January 27, 2001
The line up of Palestinian traffic bypassing an Israeli checkpoint.
Last month, we went to Hebron with a group called Internationals in Palestine. Tomorrow they are organizing another event (an olive tree planting where IDF soldiers recently bulldozed a grove) in Beit Sahour. For all of the talk of opening roads and lifting closures, our experience today belied the political rhetoric. We were traveling by Palestinian shared taxi, the main mode of inter-city transportation here. Normally, the trip is two and a half, maybe three hours. Today? Five hours.
From Zababdeh we went to Tubas, from Tubas to Nablus. Then it got interesting. Coming out of Nablus, only Israeli cars are allowed to travel on the two-lane highways designed for heavier traffic. So Palestinian taxis, busses, cars, and donkeys (no joke) wind their way up through the mountain villages on dirt and gravel potholed roads meant for the donkeys and tractors. The views are splendid, but bring your motion sickness medicine (Elizabeth sure wished she had).
Eventually, we connected with a more reasonable route. Coming into Ramallah, once again we detour around the main entrance to the city, following rush hour traffic creeping through small neighborhood streets. Coming out of Ramallah heading to Bethlehem was the worst leg of the journey - particularly at rush hour. Once we reached the outskirts of town, we also reached an IDF checkpoint. A few cars are let through, but most are turned back, often after long waits and harassment.
Most of the commuters opt for the other option, which is to head through the nearby neighborhood's dirt roads for a forty-five minute detour. Eighteen wheelers and sports cars shared the narrow road, as we crept along within inches of each other and of the houses. In the States, at least we have road rage as an outlet! But curiously, although you can feel the tension build, here we have never seen people start to yell or threaten violence, as we have seen in the States.
We rejoined the main road some 100 yards from where we left it, on the other side of the checkpoint, in full view of the soldiers. They know we are doing it. They make no effort to stop us. And thus the checkpoint serves little purpose but to delay and frustrate. The final detour is through the Wadi Nar (the Valley of Fire) into Bethlehem. It's a spectacular view, and unlike coming out of Nablus, mostly worth the extra five or ten minutes.
We arrived in Beit Jala in time to visit friends living and working there. Things have quieted down, as opposed to several months ago when they huddled under the dining room table one night because of the IDF helicopter gunships shooting into town.
We spent the night at the Latin Seminary, joining the priests for dinner and some multi-lingual (Arabic, English, French, Italian, Hebrew) time around the TV (Colors with Arabic subtitles?). We also were introduced to 91 year-old Abuna Ibrahim, former exile, member of the Palestinian National Committee, former PLO member, and close personal friend to Yasser Arafat. He has made several speeches to the United Nations regarding justice for Palestinians. He promised to pass along to us his UN speeches.
No one ever said Palestine is boring...