This post is also available in:
Italiano (Italian)
Anyone who is the least bit passionate about travel and history has to visit Israel and particularly Jerusalem once in his or her lifetime. Between wars, when you can go there, a great many pilgrims go on purely religious tours. For the most part there are tours organized just by parishes or religious bodies. I went there in a totally secular spirit, and I found it unmissable.
Breathing in history was the feeling I felt continuously during this trip to Israel and the Palestinian territory called the West Bank or West Bank. In Gaza even without war, one would not go there even then, and anyway there would already be nothing to see but misery.
I made this trip in December 2015. It was very quiet and indeed there were a lot of tourists, mostly pilgrims visiting the holy places. It was a 5-day trip, I did it solo and moved by public transportation. This is a map of the places I visited.
Will it ever be possible to visit Israel peacefully?
In Jerusalem , the historical sites of worldwide importance for the 3 monotheistic religions, but for humanity in general, are many. The walls of the old city are intact and even the modern buildings closer to the center are built of the same ochre-colored rocks. This gives a great sense of uniformity. In the evening, with fewer cars, you can walk around imagining that at any moment you will pass a Roman centurion, a crusader or an Arab merchant from the Middle Ages.
Having already been on the Jordan trip to both Tel Aviv and the Dead Sea, this time I visited Acre and especially the West Bank. The former was the last stronghold of the Knights Templar and in ancient times a very important city.
Visiting Israel involves constantly seeing checkpoints and lots of military personnel. Every boy and girl, once they complete their schooling, must do three years of military service. It’s impressive to see these kids all decked out and armed to the teeth. I remember one little girl with a rifle as big as her. You can constantly and everywhere breathe an atmosphere of tension.
One afternoon, returning by streetcar, at one point they made us get off and wait because of a bomb scare. I was not far from my hostel, and I set off. The alarm was right at the stop near where I was sleeping; it was about a backpack forgotten by someone. Because of this, half the city was stuck for half an hour waiting for the bomb squad to arrive.
Reflections
Having said about the Palestinians, in my opinion great victims; and that the extremism of one side (the right-wing and orthodox Israeli positions) only fuels the extremisms of the other side (Hamas and terrorism); going to Israel one cannot avoid visiting the Holocaust museum, a truly touching experience dedicated to the victims of Nazi-fascism.
A few months earlier I had been to Poland and of course to Auschwitz, the two experiences complement each other. It is not possible not to come out extremely disturbed. Reflecting on history, my thought was about how man never learns and that certain atrocities can be repeated, and something comparable even can be done by the heirs of the same victims.
The way of the cross in Jerusalem, my phone dies there and does not rise again
From the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher starts the Way of the Cross, which is actually called the Via Dolorosa and where there are the various stops where pilgrims linger. The church is built around the stone behind which Jesus is said to have been buried. Inside it is very rich, while on the outside it doesn’t even look like a church so embedded among the many buildings downtown.
I approached this experience with a secular and cultural spirit, and I found it very interesting that the route is not the one Jesus traveled, as it has often been changed over the centuries. It goes all the way to Mount Golgotha, you expect mountains and instead it is all in the city.
Very nice is to get to the Mount of Olives from which there is a beautiful view. You go through the Garden of Gethsemane where there are olive trees that apparently saw Jesus and if they could talk they would say he was not blond.
An ‘image we have of that territory is that of a hot and sunny climate. I took a lot of water, so much so that my cell phone, due to too much humidity died during those very hours, but it did not resurrect and I found myself isolated from the world. Arriving in Milan the next day, I bought one at the station. If there is a wrong time when to change the phone, it is while traveling. I spent the reentry setting up the new toy, vibrating for those who wondered where I had gone.
Next Stage Living in Palestine and New Year’s Eve in Jerusalem.
Trips taken, travel stories divided by continent
Anecdotes, divided by type in travel narratives
Countries visited in my travel stories
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.