My trip to Palestine and Israel

Bethlehem Check-Point to enter Palestine

My motivation to go to Israel was to see with my own eyes the reality* on the relationship between Israel and Palestine. And although I couldn't see much of it in the 6 days I stood there, it was enough to see and feel how sad and hard life is in the WestBank (I cant imagine how is it in Gaza Strip).

It's very sad to see the opportunities Palestinians have, to see how they are prisoners in their own land (protecting wall all around, barbed-wire all around, roads they can not transit in their own land, watching towers in their own cities, check points with metal detectors in the middle of their cities, their temples striped apart and under Israeli militar control, streets closed by militars...). It is sad to see the Jewish Settlements, it is sad to see that those are in the best lands in the middle of Palestine, to see the type of land they have left for agriculture...It was also very sad to see all the young people in Israel wearing an uniform, and being afraid of everyone who looks different that them.
It is sad to see how some of them have nothing, nor even the simple right to a nation and to move around their place, and it is also sad to see how those who have everything live with fear. It is sad to see how both parts grow up with hate and anger. In general it is very very sad to know this is the world we are living in, it's hard to see how lucky we are to live in the places we live in.
Don't expect me to judge or to explain the situation there. It's very complex to explain it here, just, as a person from this century, everyone should read and be aware of the political and social reality there.

t-shirt being sold in Jerusalem

The wall in the 21sth century!

Arriving to Israel from India felt like arriving to Europe. Israel itself looks great: Organized, clean, green in many places, nevertheless seeing all the young people in a green uniform and the locals with machine-guns in the middle of the street makes your thoughts start running and changes your mood.

I took the Old Jerusalem as my head-quarter. I stood there 6 days in a pretty old hostel that looked (and probably was) like 1000 years old. Although it has been the coldest hostel ever, people there were amazing and I got great time and indications from them!
I gave two full days to Jerusalem, mainly to the walled city.
The Old Jerusalem is divided into four quarters (Christian, Armenian, Jewish and Muslim). You can imagine which is the richest and which is the poorest. Although many sad realities there, the Old Jerusalem is one of the most incredible places I've been in, and I was lucky enough to see it covered by snow.

The other parts of Israel I went were Nazareth and Tiberias. Nothing special there, just it was nice to be in places I'd heard about since I was a child (My family is very religious and I went to a Catholic school).

Then I went to Palestine. One day I went to Bethlehem and Ramallah, the second day I went to Hebron (the situation there is horrible!) and to Jericho, next to the dead-see (the lowest point on earth). It was amazing to be in the west bank, and to see and live all the things there.

The view of Jericho from the mount where they say Jesus was tempted by the evil.

I am very glad I had the chance to go there, and I wouldnt mind to go again. Specially because the food is great. I just hope next time I go there, the political reality is better. That's the real victory for Israel, for Palestine and for the human kind as a whole. I just hope next time I go there, they follow the advice in this wall:

Make Hummus, not Walls

* I believe there are many realities, or at least I've seen several in the places I've lived in. But any of those realities I've seen with my eyes was always better than the one shown in the media.