Day 6–Trek into the West Bank

Our day got off to an early start as we had much traveling to do. Before we departed, however, Pastor Hanna wanted to give us a tour of Eilabun, our home for the previous 4 days—but which mostly consisted of sleeping, not exploring. A quaint village of about 5,000 people, the population is made up mostly of Arabs with about 70% being Christians and 30% being Muslims. It sits on the side of a mountain and even though it is small in population, it feels more urban because of the high-density layout. Houses sit right next to each other with many families having a courtyard-style plot where multiple family members share a driveway. You can easily walk anywhere in town you need to go and once you reach the town limits, there are very few houses or buildings. Unlike towns here in the United States which sprawl outward at an ever-increasing range, most Israeli villages are high density and highly space efficient.

We began our tour by going to the old village center of Eilabun. There are buildings and walls there which date back hundreds of years. The streets are narrow and the hodgepodge of buildings forms an intricate maze. During the 1948 war, the town of Eilabun was one of the Arab villages targeted by the Israeli army. The town of about 800, at that time, gathered together in the courtyard of the old Catholic Church in town for a village meeting. Pastor Hanna took us to this courtyard and recounted the story through the eyes of his father, who was a young man at the time. They met there, as they knew their town was about to be overrun by military forces coming through and they would soon be forced to flee to Jordan. The courtyard with its brick floor still sits outside the church with a locked gate, quietly testifying to the people who met that morning to discuss their town’s future.

Sadly, before the town fled, they suffered a complex tragedy. The conflict of 1948 was created by a vacuum of power and government left in Palestine after the British government abruptly removed itself from controlling and governing the area. Thus, you had Arab and Jewish militias fighting to control the former British Palestinian Mandate (the title of the pre State of Israel government). The local Arab militia, fighting the Israeli forces trying to establish the state of Israel, had killed two Israeli soldiers, beheaded them, and then played soccer with their heads. Somehow through communications with the Jewish militia, the Arab militia blamed this act on the villagers of Eilabun. To compound that, the Arab militia then decided to give over control of the town to the Jewish militia and evacuate their troops. 

On the morning of the handover of the town, the village learned that they were being blamed for the executions of the two Jewish soldiers. Upon entering the town, the Jewish militia took 14 young men, in a town of only about 800 total people, and shot them. The deaths of these young men and the complex tragedy surrounding it are commemorated on a plaque that sits outside the village cemetery in the old city. After hearing this story from Pastor Hanna and seeing the courtyard where the town met and some lost their lives, we walked over to the cemetery to see the memorial to the 14 young men who lost their lives that day, in what was called the Eilabun massacre. (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eilabun_massacre) 

Following the 1948 war, Eilabun was one of the few towns where Arabs were allowed to return after being expelled, partly due to the fact that the village priest, at the same Catholic Church where the courtyard meeting took place, spoke French and tenaciously corresponded with United Nations officials, Papal officials, and others to lobby for the return of his parishioners and fellow villagers to the town. Pastor Hanna’s father was in the courtyard that day when the 14 villagers were killed and the whole town had to flee. He was able to return and now his son and grandchildren still live in the town.

Following our tour of the old village within Eilabun, Pastor Hanna took us outside the town proper to visit a hill that looks over the village. It is upon this hill that Pastor Hanna, through an inheritance from his father, owns two olive tree groves. We explored the beautiful location, looked at the olive trees (some surely at least a thousand years old), and chatted with Pastor Hanna and his wife Lina some more. They use this area for cookouts in the evenings, prayer meetings for the village, and more. It is a quaint spot on the side of the hill with a full view of the village.

Hanna and Lina crafted this table out of naturally occurring rocks in their olive grove.

Upon returning to the apartment, we were greeted by numerous friends we had met throughout the week to wish us farewell. After packing up, drinking some Arabic coffee, and chatting for just a bit, we said a fond goodbye to all our new friends and boarded the car for the next leg of our journey—into the West Bank.

After 5 days of Awesome Matt Nance guiding us, we would now part ways as he headed to England for PhD studies while our journey in Israel continued. Our guide along the way through the West Bank would be Madj, another member of the Christian HolyLand Foundation team who has worked in youth ministry and digital media for the local churches. A young, passionate, and skilled person, Madj speaks excellent English (almost like a native speaker), having gone to college in the United States, and is training to be an official licensed tour guide in the state of Israel. We coasted down the highway in his Buick, sadly having to let him know that Buick sedans are no longer produced.

