Adam, Rana and the Gaza Strip

Thursday morning at breakfast I met Adam and Rana.

Adam is a Palestinian who now lives in the US and has US passport. He says life became much more difficult after 9-11 and he changed his name to reduce the problems. He is trying to get to Gaza to visit his sister. He is here on short vacation from his job with IBM and the days are ticking by .... Israeli security keeps putting him off. "Call back tomorrow." Day by day his time is running out. He came all this way to visit his sister and in the end may be prevented.

Rana is an attractive young woman who works in Gaza. Her tightly wrapped head scarf indicate she is Muslim. She is fluent in colloquial English and I thought she might be the 'mother from Gaza' blogger! But no .... Rana works for Save The Children and is visiting the main office in Jerusalem plus meeting her friend Adam. Rana says she lives in Gaza and both exit and entrance are difficult. Because she works for an international organization with offices in Jerusalem she was able to exit. But she knows other women who have tried and are unable to leave. They are effectively trapped. Others cannot get in. They cannot get out.

Meanwhile Israel is still bombing in Gaza and on the news here yesterday they reiterated the Israeli threat that nobody in the Hamas government is safe from being targetted for assassination.

I took a photo of Adam in the St George's Cathedral courtyard. Unfortunately Rana preferred not to have a photo taken.

Just out of view .....

Jerusalem's Old City is an impressive sight. The best viewing of it is from the famous Mountain of Olives which is actually a nearby hill. This is where virtually all the famous photos of Jerusalem are taken and where tourists go.

Barely out of view from this area - to the south - is something else which is becoming famous. The Wall. It is just a few miles south of Jerusalem yet visitors never see it because it is just barely out of view from the Panoramic Viewing Area.

But if you walk just a couple hundred yards beyond the viewing area you see why the residents of Bethlehem can no longer travel to Jerusalem. Twice as high as the Berlin Wall, it snakes along the hills shutting off people from Bethlehem and the Occupied Territories to the south.

Jerusalem!

Jerusalem .... Holy site for three of the world's major religions. Within throwing distance you have:
* 3rd holiest site of Islam - Al Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock
* Judaism's holiest site (Western Wall and Temple Mount)
* the site of Jesus crucifixion and resurrection!

Jerusalem is truly a wonder. The Old city is a walled area with the holy sites, teeming markets, alleyways and tunnels criss crossing and a small number of entrance ways. To the north is Damascus gate ... so called because it heads north towards the Syrian capital.

Outside the walled Old City are west Jerusalem with modern apartments and shopping centers, plus East Jerusalem which has traditionally been Arab/Palestinian but where increasing numbers of Jews are moving.

Within the old city are thousands of Orthodox Jews, young and old Palestinians working or selling at tiny markets, Muslim woman in tightly wrapped head scarves and full length dresses, markets selling crafts, spice, vegetable and meat markets. As well as being a tourist center, many people live in the old city. Its all kind of amazing.

The police and IDF also have a strong presence. All the gates and religious areas are heavily patrolled. Soldiers carry submachine guns with truncheon at the ready. Israeli police or military are everywhere in Jerusalem. Their jeeps and military outposts are all over - night and day.

I have the impression the military keeps a lid on things but there is much tension below the surface. In my first 24 hours here I saw two different fist fights break out among young Palestinian men.

Getting to Israel

I left San Francisco at 8 am Monday and finally arrived at Ben Gurion Airport at 4 pm Tuesday. It is a long trip, especially with New York and Brussels stops. As expected, security for the El Al flight from Brussels to Tel Aviv was much tighter than usual. The security person asked a lot of questions about my trip. Interesting details like .... what is the name of the person who gave you those maps??? Fortunately the name of my friend Marvin Cohen did not provoke any alarm in the mind of the security person. She just carried on with more detailed questions like .... Where does Marvin live?? Is he married??

It seems to be an effective technique ... I had nothing to hide but was momentarily trying to remember Marv's last name!

Luggage check is also much more thorough than usual when flying El Al: they make you go to the luggage transfer area, identify your bag, open it up and show what is in it. One of the other passengers was not so lucky: his large whiskey bottle had broken in transit so his clothes were smelling ripe and with broken glass throughout.

As I was boarding the plane I was thinking maybe I should have avoided El Al. With the conflict and Israeli bombings in Gaza and threats of retaliation, wouldn't El Al be a target? But then I remembered .... the association of airplane bombing with Palestinians is a myth like so many others.

Plane arrived on schedule at Ben Gurion Airport. No problem getting visitor's visa .... then headed for Jerusalem by shuttle service. As we dropped off other passengers it was interesting to see the different areas. Israel is very hilly and the hills are populated with apartment buildings as far as the eye could see. The area near the highway is heavily populated. It was also interesting to see how many Orthodox Jews are in the communities ...... they make a large portion of the population in the areas we drove.

Getting ready ......

I am preparing to travel to Palestine. Purpose is to see the situation first hand and volunteer/contribute in some way. It is a small effort in opposition to the billions of US tax dollars which routinely go to support the occupation.

Meanwhile the situation in Gaza is still tense. The US financed and Jordanian trained Fatah soldiers were conveniently let through Rafah border crossing by Israel so as to do their dirty work. On PBS Lehrer show Ray Suarez scolded the Palestinians and suggested - with a straight face - that Fatah and Hamas would be better off working together rather than killing each other and bystanders. Thanks Ray. Meanwhile there are some real journalists who have described what is going on including the hidden hands of manipulation. Like this journalist and mother living in Gaza: a-mother-from-gaza.blogspot.com