Code. Design. Explore.

I honestly don’t even know where to begin. Throughout this trip I took notes of my thoughts and experiences so that this moment would be easy. Since I was not able to write on this blog during the trip I am forced to back date my posts. I shouldn’t say forced. I wanted to know when things occurred in time, and since I kept a journal while I was there, this shouldn’t be that hard. What is difficult is that I have all these emotions running wild in my head and it’s rather hard to tame.

But let’s try…

Background

I will start with a little background. I went on a Taglit-Birthright Israel trip. This is a free trip given to young people ages 18-26 to experience Israel. The trip is paid for by Jewish charities and the people of Israel. I arrived with 2 friends, Dana and Jess (pictured below). But I left with so much more than that. Memories, a greater sense of Israel’s current situation, a love for their people, and 50 new friends.

First Thoughts

We arrived at Ben Gurion Airport in the evening. After a long 11 hour flight without sleep I was definitely ready to get some shut eye. You might be thinking, “11 hours… that should be plenty of time.” While it was always cool to sit in the back of the bus, quite the opposite is true of airplanes. The fact that I was also in the perfect position to actually feel my right eye get drawn into the bathroom with each suctioning flush of the toilet only exacerbated the situation.

Like many people, whenever I get into a new country it doesn’t actually hit me when I get off the plane. Instead, it is a specific moment at the start of the trip where this revelation usually occurs. For me it was seeing words in Hebrew/Arabic. If these languages were romance languages it might be different, but because their character sets are so different from ours the feeling of being totally out of my element became a reality. The sign below being one of them.

We took a chartered bus from the airport near Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The first thing that amazed me was their use of solar power. It seemed like every home had a white bucket on the roof (which I am told is some sort of solar power generator). Wikipedia actually says that Israel is the leading nation in solar energy per capita. Interesting.

The other amazement was how similar Israel reminds me of Southern California. Tel Aviv, Haifa and Akko (which I get to later) are all directly on the water. They have volleyball courts and sandy beaches like San Diego or Hermosa Beach. Drive a couple miles east and you’ll get to drier land, which again, resembles San Diego/SoCal. I’d say the only differences at this point are that California doesn’t have anything close to the Negev Desert and Israel is much smaller than that of California. In fact, Israel is closer to the size of New Jersey.

I might as well show you a map of Israel so you can visualize it. The route we took during the trip is in red.

According to the map, we drove right through the West Bank! Fortunately, that is not true. I was surprised to find that a lot of the maps online have the West Bank as this big bubble. In actuality this is not the case. True, most of the towns and villages in that bubble do in fact belong to Palestinians/Fatah, but there are some towns that are still controlled by Israel’s government. So it would only make sense that the maps we were given in Israel had much more detail about exactly what was and wasn’t under Palestinian control. Of course, if I were to obtain a map in say, Lebanon, Israel wouldn’t even be on the map! But that’s another story.

An interesting bunch

The Druze are a religious group of Jewish converts from Islam. The majority of Druze are found in Lebanon, Syria and Israel. These people are both fascinating and friendly. We had dinner our second night in the Druze village of Osafia. It was a traditional meal of hummus, bread, eggplant (my favorite!), beans, and chicken.

Having dinner with people from a Druze village

The beliefs of their culture fascinate me. They take part in a now closed religion, meaning you cannot be accepted into their faith. Moreover, if you marry outside of the religion you are banished from your village or community. Even with these rules in place, love doesn’t always act pragmatically. People have been known to marry outside the religion knowing full well the consequences. The Druze are aware of this problem, but at this point don’t feel they can do anything about its inevitability. One day soon they will be the last practicing Druze.

A scary truth of these people is that some migrated from Lebanon pre-Lebanon war of 2006. This put family against family and friends against friends. I can’t begin to imagine what they must have went through. I don’t even know how to convey my feelings right now…

Divided in all directions

My first encounter with division was when I heard about the agreements the Israeli government has with several groups in Israel. Israel is home to Israelis, Arab Muslims, Druze, Bedouins and Hasidic Jews, not to mention a variety of other minority groups. The reason I call out Hasidic Jews is because I couldn’t believe they actually got the government to agree to never having to pay taxes again. (Btw, they are also not required to serve in the army.)

