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