fall, 2010, Israel
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| Bethlehem |
After visiting Ramallah, capital of Palestine, we decide to visit another Palestinian city – Bethlehem. Famous of course for being the place where Jesus was born. In Israel, we are within a small group of three campers. Two campers decide to enter in Bethlehem by north gate. The gate, as around almost all of Palestine, Israelis build an ugly beton wall. Like Berlin wall. We decide to visit first Sorec cave and to enter Bethlehem from east. At the entrance in the cave, we are the only visitors. So we make use of a private guide. We liked both, the story of the guide and cave itself.
We are directing to Bethlehem. Of course we get into a Israelian check point. Next to small wooden houses, three girls are standing. Girls of 18-19, dressed in military, with a big tommy gun over shoulders. Their faces are still with teenage pimples. Anywhere an officer or something like that to see. The girls look lost when they see our camper. - Where you are going?
- To Bethlehem, to see Jesus’s city. - What kind of car is this?
- It’s an camper. House on the wheels.
One “frontier” wants to see the car from inside. I go down from the cabin, to open the door of living department. The girl orders me to stay outside. I am used to this. Isralian military accept nobody in the same small room. Afraid to be attached, I suppose. I stay outside and wait. Another girl is “distracting” me, by asking few times two questions – where you are coming from and where you are going. I am repeating the same answers- from Jerusalem and to Bethlehem. The girl comes down from the camper. She is making a call. I suppose she needs an advise. After the call she informs us we are not allowed to go further. We are in a small shock.
- How come? We are just tourist. Bethlehem is living on tourism. - No, you have no right to go in Bethlehem with such kind of cars. - It’s silly. Our friends, with the same kind of autos, are already in Bethlehem. Only thing, they entered via north gate. - No, it’s not possible.
The girls are again lost. They make one more call. After receiving the instructions (I suppose) she comes to us:
- Give me your passports.
We are suspicious at this request. We know the trick – they confiscate your passport and you have to do what they tell you. We hesitate. But, now anyway we have nothing to lose, so we give her our passports.
Yes, our fear has confirmed. She takes our passports and immediately departure some distance, and from there tell us, we get our passports when we turn back.
With some new words, we enrich vocabulary of these girls, who are guarding the strong and fair state of Israel. We turn back and get our passport while driving.
P.S.
Common people we met in Israel were friendly and welcoming. But authority people with a gun, were always behaving paranoid towards us. Nevertheless, we appreciated natural and historical beauty of Israel.
