I was barely off the plane in Tel Aviv when I was pulled out of the crowd by one of the security people at the airport who were waiting at the end of the gangway to the aeroplane. Due to having a cold my hearing had gone from one ear and it was difficult to communicate - especially with little sleep. Although she had never heard of Tantur (which is hardly my responsibility) I was sent on my way to head through immigration. Happily it was only about 20 minutes between landing and collecting my luggage all in all - which was better than it could have been.
I waited for my fellow student to arrive from his flight and then we boarded the shuttle to Tantur. We were most likely the only non-Jews on the shuttle and subsequently we went around many of the Israeli settlements to return people to their homes. It was a chilling moment when I realised one of the previous trips I had made to where a settlement was proposed with a billboard saying "Luxury Apartments" was where we were dropping someone off. These illegal settlements are built on Palestinian land and drain water resources from the Palestinian villages. When settlements are talked about it always sounds temporary and makeshift and to see the luxury apartments, some with swimming pools and signs to "carwash" - when there is a drought on - is quite sickening.
After a good rest, the next morning the three of us who had arrived early headed in to Jerusalem on the bus. First it was interesting working out the differences between the Arab and Israeli buses - the difference in price and the difference in atmosphere on the buses. Not by design, but by circumstance we boarded an Egged bus, which is the Israeli company. The bus was quiet, people didn't seem to really acknowledge anyone else on it and over the speakers played traditional Jewish music - violin, telling a sad tale of the Jewish past. There was no escaping the fact that even the bus journey reinforced the Jewish story for all on board.
An errand needed running that took us to the Jewish parts of Jerusalem that I had never spent much time in. We discovered that almost every shop window had things that told the Jewish story there too - it is truly embedded in everything. People walked about freely, seemingly without a care in the world.
On returning to Tantur we caught the Arab bus. A much smaller bus, that held possibly 16 and this time the local Arabic radio station was playing. There was much more conversation on the little bus - which was noisier than the double length Egged bus we had been on earlier that day. The bus drove up to the check point to Bethlehem and there was not enough room for everyone on the bus. Many just had to wait for the next one to come along.
The majority of our group joined us by lunchtime and a small delegation decided to go to Bethlehem since it was so close. We walked along the road to the checkpoint and made our way through the cattleshed-like building. There seemed to be endless turnstiles, narrow walkways and fences alongside the enormous apartheid wall. There was little concern at us walking through. We were obviously foreigners and tourists at that and we were practically ignored. I noticed some Palestinians who were trying to leave Bethlehem we not getting the same treatment. They were being ignored yes, but not allowed to pass through the checkpoint. I have no idea how long they might have been waiting or waited after we left.
There was great excitement at the taxi rank when we got through the checkpoint. The taxi drivers were jumping at the chance to charge us 4 times the usual taxi fee to take us to the Church of the Nativity! This is not only because they want to rip off tourists, but because they are desparate for money enough to do what they can to feed their families. Aware of all of this we didn't really mind being ripped off, but we were a bit more savvy for our return journey!
The taxi driver, not only content with having overcharged us stopped on the way to try and entice us to a tour of some of the other places around Bethlehem. We we refused, he said he would at least take us to his family's shop and hope that we would buy some of the hand carved olive wood goods there. This man would not take no for an answer and eventually, we had to send the group onwards, so we were no longer such an attractive prospect before he would allow us to pay for the taxi. Needless to say we looks for a better deal on the way back!
There were few people inside the Church of the Nativity. January is always a quiet month, but the only people there were probably in Bethlehem for the Orthodox Christmas which is today. More on that later...
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