In the afternoon of our very full first day in Jerusalem, we hopped on the bus for a little drive to Bethlehem. It doesn't look that far--it's only four or five miles--but it involves a border crossing of sorts to go from Jerusalem into the Palestinian West Bank region. It took at least an hour.
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| Map from here |
It was a shock to see that a wall has been built around the West Bank. We Americans talk a lot about the Berlin Wall and the wall between the United States and Mexico, but I had never heard of this wall in Israel. It is 26 feet high, compared to the 12-foot-tall Berlin Wall, and four times as long. There are 272 finished miles, 36 miles under construction, and 132 additional miles planned. Our guide Inan, an Israeli Jew, acknowledged the controversial nature of the wall, but said it has drastically reduced Palestinian terrorism.
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| Photo from here |
Most Jews are not allowed access to the West Bank via the checkpoint we passed through, but tour guides are given special privileges, and so Inan came with us. He was not, however, allowed to act as our tour guide in Bethlehem. Instead, we had a rather hyper Palestinian guide who met us in the bus station.
The clothing styles in the shops in the station told us we were in an Arab area:
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| (Pardon the poor quality of this photo. I was trying to be inconspicuous.) |
KFC is big all over Israel and Egypt, no matter the religion or culture:
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| KFC in the bus station |
Muslims believe in and respect Jesus as one of God's greatest earthly messengers. They also believe in the virgin birth, and they actively promote the birthplace of Jesus, welcoming tourists while at the same time promoting their own Palestinian state:
