From Irbid To Jerusalem (Part 1)

After classes on Tuesday, we began our semester break, which lasted until this past Sunday.  For the break, I decided to go with a group of guys to Jerusalem.  So, on Tuesday night, we headed to Amman, where we slept overnight and then caught a bus to Jerusalem at 7:00 am on Wednesday morning. Although Amman is only about 45 miles away from Jerusalem (if you drew a straight line), it took us 6 hours to get there.  We took a bus to the border, went through Jordanian customs, got back on the bus, went over the bridge, then went through Israeli customs, and finally, we took a bus across the West Bank and into Israel.  Going through Jordanian customs was very easy, and the officers were all very friendly and helpful.  I wish I could say the same for Israeli customs.  

Before we left, we heard many horror stories of being stuck at Israeli customs for hours, so we anticipated a long, frustrating process. However, most of our group got through Israeli customs fairly easily.  The officer that I talked to was actually nice and she let me and most of my group through without a problem.  Unfortunately, one of the members of our group was carrying a diplomatic passport, which under normal circumstances, would speed up the process.  The Israeli border is anything but normal, thus it took about 3 hours for him to get through. During this time there was an "emergency situation," so we were forced to go back behind the customs booths and wait for the "all clear."  During the 15 minutes that this "situation" took place, the tension within the checkpoint was palpable.  For example, an older Palestinian woman moved a chair about 5 feet and sat in it because she was tired.  Seeing this, a young Israeli employee told her she had to get up, even though there was no one using the seat, because there was a sign posted that prohibited people from "taking" chairs.  When the boy (he was literally no older than 16) told the woman to move, a Palestinian man told him quite angrily that he could not take the chair away from the woman because she was not doing anything wrong.  The boy went and got his superior, who must have decided that it wasn't worth the hassle of taking the chair away, so the woman was able to remain seated.  I wish I could say that it is the norm for the weak to get their way, but that simply is not the case in Israel/Palestine.

After we finally got through the Israeli checkpoint, we took a small bus through the West Bank to Jerusalem.  Along the way, we saw a few Israeli settlements that have been illegally constructed in Palestinian territory.  As you can see from the pictures, the settlements are all situated atop hills and surrounded by walls.  They are accessed by newly-paved highways that cut across Palestinian land, that can usually only be used by Israeli citizens.  The reason that I say these settlements are illegal is because they violate the Geneva Convention's prohibition on settling occupied territory (such as the West Bank).  Despite being illegal, Israel has allowed nearly 500,000 settlers to move into the West Bank.  At the same time, the Israeli government has been building a wall that zig-zags throughout the Occupied Territory.  The result is that about 44% of the West Bank has been effectively annexed by the state of Israel.  Sadly, the process is ongoing. When we visited Bethlehem (I'll talk about this in another post), we were able to see the construction crews building more houses in yet another illegal settlement.

Here are a couple of quick pictures that I took while riding through the West Bank:

If you are interested in learning more about this issue, I'd love to talk about it in person when I get back.  You can also go to http://www.btselem.org/ or http://www.ips-dc.org/mideast.  The first link is to the website of B'Tselem, an Israeli organization that is one of the most widely respected groups that compile statistics about the Israeli occupation.  The second link is to the page of one of my favorite commentators on US policy towards the Middle East, Phyllis Bennis.  Also, here is a link to a map of the Israeli settlements in the West Bank: http://www.btselem.org/download/settlements_map_eng.jpg (you can enlarge it to see it better).

Ok, so now that I wrote a lot more than I was planning on writing, I'll stop for now.  I'll post more as the week goes on, so hopefully by the end of this week I'll have covered the whole trip.  Stay tuned!