visit to the holy land
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Visit to the Holy Land: Israel-Palestine, May 2009
Kathy Staudt
A lifetime dream…
• Raised Lutheran, attended Atonement Lutheran parochial school, Grades 1-8, with Bible History EVERY day…
• A close friend, who once taught sociology at UTEP but now teaches at American U, has a family home in Jerusalem
• Invitation to speak at Bir Zeit University in Palestine (OPTs), near Ramullah
Israel: A Security State
Airport checks in US and Tel Aviv
40-minute drive: a preview of checkpoints, borders, and Israeli settlements on Palestinian land, atop hills, with Palestinian villages beneath
Bir Zeit University
• Founded:
• Strong commitment to education
• “We are all cousins”
• Egyptian 1st Lady comment: Palestinians ‘more like them than like us’
Jerusalem: The Old City
• Market divided into quarters: Jewish, Muslim, Armenian, Christian
• Holy Places for the three monotheistic religions accessible from here:– Dome of the Rock/Haram al Sharif (Abraham’s near
sacrifice of Isaac. Mohammed’s ascension into heaven)—also Al-Aqsa Mosque, with men and women inside
– Wailing Wall– Church of the Holy Sepulcher (divided/managed by
different national-ethnic segments): Calvary 2nd floor– Stations of the Cross (embedded amid and in
between merchants and vendors)
Visit to Galilee
• Israeli tour guide and the Zionist Grand Narrative• Nazareth: Basilica of the Annunciation (a “living
church”). Site of Mary’s home, where Gabriel announced pregnancy
• Capernaum, contested historic “border” space• Sea of Galilee w/speedboats• Jordan River, Kibbutz, and baptisms• For sale: wine from Canaan, water from the
Jordan River, etc.
Home demolitions: bureaucratic authoritarianism
• Tent protests
• Press conference
• “ethnic cleansing”
• Objective: Building King David’s Park, after demolishing a swath of 100 homes in Silwan: Rule of law?
Tunnel Tour…w/a Palestinian tour guide, w/Hebrew & English (not
Arabic) signs
• The search for Solomon’s Temple: Size?
• Tunneling under the Dome of the Rock
• Above ground: the Garden of Gethsemane (size ~ < football field?), selling olive leaves
Bethlehem
• Walls and Checkpoints
• Eternal Christmas: strings of Santas and bells across streets
• The Birthplace: Christians kissing rocks
• Israeli Settlements in OPT: on mountain tops