superficial observations on Israel

We were in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Bethlehem over Christmas.  This post took me a while to process and write.

The best word to describe my feelings towards Israel and being in Israel is “uncomfortable.”  Because I am a citizen of a country which is deeply involved with Israel I feel a kind of responsibility for it, that I don’t like.  I’m embarrassed that I have avoided learning about it, because I don’t expect to like what I will learn.

First though, what did I observe while I was there?

• In Tel Aviv, after a month in North Africa, the relative wealth is obvious.  There are overweight people and pet stores.  If we had come straight from the US, I probably wouldn’t have seen these things.
  
• There are guns everywhere. They are handled in a way that is disconcertingly casual. People in and out of uniform walk around with enormous guns slung over their backs. They do this in shoulder-to-shoulder bustling markets, on the street and in the bus station where everyone has to go through metal detectors to get into the building. They hold hands with their girlfriend or boyfriend, they eat and they generally go about their business. It is weird.  I now have a new appreciation for American soldiers and police who appear to take the responsibility of carrying a weapon seriously.

• I can say that Jerusalem felt like the place we were least likely to have our wallets or camera stolen.  Ever.
  
• In Jerusalem, it seems like everyone’s clothes are meaningful, and I don’t mean they were fashion statements.  There are religious clothes like yarmulkes, Muslim head scarves, Jewish head scarves, priests robes, nun’s outfits and the orthodox Jew outfits of black clothes, curls, prayer shawls and hats.  Then there are uniforms for the military, the school kids etc.  All in all, it seemed like everyone was wearing their identity.  Tourists, like us, are also pretty obvious.
  
• There are lots of rules.  The weird thing for me is that rules touch on things that are outside of my experience.  Jewish people can’t go onto the Temple Mount, only Muslims can go in to the dome of the rock, Israeli citizens can’t go in to the West Bank etc.  Correction: Israelis can’t go in to this part of the West Bank, which is Area A.  Area C comprises the majority of the West Bank, is under Israeli control and is where the settlements are.
  
  
  Our very Zionist tour under the edge of the Western Wall required us to double-back at the end and retrace our steps rather than walk out at the other end in the Muslim quarter of the old city because it was late at night.  We walked through the Muslim quarter a lot and felt totally safe.
  
• As mentioned, there are metal detectors and bag searches to get into the bus station, the post office, the mall, and the plaza around the Western Wall.  I realize they have good reasons for having high security, but I wouldn't want to live like that.
  
• At the Western Wall, men and women have different sides.  Men have three times as much space on the wall, but it always looked like there were equal numbers of men and women there, so the women were three deep to pray at the wall.

Secondly, what else have I learned? Reading on the subject is overwhelming because understanding Israel-Palestinian relations is a moving target ; It is emotional and in constant flux.  Also, where you can find an objective viewpoint? I’ve been paying attention to the news on Israel and Palestine more because I didn’t want to get blown up and I’m now more curious than I was. The thing is, the news is always bad and it seems like one needs to be an expert to know if it’s just typically bad or extraordinarily bad. Going back to my “uncomfortable” feeling, I didn’t have any conversations with locals while we there, and certainly not about what interests me most. Namely, what rights are the Palestinians missing?  I would have got some answers if I had gone on a tour with breakingthesilence.org.il, like Gabrielle recommended, but they were booked up while we were there. I liked this article  which says that “The idea of a Palestinian state should be uncontroversial.”  It’s a quick and worthwhile read. A recent news item is that an Israeli Supreme Court Decision upheld a law that Arab Citizens of Israel still can’t get citizenship for their Palestinian spouses. Palestinians in the West Bank are kept behind a Berlin-like wall.  They are not citizens of Israel.  They deserve to be citizens of their own country.  It really is refreshingly simple.