Features

View over the city from the hotel

Body armour – check!
Sun cream – check!
Surface to air missiles – check
Life insurance – check!

Okay, stop, stop!  I’ve just exaggerated the items I needed to get past security enter to Palestine and Israel.

In front of the Golden Dome in Jerusalem

Passport security

My three friends and I tried entering Palestine via Jordan’s Allenby Bridge crossing. We felt that as our passports had an impressive array of visa stamps (including the Syrian ‘axis of evil’) we thought this route would mean less questioning than at Ben Gurion Airport. We had five hours of waiting and questioning by the authorities on why we were visiting the region.

I also learnt that with few exceptions, Israeli passport holders often cannot enter the Palestinian territories, and vice versa; Syrian and Lebanese are unable to travel to Israel or Palestine; citizens of either, or even those who may have passed through those areas, can be denied access to Syria and Lebanon on the grounds of security.  

The Golden Dome - Jerusalem

The beautiful city of Jerusalem

And so eventually this became our entry into the beautiful city of Jerusalem also known as Al-Quds. (The Holy) The city is generally divided into two areas; east Jerusalem is where mostly Arab Christian and Muslims reside and west Jerusalem is where the Jews live. 

Ones eyes are immediately drawn to the golden shimmering of the Dome of the Rock which sits at the heart of the entire skyline of the city, adorned and complemented by dazzling blue tiling citing “Surah Ya Sin” Quraanic verse. 

I can only reveal a fraction of the personal joy on seeing the dome as it captured so many emotions – both religious and political – and everyday felt my eyes greedily absorbing the beauty of this enduring, timeless building often at the heart of everyone’s battles.

Church of Nativity in Bethlehem

Holy grounds

The Noble Sanctuary (Haram al Sharif) site comprises 35 acres of fountains, domes and buildings containing the Golden Dome of the Rock (from where Prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven) and Al Aqsa Mosque. For Muslims it is the 3rd most revered mosque in the world which was constructed to commemorate the Prophets Night Journey (Miraa’j) to Heaven.

The complex intertwining of faith and politics is marked by the fact that the Haram’s western wall borders on the holiest of places to Jews also known as the Biblical Wailing Wall (Al-Buraq) where the ruined Holy Temple of Solomon lies. The site was only controlled by the Jews in 1967 following the Six Day War and from where Ariel Sharon (ex-PM) triggered the 2nd Intifada in 2000 after his provocative visit to the Dome complex.

Entry rules

Yet entering the Al-Aqsa has its complexities.  Imagine entering one of the doors of this massive enclosed complex with two armed Israeli soldiers asking you to show some identity. 

Standing next to the wailing wall in Jerusalem

As I found out, my ‘foreign’ eye established different entry rules for different nationalities - for example, a foreigner who is a Muslim must show their passport as an identity pass, and perhaps recite from the Quran to show that they are Muslim.  A foreigner who is not Muslim cannot enter inside the Dome or Al-Aqsa mosques but can visit the grounds at assigned, fixed times during the week. 

On reflection

On reflection, my trip to Palestine was not what I expected it to be, and yet I cannot tell you how I expected it to be because as I discovered, there are many visible and invisible tales in this city depending on which voice you listen to, and what you  may choose to see. 

In effect this country is filled with endless contradictions, where inevitably you carry your own assumptions to try to make some sense of your surroundings without appearing to be dogmatically one sided.

Palestine has many quirks which do not fit into the simple category of good and bad which serve only to simplify what is clearly a complex puzzle. 

Handala wall of resistance Hebron

Palestinian life

Near the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, (Tomb of the Patriarchs for Jews) where Abraham, Jacob, Sarah, Adam and Eve are some of the people buried, we saw a number of illegal Israeli settlements above the hilltops from where the Palestinians live. 

In the marketplace, Palestinian traders pointed out to us the wire netting they need to keep over their shops as some of these settlers are known to thrown down their rubbish down at them.  Equally, we saw properties in the Muslim part of Hebron, where mansions valued at $2mn were being built which punctured my image of the West Bank being filled only with refugee camps. 

Looking out over Jerusalem

A country not forgotten

The best advice I was given by an old Israeli man was that do not be afraid of coming to visit your religious places and seeing what is happening with your own eyes.    He said that local people did not want money or charity, but that they wanted people to come and visit them to show that the world had not forgotten. 

In amongst the sorrowful political picture that is Jerusalem, it is true to say that I met some of the most welcoming and open hearted people.

Zubeda Limbada