Points of reference

Back at the convent everyone is eating.
Background that might throw some light on things.
http://www.btselem.org

http://www.breakingthesilence.org.il

Definition of extra judicial punishment:
Punishment by the state or some other official authority without the permission of the court or legal authority.

To Ramallah and the tomb of Yasser Arafat

Have exhausted my camera battery by taking so many photos. We pass a sign on the road to Ramallah saying that it is forbidden for Israeli citizens to enter: there is danger to life.
Have nothing to show from Muqata, Yasser Arafat's compound where he was under siege during the Israeli occupation of Ramallah in the Second Intifada. (On the way we pass shops with their contents spilling on to the pavemenets - huge inflatable toys, plastic slides, sofas....)
I wish I had been able to take a picture of the ragged flags of the nations that recognised Palestine - which hang on flagpoles on semi-wasteland nearby.
Tests are going on to determine the cause of Arafat's death in Paris. Initial results indicate he was poisoned, says Yamen. The room where he spent his last days on the compound is being preserved as a museum. It will open soon. He has seen it: you have to have connections to go in at the moment, he says.
There are two wreaths against the grave, one of stiff orange gerbera, the other white flowers covered in cellophane speckled with hearts, which I thought at first were drops of blood.
We go into Ramallah, a lively city. We have sweet corn from a street stand and icecream. I have pineapple and Arabic gum: it somehow made sense at the time.
The traffic back to Jerusalem is terrible: it's Saturday night and people are returning from shopping trip in Ramallah. Yamen goes into a supermarket to buy cans of coffee for him and the driver: It is a long drive back to Bethlehem. He has so much energy: after a nine-hour day. He says he could do another tour. Tell other people about this, he says. His children go to a Christian school: he is Muslim. I say I am impressed by his Biblical knowledge - of Rachel and her tomb, of Christ tempted in the desert, of Jericho. Of course, he says.
We leave both the driver and Yamen at Qalandia checkpoint and cross on foot. This is a grim place. It feels like a market for animals - it has herding style metal runways and the kind of turnstiles you have in prisons. The line is long but people are let through in groups so the wait is not more than 20 minutes or so. Young-looking and sullen Israel soldiers check passports.
The bus ticket back to Damascus Gate costs six shekels. I sit next to a German woman who is a surgeon, specialising in hand surgery. She and her boyfriend have spent a week in Israel. She looks slightly bruised. Would you come back? she says.
A long day and one that will take time to understand. Perhaps a day beyond understanding.
Arrive, very tired, at the convent and have a room with a view the like of which is surely rarely seen. From the terrace outside a panoramic view of Jerusalem - from the Mount of Olives to the Temple Mount and the jumble of buildings, holy and otherwise, around the Holy Sepulchre.

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A refugee camp by Bethlehem

There is a possible Daily Mail reader in the group. Why aren't the refugees living in tents? Why don't they just leave and go and live in houses? What are refugees?
The road to the camp goes right down beside a multi-star hotel (hotels are cheaper in Bethlehem than Jerusalem. It's easier to get a room now - not surprising in view of the checkpoints.
Aida Refugee Camp has been here since 1948 - set up by the UN Relief and Works Agency. There are 18 refugee camps on the West Bank - 6,000 people live in this one. In 1948, people were given designated areas to be housed - and moved away from their villages around Jerusalem. They came here. Over the decades houses have been built in makeshift fashion.

It is right up against the security wall. Our guide calls it the separation wall.
This is a 'five star' refugee camp, he says. Here 'refugees' mean displaced people. The Israelis say they can leave at any time. The refugees say they can never leave. When they left their homes they brought their keys with them: they believe they will return. They hold the keys to claim their return. Another symbol or amulet.
There is a gateway with a key above it.

Water here is a problem as in the whole of Palestine: there is often no water. The pumps are turned on sporadically. Water is collected and stored in tanks on the rooftops.
























