you know her address or phone number (no), did you make any plans to meet (no), are you going to be in contact with her while in Israel (I’m not sure)? By this time, I was getting very concerned because the rest of my group had been long gone through security and were waiting past the ticket counter.

The security woman left the stand again, this time I couldn’t see where she went and she was gone for about 10 minutes. Finally, she returned with my passport and said have a nice flight to Israel, sir.

Finally, I caught up with my group and we got through the rest of security to our gate. I thought that security and everything was over when one of the men I had seen behind the 8 security agents came running across the gate area and shouted that everyone needed to move out of the area… We all moved very quickly away from him, when we saw 2 men coming over with poles and ropes to cordon of the area around a backpack that had been left unattended in the gate area.

Just before we were supposed to board the airplane, a man appeared and claimed the bag as his own. Whew, we all thought, now we can finally get on the plane, but that’s when one of the security agents came up to a member of our group and told her that they needed to take her carry-on bags and search them. They said she could remover her passport, money and computer and that they would be taking the rest. The security agent disappeared until about 10 minutes before the plane was to take off. We later discovered that Sarah (the girl whose bags were taken) has family in Iran, so she too was grilled by the security agents and her bags were thoroughly searched.

Now we finally got on the plane and started the 11 hour flight to Tel Aviv. We left the gate at 11:50, and took off at exactly midnight on Sunday. The pilot told us that we flew up the eastern sea board to Newfoundland, east to Denmark, where we turned southeast towards Greece, turning south into the Mediterranean and east towards Israel. The route we took actually saved us time and we landed 40 minutes early at 5:05 pm Israeli time.

The Austrian Alps. Flying over at about 2:30 Israeli time... at least that's what I had marked down.  Who knows I was out of my mind tired! I didn't sleep much on the plane because they served meals at 4 hour intervals, and in between meals for  an hour and a half at a time, the religious Jews moved back and forth from the back of the plane to pray. 2ish hours of sleep, weeeeeeee!

Then it finally hit all of us… we were FINALLY IN ISRAEL! We made our way through customs and found our luggage. We met our tour guide for the trip, Amir, a good friend of my professor and her husband.

We are staying at the Yizhak Rabin Guest House and Youth Hostel in Jerusalem. We are within walking distance of the Israeli Knesset (House of Parliament), The Israeli Museum, The Israeli Supreme Court, several Ministries (Finance, Defense, Foreign Affairs, Immigration Absorption, just to name a few).

A night time view of the new city (Jerusalem) from the accidentally trespassed back courtyard of the Israeli Supreme Court building. :) We wanted to explore and the boundaries are not clearly marked like they are here... Well they are, except we can't read Hebrew (see next photo).

The sign telling Angela, Sarah, and me that the Supreme court is open from 8:30-1:30, and that we probably shouldn't be trespassing on Israeli Governmental property, especially the Supreme Court of Israel. Oopsies.

I’ll be writing a blog post after today’s tour, which will also count as my first blog post for our group’s blog: hamlinetohaifa.blogspot.com. The next post on my blog, and the first post on the group blog will be the same.

Picture of my room at the Yitzhak Rabin Guest House and Youth Hostel.  My bed is on the left, and my roommate Gavin's on the right. Out the window, though you cannot see it, there is a scene of the Israeli Museum on the top of the ridge across the street.

Thanks for reading this everyone, I hope you enjoy!

On the Topic of: Islam

Today's topic was the Muslim religion and where it came from. I'm sure that many of you don't know all that much about the Muslim faith, because the vast majority of the American public have great misconceptions about Muslims and their faith.

The Muslim faith started in the Arabian Peninsula (shown below). Originally inhabited by Bedouin Arabs, the Arabian peninsula largely stayed out of the light of history until the 7th century, when Islam began to rise. Originally, Bedouin Arabs were nomadic people who traveled with their livestock around the rim of the Arabian Peninsula (the center has been dry, extremely hot, arid, desert for millenniums).

The Arabian Peninsula highlighted in pink. Includes today's modern: Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait. Contains vast desert land, and small pockets of lush, humid, green land located near the sea.

