Day 105

Today we headed off to the West Bank. This required taking a public bus from the Old City to the Security Wall. This thing is huge and intimidating. It is also super secure and I could see why Israel built it. I don't know how you would be able to get a bomb through it, and I guess that accounts for the decrease in attacks. I don't think its because the Palestine's are finally happy because this thing definitely restricts their movement. Getting through to Palestine was no problem, we just flashed our passports and they let us right in. Once in, we saw the wall just covered in graffiti declaring the insidious nature of the wall. Some of it was angry some of it was pleading for peace and an end to apartheid. We got a cab and headed to Bethlehem Church where Jesus was born. This place is a tourist mecca as well, but we were able to slyly (actually unknowing) go through the exit down to the exact spot where Jesus was born. Pretty spectacular stuff.
After this we got on a local bus to Hebron, where we were told that we had to go in order to understand the conflict. The people in Hebron were not as nice as everybody said they would be to us and we couldn't find Abraham's tomb so we ended up walking around kind of lost in a city where I felt unwanted. So I made the executive decision of just getting out there, it wasn't fun just hanging out in a city that was so much pent up animosity on both ends. Coming back through the security was a little bit more tough but we didn't have any problems. We got back to Old City, had dinner and spent some more time in the old city. I forgot, but earlier that morning we also followed the Stations of the Cross through Jerusalem. So much stuff to see in the city.