The UN school where there were shootings in the second intifada. Yamen points to the bullet holes.
There are many bullet holes. There are also paintings and posters of Palestinian activists - most of these in prison, he says.
The guide talks about Israeli snipers, children building fires by the wall, children in prison.
It was entirely uplifting to visit a Refugee Centre: this seemed a peaceful place. From the rooftop you could see the cemetery, some burial places left in an unfinished state so that the bodies could be taken 'home'' whenever that might be possible.

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From the hills - thence cometh conflict

We drive back from Bethlehem, up towards Jerusalem, past Jewish settlements on hilltops. These settlements command the valleys from where Bedouin villagers have been moved. We see the Bedouins - they are preparing for winter.

Who funds the new settlements? Why? The guide points out a couple of caravans/sheds on a hill. This is the first outpost, he says. Building will follow soon. We pass slopes covered with the stumps of olive trees: these were cut down by Israelis, he said, as part of the settlement process. There is constant tension between Bedouins and settlers. 

My only point of reference at the moment is an (excellent) Lonely Planet Guide.

"Some 296,700 Israeli settlers currently live in more than 100 Jewish settlements in the West Bank....There are a variety of reasons cited by settlers for their choice to live on the West Bank, most commonly, cheaper housing prices than in Israel and, among the religious, the fulfilment of biblical prophecy and an extension of the will of God.
Under most interpretations of international law, which forbids the transfer of civilians to land under military occupation, all Israeli settlements on the West Bank are illegal."

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On the trail of the Crusaders and down steps to the manger

The door into the Church of the Nativity is low, built so deliberately by the Crusaders.

Our guide asks the guard to let us to the front of the queue - from the other direction - down steps into heat and a marble slab where Jesus was born and opposite the manger. A confusing bustle: emotion and swinging lights.
Lunch on Nativity Square - a walk through the town.

Then down the road to another Banksy mural on the side of a garage on the outskirts of Bethlehem, right by a car wash. Serious art.All interventions seem to touch something visceral: attachment to place and religious passion.

We stop at a crossroads for coffee. The Bedouin coffee seller is dressed pretty sharply and has a belt with a mother of pearl studded buckle, which I fail to capture.

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And so into Palestine

Day started outside the leafy garden of the YMCA on King David Street, a rather smart part of Jerusalem. Could not have done anything today without the help of a guide, Yamen Elabad, pictured later.
I wanted to see Bethlehem and the security wall built by the Israelis as a barrier to prevent infiltration by Palestinian extremists. I had edited reports about this when I worked for Christian Aid: it was central to much work by NGOs in the area. I'd seen photos - but still was not prepared. Why did Christians come to Bethlehem and not take time to see the barrier and understand its effect on Palestinians? asked Yamen. Wasn't this part of Christian faith? Indeed. Much to take in.

The grey Israeli side: it's quiet because it's a Saturday. No one from the West Bank is travelling to Jerusalem to work. It would be very crowded it they were. Normally people leave their cars on the Palestinian side and walk through. There are pictures of the barred walkways crammed with people. We are the only travellers there today.

Very hot on the other side. Graffiti. The wall is made of huge slabs of concrete. How did the Israelis build this? Trucked in the slabs and erected swiftly - to prevent Palestinian suicide bombers. It makes it difficult (and in some cases impossible) for West Bank Palestinian families to visit Israel.
Views of a Jewish settlement on the hills - Gilo.
A house looped around by the wall which scoops the Tomb of Rachel into Israeli-held territory.
Banksy has been here.
Postcards in this shop where there is also a crib with a wall.
We are in Bethlehem.
There are three zones in the West Bank: Israeli and Palestinian soldiers at different points along the streets.
Area A: about 17 per cent, under Palestinian control. This includes Ramallah, which we are to visit later, and Bethlehem
Area B: about 24 per cent, under Palestinian civial control but Israeli military control.
Area C: sbout 59 percent, under full Isareli control.
Nativity Street. Religion at the heart of everything.

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