In Jerusalem, my sister and I couchsurf with Lisa and her boyfriend Tzachy. Lisa is the sister of David, with whom I travelled through western China for three weeks. When I originally told him I was coming, he mentioned that he would probably be unavailable, travelling in Australia... I am in Israel when he is in Australia. Turns out Australia didn't want him (something about him having served in the IDF or working illegally), instead, he went to New Zealand.
Dasha and I take a tour around Jerusalem on the 5th of January, two days before Orthodox Christmas and the day before the large Christmas mass at the Church of Nativity, Bethlehem. Jerusalem is FULL during the days we visit, every hotel is booked out with Christian pilgrims converging here to tour around the holy sites prior to the church service.
The city has an amazing history, going back to 4,000 B.C. It's status as a holy site for the three major Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Islam and Judaism) have led to its hotly contested history throughout the ages.
The old city is split into four quarters - Armenian, Christian, Jewish and Muslim - and the explanation for the Armenian quarter stems from the crusades. The crusaders had managed to capture the city and one point and in order to solidify their presence in the city, they needed to populate the city with more Christians. Not wanting to make the long trip back from Israel to Northern and Western Europe, they opted instead to look at a map of the world, find the nearest Christian country (Armenia) and proceeded to bring lots of men and women over to Jerusalem to "populate it".
We found in Jerusalem that more people spoke Russian than English and inevitably, within minutes of meeting someone, conversation would stray towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts, with proponents of strategies at all ends of the spectrum.
The best discussion we had was with a Russian/Jewish migrant, Simon who had the appropriate amount of black humour to handle the situation. It's common in school to learn a second language, so my sister, in order to stifle discussion and promote alternate thinking would lead conversations as follows: "They teach a second language in schools here don't they? The most common language in this reason is Arabic, how well do you know it?" or something along these lines. One American Jew currently studying the Torah highlighted the major difficulty in coming to a resolution for the conflict with his response: "Why would I want to learn a terrorist language of people that do nothing other than kill our people?".
The reason I mentioned Simon was because of his response to the question: "You know, growing up, I saw the way we were fighting with the Arabs, I figured that by the time I finished school, there wouldn't be any Arabs left." and in a cliche Jewish voice he added "Boy was I wrong." His friend was initially mortified, my sister and I on the other hand burst out laughing, rather than beat the dead horse conversational thread, there are those who choose to make jokes instead.
After exploring the old town, its many present Christian denominations, the Palestinian run markets (that sell IDF T-Shirts right next to the Free Palestine ones) and the narrow city streets, we both come to the conclusion that Jerusalem offers travellers more history and culture than any other place in the world.
The following day, we head to Bethlehem...
Catholic Church at the Garden of Gethsemane and interesting house extensions in the old town.
Church of The Holy Sepulchre, where Jesus was crucified and died and the Western Wall of the Temple Mount, the holiest site for Jews.
al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock, where the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven before returning to describe the meeting with god. The third holiest site for Muslims.
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