Our first stop of the day was Beit She ’an, a remarkably well-preserved archaeological site of one of the oldest cities in Israel, about 5 km from the Israeli/Jordanian border. It's the site of layers of Egyptian, Canaanite, Israeli, and Roman occupations and their ruins. (In the Old Testament, the bodies of King Saul and his sons were displayed on the city walls, and King David later conquered the city.) We took a quick tour, taking particular interest in the public bathhouse as all of us are known to enjoy spas. We then grabbed a quick lunch of shawarma from a local eatery and headed for the West Bank, passing over the Jordan River a few times without noticing.

The theater at Beit She’an

An ancient hot tub. The floor of the bathhouse was laid atop these pillars,
and then hot air was piped in underneath to heat water.

Along the road, Matt Shears asked Madj, “So when is the checkpoint, when does it change over? Did we pass it already?” To which Madj said, “No. You will definitely realize it once we are there.” A few minutes later we saw the checkpoint in the distance, a large tollbooth-like configuration crossing the highway. There were multiple Israeli Defense Forces soldiers standing about with automatic rifles and more. We had to slow down as we got close, but did not have to stop. Madj said going in is mostly easy but coming out is the hard part. 

As we crossed over into the West Bank, one item we immediately noticed was the downgrade in infrastructure. The Israeli roads we had ridden on for days were pristine, new, and flat. The West Bank roads were not. As we drove through the Jordan Valley, we also began to see the drastic change in housing and villages in the West Bank. Interestingly, the West Bank border with Jordan is controlled by and patrolled by Israel, not the Palestinian Authority. It runs along the Jordan River, which runs alongside the highway we rode on. The border incorporates a high barbed-wire fence, trenches, desert mine fields, and more. As we drove through the West Bank, the complexity of this part of the world became more obvious and profound to all of us.

The traditional baptism site of Jesus lies in a small crook of the Jordan River. We pulled off the road, down a dirt road to a large parking lot and structure that now marks the location. As we walked down the steps to the Jordan River, we were struck at just how narrow the Jordan River is, measuring in at maybe 15 feet wide at this spot. Across the river lies the country of Jordan that also has a facility set up to commemorate the traditional spot of Jesus’s baptism. On their side stood a serious-looking soldier with a large automatic weapon, guarding the border. Yet another reminder of the complexity of this land and the religious, political, geographic, and social dynamics constantly intermingling at every turn. 

We all took the opportunity to dip our foot in the Jordan. While doing so, we were joined on the other side of the river by a Jordanian family and their priest who had come to baptize their two sons. It must have been an Eastern Orthodox family, as they practice both immersion and infant/child baptism. The baby of course did not enjoy being dunked three times (another historic practice of the Orthodox Church) but it was a special moment for both the family and those who had the blessing of being witnesses to the event. Afterwards, we jumped in the car and headed back down the road.

The next stop of the day proved to be our true West Bank experience—a trip to the oldest city in the world, Jericho. Situated almost in the middle of the West Bank, this city of about 18,000 has had some form of human settlement for at least 9000 years. Having seen many human civilizations come and go, the residents of Jericho now sit within Palestine. Following the 1993 Oslo Accords, Israel and the Palestinian Authority agreed to three subsections of land in the West Bank: Area A being controlled fully by the Palestinian Authority, Area B having split control by the Palestinian Authority and Israel, and then Area C being under the control of Israel. Jericho rests in Area A and a large sign on the outside of town says “No Israelis Allowed in This Area.” Driving into the city, we were struck by the poverty of the city and the remnants of the volatile conflict that consumes this part of the world: burnt tires on the sides of the highways, bullet holes in buildings, rocks strewn about from being thrown. 

The night before, just a few hours before we arrived, violence had struck the city, like it had many times before. A special unit of the Israeli Defense Forces had raided a building to arrest two people, and in the process had shot two bystanders. This being Area A and the raid occurring in a refugee camp added to the tenuous situation. What fascinated us was that when we googled the event we found two very different news stories about them. One story, published in Israel, called the two men arrested "militants" and mentioned very few other details. The other story, published in Palestine, emphasized that the two bystanders were children and said that the two men were abducted. Just one further example of how every single day adds to the complexity of this land. As we read the name of the part of Jericho the raid had occurred in hours before, we looked up to find ourselves driving right past that community. Eerie.

