Bethlehem.

Sorry I haven’t updated in so long – but now I’ll give you an overload of information. Read if you want :)

This past Saturday, I had the chance to visit Bethlehem for the first time. Bethlehem, as many of you know, is located in the West Bank. After riding on a bus for about 15 or 20 minutes, we stopped at the checkpoint located along the Wall. Before coming to Israel, I was barely even aware that this wall existed. But it definitely does. The concrete wall is about 20 feet high and has barbed wire on the top. It was fairly simple for us to get through the checkpoint because we have U.S. passports. On the other side of the wall, the town looked completely different. Bethlehem was not the quaint and quiet village that I had imagined in my mind. It was packed with people and had much more garbage and run down buildings than most places in Jerusalem. As we walked to the place that one of my roommates had done an internship, I was able to ask her about things I should know but obviously did not. She informed me that the wall was built around the West Bank in 2002 or 2003 (not sure about those dates) and includes almost only Palestinians, who are Muslim, inside. The barrier was built by the Israeli government because of the many terrorist attacks (basically bombs on city busses) that were happening at that time. Since they built the wall, the attacks have declined significantly. So, it may seem like the “problem” has been solved and that the wall is a great idea. In some ways this is true, but only from an Israeli/Jewish perspective. From the Palestinian perspective, the Israeli government is taking over the land that should belong to them. They are restricted where they can live and travel, and they have to be searched (as in go through security like an airport) whenever they want to leave the West Bank. Since I know so little about the whole situation, I don’t feel like I can have an opinion on it yet. In one of my classes, my professor was talking about the complexity of the history of this land – and it’s incredible. So many people have occupied it. So many groups claim that it should be theirs. God chose it for a specific reason. I just have no idea what to think. Good thing I am here to learn!

            Anyways, I loved walking down the streets of Bethlehem. Besides the Church of the Nativity, it did not feel “touristy” in any way. It was also really cool to visit the House of Hope, where my roommate volunteers. It is a home for handicapped children, and so we got to play with the kids for quite a while. I am planning on doing a volunteer ministry at a school in Bethlehem, so I’ll get to go back there pretty much every week!