July 28, 2001

Another day of reasonable relaxation before gathering for lunch with friends. One of the ladies at lunch was a grandmother of a friend, a native of the Old City of Jerusalem currently living in Beit Hanina (between Jerusalem and Ramallah). Her church of worship when she was a child was the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. She had very vivid memories of the city in 1948, which were interesting to hear. Most of her family, though, is living "outside" (as the Palestinians say) - not in the land.

We then headed off to Bethlehem, catching the Arab bus from Damascus Gate which took us to the Tantur checkpoint. We walked across the checkpoint with everyone else (that is, everyone who wasn't hiking around the checkpoint through the Tantur grounds instead), showing our IDs to the Israeli border soldiers, catching the shared taxis into Bethlehem.

We met up with the tour leader at the Paradise Hotel, which has the unfortunate location of near the IDF's (Israeli army's) Rachel's Tomb outposts. This area has been the scene of clashes, particularly early in the siege that began in September. Out of the hotel's five floors, the first two have been unaffected by the shooting. The top three, however, have been completely burned out by Israeli gun and tank fire, so the hotel is closed. Nevertheless, its a landmark and we met our friend there.

Elizabeth at a bedouin tent restaurant in Beit Sahour.

He took us to Beit Sahour and we spent some time at a Bedouin tent restaurant (the tour company is kindly making up for the Zababdeh goof by hosting us with the Peachtree group today and tomorrow). We rendezvoused with the group from Peachtree in time for dinner and to hear their stories from their weeks of travel.