Bethlehem, Hebron, and our last weekend
Early Friday morning, we began a trip to visit a couple other Palestinian cities before the end of the camp. On the agenda were Bethlehem and Hebron. These two cities are the cities that I have wanted to visit the most since the last time I was here so I was very excited.
Below is an abridged version of the weekend since I am a little pressed for time right now…
In Bethlehem, we stopped at the Church of the Nativity, of course, and then we went on a walking tour of the Old City. After lunch, we went to Aida refugee camp and saw the Israeli “security” wall. What an experience to see it up close.
After the wall, we spent the night in a small village called Beit Sahour. We went out for dinner and then went to another place nearby for arguileh and live music. We had a blast! Some had a little too much fun. 
On Saturday morning, we all awoke and had breakfast and then we drove to Hebron. Visiting Hebron is a very sobering experience. If you want to understand Palestinian anger, a visit to Hebron is absolutely necessary. Hebron is the only city where you will find Israeli settlers living in close proximity to local Palestinians. The result is horrendous. Entire streets are closed to Palestinians, there are checkpoints and road blocks everywhere. On some streets, Palestinians have had to erect fences and nets above the street to prevent the settlers above from throwing garbage and rocks on them. I had heard about this before but to see it with my own eyes is disturbing. And, yet, you’ll never hear about this on the news. In fact, we went to visit a mosque and before you enter the mosque, there are literally three checkpoints within 20 meters of each other. And, at each checkpoint, you have to take everything out of your pockets, sometimes completely disrobe, and let the soldiers go through your bags. All this just so that Palestinian Muslims can enter a mosque to pray. Unbelievable.
Anyway, there are a few photos from both days below…