I had been in Israel for less than 24 hours and I could already see the subtle clashes between the different groups. Israeli men are required to serve 3 years in the military (and women required to serve 2 years) with the majority serving between the transition of high school and college. Hasidic Jews, however, do not serve because it is against their religion. I’m not sure if it’s their interpretation of the Torah or additional texts that they follow though. My thoughts are that if their neighbors aren’t fighting for them then what? Is there a point where they have to put down the religious scripture that they have followed all their lives for survival or do they fold their cards and hope they lived their life to the fullest?

We were also able to meet a group of Bedouins during my time in Israel. Bedouins are a nomadic group often found living in the Negev, Sinai, and Arabian Deserts. It only took a short while before I learned of the tensions between the Bedouins and other groups living in Israel. Apparently the government pays families a monthly stipend for each child they have. Both the Bedouins and Hasidic Jews typically have twice (or three times) as many children as a typical Israeli family. The fact that many Bedouins live on tax-free land complicates the situation even more.

The West Bank is just behind those 26 ft high concrete walls

While there seems to be a clear mental divide between people for reasons of country service and money, nothing screams division like a physical wall. When you put the name West Bank to the name it only exemplifies its purpose. I have learned a lot about both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, but it deserves its own post at the very least (which I will be writing in the coming week). For now I will say that the wall is itself a very controversial undertaking. Supporter say that the barrier is necessary to protect Israelis from Palestinian attacks. This point is justified as it helped reduce terrorist attacks by 97%. Opponents, however, claim that the wall is an attempt to divide land before an official agreement is reached. While not as quantitative, it also makes sense imho. More on this topic later…

The Dome of the Rock, which happens to be real gold.
80 kilograms of it (funded by King Hussein of Jordan).

After starring in awe of this great wall I glanced left to find one of the best known landmarks in Jerusalem — the Dome of the Rock. The Dome of the Rock lies in the center of the Temple Mount. The significance of this structure has roots in both Islam and Judaism. Muslims believe that this marks the spot where Muhammad ascended to God in heaven. There he consulted with Moses before coming back to Earth for a journey from Mecca back to the Dome of the Rock.

In Judaism it is believed that this was the place where God tested Abraham by asking him to sacrifice his son Isaac. This was also believed to be the rock where the Ark of the Covenant was placed in the First Temple.

Unfortunately I wasn’t allowed inside the Temple Mount. Until just recently there was a ban barring all Jews and Christians from entering the Temple Mount. Now there are specific hours in place where non-Muslims may enter the structure, but entrance to the Dome itself is still forbidden to non-Muslims. At first this did not make sense because it was under the control of the Israeli government. Our guide instructed us that the Israeli government actually gives full control of this site to the Muslim Council.

It is so difficult to comprehend a restriction like this. Sure, society in America has these types of restrictions all over the place, but we’ve grown up with it. We have yacht clubs and members-only golf courses, but you need to have money. There are clubs that require your name to be printed on the guest list, but you can get on if you know someone. Barring someone because of religion seems like it’s on a different level. Essentially you were born with a lifetime ban from a certain geographical location. What gives someone the right to own that piece of land?

I hope they are praying for peace. Western Wall, Jerusalem.

The last 2 physical divisions I witnessed today are of the Western Wall and Jerusalem itself. The Old City, an area located within modern day Jerusalam, is divided into 4 quarters. The names are politically correct and include the Armenian, Jewish, Christian and Muslim Quarters.

While the Western Wall has the least dangerous division imho, laughing in front of your wife may cause you to wind up sleeping on the couch tonight.

Western Wall, Jerusalem

Looking at the picture there seems to be a clear division splitting the praying area into two unequal pieces at about 75/25. To the left are the men. To the right — women. Men and women are required by religious law to pray separately. What’s worse, while the women are forced to congregate in a group in over 100ºF heat, the men can choose to pray to the far left in an air conditioned area inside the walls shaded from the sun.

Myself jamming a prayer I wrote on a piece of paper into the cracks of the wall. (It’s a tradition)