We left the hotel bright and early to get a jump on the day. We headed off to Jericho. We left our guide, Shimon, at the West Bank border. As part of our journey through Israel, we have learned that while Israel is one state, very few of its residents can pass throughout it. In fact, our bus driver grew up in a corner of Jerusalem where he has the rites of passage as an Israeli as well as a Palestinian. For the rest of the Israelis, the Israeli government has told them not to go into Palestinian Authority (PA) territory, which includes two of our stops today, Jericho and Bethlehem. Palestinians have to have special papers to pass into Israel. When we returned from the Bethlehem, we had two soldiers with semi-automatic weapons board our bus to do a passport check. Once again, we saw the multiple layers of issues between the Palestinians and Israelis.
Jericho is an oasis in the desert 500 feet below sea level. Jericho is known for four significant stories in the Bible. We started our quick stay in Jericho with a cable car ride up a steep mountain and arrived at Temptation Church. This is the point in the New Testament where Jesus was tempted by the Devil. On the spot of the temptation, a beautiful Greek Orthodox Church has been built. After the church, we went to the ruins of Jericho, which included the old wall from the Old Testament story of Joshua, and the Battle of Jericho. We crossed the street from the ruins and saw the spring that Elisha had purified. On the way out of town, we saw a Sycamore tree depicting the tree from which Zacchaeus talked to Jesus. In the town, we had a Palestinian tour guide. He talked about how Christians and Arabs coexist well in Jericho. He left us with the insight on all of Israel, “Remember our battles are between the governments and not between the people.”
After 13 days of intense learning and travel, Class 40 enjoyed a needed recreational swim in the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is the lowest point on earth at ~1200 feet below sea level. The Dead Sea is ten times saltier than the ocean. The Jordan River, the primary source of water for the Dead Sea has been diverted for agriculture throughout Syria, Jordan and Israel. As a result the Dead Sea is dropping at a rate of three feet per year; this beautiful resource is shrinking. Even in our recreational stop, we were left to ask, “How should one prioritize the water rights on the Jordan River?” The mud at the bottom of the Dead Sea is loaded with minerals and is renown for therapeutic qualities. Also the concentration of salt makes it very easy to float. Much of our class covered themselves in mud and floated for thirty minutes before we headed off for more learning.
Our next stop was Bethlehem. After visiting many important religious sites, many in our class were excited to see the birthplace of Jesus. As mentioned above, we once again had to change tour guides. Salwa, our Palestinian Christian, toured us through Bethlehem and shared the perspective of being a Christian in a Palestinian controlled part of a Jewish state. We also learned about how multiple different sects of the Christian church have had possession of the church of the Jesus’s birthplace. Interestingly, the Ottoman Empire in the mid 19th century decreed a plan on how the different sects share the birthplace of Jesus on December 24th. This decree is still used today to determine how to share this historic site on that significant day. In the picture, the star indicates the spot of Jesus’s birth. In a very tightly packed three hours, we experienced Bethlehem. Many of us want to return one day to the town and to the cave (manger) where a baby was born.
After everyone successfully passed through the border crossing, we visited the LDS Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies. Here we learned about an effort by the Mormon Church to help educate the world on Israeli and Palestinian relations. We learned about their efforts to help reach out and build bridges throughout the country. It was a nice scene to be able to see people trying to help the locals in “Finding Common Ground.”
At the end of the night, we had a synthesis and our finale dinner. In our synthesis, we grappled with our reactions to the current state of Israel and what we planned to follow closely in the news when we returned. We had the dinner at the YMCA of Jerusalem. It was a beautiful site. Our class took the opportunity to reflect on what we learned on the trip and how we will behave differently when we return home as a result of this broadening experience. For our loved ones who are reading this, we are looking forward to coming home and returning to see you. Hopefully some of what we discussed will be obvious to you in the next few weeks and months.
- Scott Beylik, Erik Jertberg, David Warter
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