As the oldest city in the world, we expected to see the oldest thing we have ever seen, which we did. The Jericho ruins sit on a hill on the outskirts of town. Run by the Palestinian Authority, a government lacking substantial tax revenues, we discovered how investment does matter, even with historical sites. The signage for the site was somewhat lacking and we found the wooden overlook to be a bit precarious, certainly due to lack of upkeep. While we were glad to have stopped to see this site, it proved to be a miserable experience, due to the heavy heat and direct sunlight beaming down on us the entire time, bouncing off sand and limestone directly back at us. At one point, due to confusion about where to walk and where not to walk, we found ourselves on the side of the 8,000-year-old ruins walking along a 6-inch path that overlooked a 50-foot drop straight to the ground. After surviving that path, although Matt Shears did almost take an unfortunate tumble, we came around the side of the ruins to realize, unbeknownst to us, we had entered into a NO-TRESPASSING zone. After a few pictures of the oldest pieces of human work any of us had ever seen, including Madj our guide, we made our way back down and quickly looked for some water and a place to rest. Despite the description above, we did indeed enjoy our visit and learned upon returning to the USA that the Jericho ruins had just been named as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We got back into the car and headed towards the Dead Sea. This day proved to be a day of extremes--first we visited the oldest city in the world and then immediately drove to the lowest point in the world. It had been a particular goal of all of us to float in the Dead Sea on our trip. As mentioned above, this is the lowest point in the world and a site of particular wonder. 

We arrived at the site closest to us to enter into the Dead Sea coast; there are only a select number of access points to the Dead Sea. This location, marketed as a Dead Sea "fun beach" was perhaps the most touristy stop of our whole trip. The site featured the "Lowest Bar in the World," a snack shop, beach chairs for rent, and an overall vibe similar to a tiny Myrtle Beach. There were hundreds of people on this small strip of beach, music blaring, drinks everywhere, and a general party atmosphere. While there, we were struck by the coastline of the Dead Sea, which demonstrated a huge shrinking over the last number of years--we learned later that the Dead Sea shrinks by 1 meter each year. This is due largely to one company that controls the Dead Sea and has harmful environmental practices that severely drain the water. The decline in the coastline was obvious to the naked eye.

We heard that one should be prepared for salt to get in every nook and cranny of your body, so be sure to keep any open wounds (even the smallest of them, say a hangnail on your hand) out of the water or bandaged up. As you walked down to the coast, there was a large billboard with 10 RULES FOR THE DEAD SEA, which included no drinking the water [Carol: or TASTING, Matt...], no diving, and more. 

Lauren, Carol, and Matt made our way into the Dead Sea and discovered quickly that we had never experienced anything like it. The water is 100 times more salty than the ocean and the buoyancy is remarkable. You can simply lay back and float seamlessly in the water with no issue. The water was exceptionally warm, like a hot tub, but still okay to swim/float in. We took a few pictures, appreciated the moment, but then decided that a short float was enough for everyone. A remarkable experience, one we can now say we have done, but not one we had any desire to prolong for too much time. 

We exited the Dead Sea, showered off in the public showers there, and then headed back to the car. Our day had been jam-packed up to this point and it was approaching dinner time. Madj drove us the short way from there to Jerusalem and dropped us off at the National Hotel in East Jerusalem. Madj then headed back to Galilee to reunite with his family. We were very grateful for his work guiding us and driving us today.

A camel waits to be ridden by tourists at a gas station outside of Jericho.

Cooling off with some fresh pomegranate and orange juice.
[Carol: Lauren and I bought some camel-leather (we think...) souvenirs at this spot.]

The National Hotel rests on the Palestinian side (East Jerusalem) of the city. It is primarily a hotel for Muslim pilgrims coming to see the holy sites. (We could barely find a corkscrew in the whole hotel, and then Carol promptly broke it! Oops!) It is very clean, hospitable, and affordable. We settled into our room, a very nice junior suite that overlooked the city street below, and then headed to the hotel restaurant for dinner. The food was good, service delightful, and then the best part was the good night's rest we received after settling in for the evening. All of us were tired from the busy day we had just had and were excited to get some sleep and wake up for another adventure. Zzzzz...

Dinner at the National Hotel.