Back from Jerusalem

My family and I just returned from a weekend trip to Jerusalem, where we stayed with some good American friends who have lived and worked in the region for more than seven years. We enjoyed the opportunity to simply spend time with our friends, but we enjoyed the visit at another level: they were the perfect people to introduce us to the complexity and diversity of Israeli culture. My friend is fluent in Hebrew and speaks excellent Arabic, and he studied religion at Hebrew university. His wife also speaks good Hebrew and majored in Islamic studies. They are Christian and have worked for a number of years with a Christian nonprofit that provides lifesaving medical services for Gazan and Iraqi children. They are politically centrist and have lived and worked in Israel and the Palestinian Territories long enough to know the good and the bad traits of each culture. The conversation all weekend was fascinating.

Other than a brief C-17 flight in and out of Ben Gurion airport, this was my first visit to Israel. I am hoping to spend as much time as possible in Israel while living in Jordan, because I want to understand both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as much as possible. I'm sensitive to the insidious danger of bias that can come from immersing myself in just one side. My friend and I discussed this at length this weekend; many well-intended "peacemakers" who enter the region quickly lose any semblance of neutrality. My friend knows a number of humanitarian workers who became deeply embittered against Israel after moving into the West Bank. He tells me many of the Christian churches in Jerusalem tend to be overwhelmingly pro-Israel or pro-Palestine. One church he knows used its Easter service--the most sacred day in the Christian faith--to rail against Israeli settlements. On the other hand, Jerusalem is a magnet for radical right-wing Jews and Christians who do immense harm to prospects for peaceful coexistence. The secular world has the same divergence. The Israelis and Palestinians/Arabs frame the conflict in totally different ways. No matter how hard one tries to be objective, it's difficult when the very language used on each side of the conflict is so radically different. Bias enters simply by participating in conversation. In Jordan you can't have a conversation about the conflict without discussing the influence of the Israel Lobby; in the West, simply using the words "Israel Lobby" is enough to get you marked as an anti-Semite. In any case, I want to guard myself against bias by learning as much as possible about both Israel and the Arab world while I'm in Jordan.

This was a short first trip, but practically every moment was full of new experiences and insights. The trip started with a crossing of the Allenby/King Hussein Bridge, which is surreal in and of itself. Americans normally can't drive cars across, but because my scholarship brings American diplomatic status, it was permitted. So the simple fact of being able to cross is rather elitist. Other Americans have told me that their first impression of Israel was awe at how impressive the country is. My crossing experience gave me the same impression. At each stage of the crossing, the Israelis radioed ahead that we were coming through. A designated employee met us at the curb of the Israeli terminal, and walked us past all the lines and through each stage of passport control, customs, and vehicle registration. On the one hand, all this special treatment made us squirm; on the other, it was impossible not to be impressed by the royal treatment we received as minor representatives of the US government. The great irony about the crossing--and my first experiential lesson in the dichotomies of Israeli society--is that Allenby/King Hussein Bridge is the designated entry/exit point for Palestinians who reside in the West Bank, so they constitute most of the traffic. At one inspection point, my family and I were ushered past a long line of idling buses, full of weary Palestinian families with their faces squished up against the glass, perhaps making the trip into the West Bank for the start of Ramadan the next day. The terminal was predictably chaotic; dozens of Palestinians sat on mountains of luggage, waiting in line to clear passport control and customs. We were led to the head of the line. It was painfully apparent that two worlds coexisted here.

Jerusalem itself is fascinating because everybody in the world seems to lay claim to it. The sectarianism is much more complex than the interplay between the big three monotheistic religions. We spent the better part of Friday evening sitting on our friends' porch, learning how Jews and Messianic Jews celebrate the Sabbath while watching Ramadan festivities in the Arab town on the next hill over: twinkling Christmas lights, fireworks, even a signal flare (which gave us all a bit of a start). We talked at length about the myriad divisions and subdivisions of Israeli society: the differences between various branches of Judaism, the conflict between secular Jews and the ultra-Orthodox, the diversity of Christians who flood the city, the complex ways that Jewish law is interpreted and practiced by both Jews and Christians, how Arab Israelis understand their identity. As we were leaving the Old City Friday evening, the police were setting up for an ultra-Orthodox riot that made the news the next morning. Why? The city opened a nearby parking garage on the Sabbath. At the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, I was amazed at the confusing labyrinth of chambers and shrines staked out by the six Christian denominations that lay claim to it. Police occasionally intervene to break up violence. At the Temple Mount, I was even more amazed by the confusing interplay of religious tradition and the sheer diversity of tourists and pilgrims. On other occasions, my friend led me to hilltops and rooftops where we could look down on lonely Israeli flags poking up out of Arab neighborhoods--marking the homes of fearless Jewish settlers who have staked their claim. On one morning jog, we ascended a hill still fortified with entrenchments from one of Israel's past wars, from which we could survey a long stretch of the controversial security wall and see some Israeli settlements. All these experiences gave me only a small taste of Jerusalem and Israel in general, but I'm left amazed at how diverse and how contested everything seems to be. It's one thing to read these things in books; it's another to see them firsthand.

Our trip was only a weekend, but it was a great introduction to Israel. We're looking forward to our next trip--hopefully soon. In the meantime, we're happy to be back "home." I suppose I've crossed a milestone in my language learning; when I crossed the Jordan river today and saw signs written in Arabic, I felt relieved to once again be in a place where I know the language. Now if I can just get the Air Force to teach me Hebrew after I finish my time in Jordan...