The Holy Cities of Israel and the Palestinian Territories

We took 3 short tours: one around old Jerusalem with a conservative Jewish guide, one around Nazareth with a Christian guide, and one around Bethlehem in the West Bank with a Palestinian Muslim.  The result was three very different viewpoints on pretty much the same topics.  I think you’d be hard pressed to find another area with so much to dispute about; be it history, land, or religion.  We knew this coming here, and hearing so many different stories from even just secular travelers we were looking forward to forming our own opinions.

We started our time in Jerusalem, arguably the holiest city on Earth.  According to the Jews, the foundation stone of the world is at the Temple Mount, an open plaza on the Biblical Mt Moriah.  Abraham also offered his son Isaac to God here, and it is where of the ‘Holy of Holies’ lies.  The Muslims also find the Temple Mount very sacred as it is where Mohammed ascended to heaven to be with Allah (this spot now covered by the gold-plated Dome of the Rock, pictured above and Jerusalem’s most iconic building).  After Mecca and Medina this city is the 3^rd holiest in Islam.  Just a few minutes’ walk away from the Temple Mount you will find the Christian quarter of the old city where the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is.  Christians around the world believe this is where Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected.  Can you imagine the religious fervour brought about by these few sites?

To the Jews the Western Wall (or wailing wall, named because the Jews used to cry here as this was all that was left of their scared temple that was destroyed by the Ottomans) is their holiest spot to come to pray.  Many leave wishes in the wall on slips of paper as they supposedly have a higher chance of being answered.  Soldiers in military garb, civilians in jeans and T’s, and orthodox Jews all dressed in black with matching hats and curly hair continually line the wall, facing it in prayer. 

At the Church of the Holy Sepulchre you see Christians crying, overwhelmed by the supposed site of the crucifixion.  Just outside Jerusalem is Bethlehem, which, as we all know from our Christmas carols is where Jesus was born.  Here at the Church of Nativity a star marks the spot of Christ’s birth in a manger.  As we descended the stairs to the spot a bunch of Christian pilgrims around us broke into holy song.  They all proceeded to prostrate themselves and continually kiss this star while another guy in their group was reading the bible very monotonously in a trance like state.  I actually started to feel uncomfortable, as I was unable to make up my mind as to if this scene was beautiful or a little scary.  Behind these guys there were what seemed to be a group of new age hippies, dreads and all, meditating like they were Buddhists (with the legs crossed, soles facing up, and hands gently resting on knees with fingers pointing up) trying to soak in the religious energy.

I’m sure if we could have entered the Muslim holy sites we would have also witnessed something similar, with worshippers really being overwhelmed by the religious significance of where they were.

Being non-religious myself, I couldn’t get into the heavy atmosphere surrounding me.  The thing I found by far the most moving in this city was the ‘security wall’ built around it.  I won’t get into the politics of the situation, but basically a large wall was built to separate the West Bank where the Palestinians live and Jerusalem.  In the West Bank there are many Palestinian refugee camps as well as new Jewish (and hotly contested) settlements.  Seeing a new wall built in this day and age was extremely powerful and unfortunately very sad.  You’d think that at this point of human development we’d be building bridges, and that walls would be a thing of the past.  We were able to have a conversation with a headmaster of an elementary school we met in a square, and it really was quite sobering to hear what little hope he had for himself, his students, or Palestine. 

As you walk around the old city of Jerusalem you’ll be passed by devout Muslims rushing to the Al-Aqsa mosque after their call to prayer.  You’ll walk beside Christians following the path Jesus walked to his crucifixion, carrying heavy crosses on their back as well as they try to emulate the experience.  And you’ll see Jews standing and rocking back and forth as they face the Western Wall praying to God, waiting for their Messiah.  You take this in and you realize why this small city grabs so many of the world’s headlines.  Even though you hear all the stories on the news as to why there’s conflict, you need to be here to really witness everything yourself to gain your own perspective.  Don’t just buy the media’s version of events, as the exact same story can be reported as something completely different by Fox News, CNN, Al Jazeera News and CCTV.  Come here and talk to people of all different faiths (including atheism), all different races, and all different backgrounds, including other worldly travelers.  You’ll be drawn into the conversation that encompasses war, religion, politics, and history.  Though the discussions can be hotly contested and turbulent, in the end you’ll be happy you were a participant, even if you were just a listener.