Friday, June 15, 2012

Hebron and the Tomb of the Patriarchs

        On Sunday, I took half a day off work and went to Hebron with Becky, Anna, Greg, and Carly.  Our guide was a Palestinian member of the LDS Church, a part of the Bethlehem group (they have a little church and an LDS group in Bethlehem, not big enough to be even a branch). 

Hebron is a city about an hour south of Jerusalem, and is a part of the West Bank.  The West Bank is a huge chunk of Israel, almost all of east Israel to the Jordanian border, and is officially considered “Occupied Palestinian Territory” but is an area of land that is highly disputed with a lot of political turmoil.  It composed of mostly Palestinians, 80% of the population, but in the last 40 years, Zionist Jews moved in and created “settlements”, little communities trying to claim the land as part of a Jewish Israel.  As a result, there has historically been a lot of tension and violence in the West Bank. 
Also, the Israelis have been building a wall around the West Bank called the “Separation Wall”, in theory to protect the rest of Israel from attacks coming from the West Bank.  To cross from the West Bank to Israel is inconvenient for non-threatening American tourists, and nearly impossible for West Bank Palestinians, and it was sobering to cross over to the West Bank and see the visible tension.

            Carly drove us to the Separation Wall between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, we parked at the wall and walked through security to enter the West Bank. We walked about 15 minutes, met up with Mohammed our Palestinian friend and tour guide, and took a van taxi to Hebron. 

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            We walked through the old city of Hebron, stopped for delicious fried sugary goodness wrapped in a mini pancake, and went to the Tomb of the Patriarchs, the tombs commemorating where Abraham, Sarah, Jacob, Leah, Isaac, Rebekah of the Old Testament were buried. As with many Holy Land historical sites, it is difficult to know how accurate the actual location is, but it still considered holy by many and people worship at these sites and have very spiritual experiences.



            The tombs are actually inside a mosque and to enter we had to pass security, take off our shoes, and all the women put on a hooded cape for modesty.  Then right inside the mosque there are several little house-like structures, each one a tomb for one of the patriarchs or their wives. 
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            After the tombs, we went inside a ceramic shop and they let us play around on the pottery wheel!  It was my first time, and I definitely was the worst one of the group (it takes patience and finesse, which I apparently don’t have), but I loved it! It was one of those surreal moments: here I am in Hebron outside the Tomb of the Patriarchs, making miniature vases in an Arab shop.  Wow!




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            But, the Arab-Israeli conflict was more apparent here then anywhere else I have seen so far.  Our Palestinian tour guide frequently pointed out spots of past violence, always saying after cynically, “there will be no peace in this land until Christ comes again”.  Perhaps that is unfortunately true.
            Inside the mosque, he pointed out the spot where an Israeli man entered and killed 29 worshipping Muslims 15 years ago.  As we walked through the old city of Hebron, Mohammed pointed out the net above us, separating the Arab old city market from Israeli settlements and told us how the settlers would throw down dead dogs and cats onto the net and there would be a horrible stench.  He told us that when he was a kid, the old city market was a bustling place like the Old City of Jerusalem, but because of the conflict, most shops had to close down and it now was quiet. 

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