There existed only two established cities on the Arabian Peninsula at the time Islam began to rise: Mecca and Medina. According to record, Mecca was a holy site for the polytheistic (multi-god religious) Bedouins. Several centries BCE, there was a sizable comet that landed in Mecca, and the Bedouins kept and worshiped the comet as a sign of the God of the sky. The site still exists today, and is enshrined in the city. It is now a religious site, and is the location of the great pilgrimage required of all Muslims at least once in their lifetime.

The Mecca holy site. Located in the upper Colosseum is the Kaaba, where the ancient meteorite is located. 

The Kaaba

In 570 CE (common era), Mohammed--the Islamic prophet--was born in the city of Mecca. In 598, Mohammed was visited by the angel Gabriel and told to go to the desert and listen for God's commands. For one month, Mohammed remained in the desert where he heard directly the word of God. He recited aloud the word of God. Reciting the word of God repeatedly for one month, Mohammed returned to Mecca to spread the word of God and proclaim his word to the people there.

After many years, in 622, Mohammed was not accepted by the polytheistic Bedouins and he made the trip to Medina. Here, Mohammed was happily accepted by the population. He was revered as a great prophet. While in Medina, he became a great military and political leader. In 624, Mohammed led his army back to Mecca, where he easily seiged the city. The citizens were converted to Islam and soon were willing followers of the invading Muslims.

Mohammed died shortly after his reign as 'the final prophet' began, in 632. There was great controversy after his death. Mohammed never specified a substitute or replacement leader before his abrupt death. This is where the great Muslim divide is based. Sunna (Sunni) Muslims believe that Mohammed's successor should be chosen and revealed by God. Sunni leaders are known as Caliphs, and are not related to Mohammed. Abu Bakr was the first of the Caliphs.

Shi'a Muslims believe that the successor to Mohammed should be someone of his family. Originally Ali, Mohammed's son in law was approved as the successor. Ali was assassinated soon after he took his reign because Sunnis believed the rightful successor would be chosen by God. Shi'a Muslim leaders are known as Imams. The Shi'a leader of Iran is known as the Ayatollah.

The largest sect of Islam is Sunni Muslims, followed by Shi'a Muslims, and Sufi Muslims (ultra conservative, nomadic, Muslim sect). All Islamic republics that exist today are Sunni Muslim republics with the exception of Iran, which is a Shi'a Muslim republic.

The Holy Koran

There are many common misconceptions about Muslims that we have addressed in class, so as not to offend Muslims over seas and to set the record straight:

1. Islam is a religion of peace. Although many people are of the belief that all Muslims follow jihadist beliefs, that's not true. Nearly 92% of Muslims do not follow extremist beliefs about jihad, which means 'war against the infidels'. According to many Imams and Caliphs, jihad is meant to be interpreted as the internal struggle to be a better Muslim; referring to those who struggle with fighting temptations and following Islamic law.
2. Shari'ah law is not used all across the Muslim world. Much like the Jewish Bible, the Koran lays out hundreds of laws for Muslims to follow. The Koran, much like the Torah, has many outdated and barbaric laws that were used when the Koran was written. Although some of the laws are in use in the Middle East, for the vast majority of the middle east, Shari'ah law is only used in tribal regions.
3. Arabs are not the same as Muslims. Muslims follow the Islamic faith. Arabs are descendants of peoples from the Arabian peninsula. There exist numerous different kinds of Arabs in the middle east. Muslim Arabs, Christian Arabs, Jewish Arabs, Persian Arabs, Turkish Arabs, Egyptian Arabs, Palestinian Arabs, etc.
4. Many Muslims denounce the violence used by radical Muslims. Nearly 99% of Muslims across the world practice harmless, peaceful, private forms of Islam. It's those who use radical and extreme violence that attract attention and steal spotlight in the news, giving the West the perception that Muslims are all "terrorists" or "extremists".

I've found it fascinating to learn more about the Muslim faith, and I'm excited to see it's practice in Israel! We'll be visiting the Temple Mount, the location of the the Dome of the Rock, the third most holy site for Muslims in the world. It's said that the Temple Mount is the site where Mohammed dreamed of his assent to heaven shortly before his death. Although Christians and Jews are not allowed into the Dome of the Rock, they are allowed to get close to observe the Temple Mount. Only Muslims are allowed to the top of the Temple Mount and inside the Dome of the Rock.

That's all I've got for today, I hope to put my final post after class tomorrow. We'll be talking about the peace negotiations that started in 1991, 1993, and 2000, and I'm sure I'll have a lot to post about!