“There is more to Palestine than politics,” says tour guide Wisam to our group
of 19 to 60 year-olds, sitting in the foyer of the Paradise Hotel in
Bethlehem. It's the first day of our tour with the Alternative Tourism
Group, and there are 20 of us from Britain and Ireland.
The first and second floors of the Paradise Hotel are still closed - since the
start of the Second Intifada in 2000 the hotel has felt the full force of
the Israeli occupation; having been hit by missiles and occupied by Israeli
troops. In November 2001 it was burned out by the Israeli army, only
reopening for business in 2005. When the history is this recent it is
inescapable.
Without trying to ignore politics, ATG’s mission is to get beyond it and
encourage visitors to explore Palestinian culture. They want to demonstrate
the hardship of the day-to-day realities of Palestinian life, while
indicating that conflict is not the natural state for Palestinians: they
have a way of life that is worth struggling to maintain.
The itinerary for the trip supports this, alternating meetings with political
figures, activists or human rights groups with more conventional
sight-seeing attractions, such as a dip in the Dead Sea or a tour of Herod’s
summer palace.
ATG was set up in 1995, and a decade later produced a guide book, Palestine &
Palestinians. Last year they organised 88 tour groups within the West Bank.
All tours have a political flavour, including visits to the Jerusalem
settlements in conjunction with the Israeli Committee Against House
Demolitions.
One of the ATG’s most popular offerings is the Olive Picking Programme. This
gives visitors the chance to join locals for the annual olive harvest
(otherwise jeopardised by the occupation), while experiencing Palestinian
culture first hand. Olives have been cultivated in Palestine since Neolithic
times, and the farming has created the landscapes of terraced fields. But
their emotive significance is perhaps even greater, being connected with
both the land and the traditional way of life that has been lost to the
Palestinians, not to mention the symbolic associations of the olive branch
with peace.
Tourism may seem a relatively trivial concern, given the terrible urgency of
daily life in the West Bank, yet both Palestinian and Israeli policy have
acknowledged its fundamental role in the economy and as a means of national
representation.
The Israeli Public Relations machine efficiently seeks to reduce the appeal of
Palestinian tourist attractions, and further to that checkpoints and
closures make travel in the West Bank daunting and inconvenient. Palestinian
guides are unlikely to have been granted the correct permits to allow them
to move freely within the West Bank, let alone to Jerusalem or further
afield.
Bethlehem provides one of the most striking examples of this, but as the 2000
Jubilee preparations demonstrated, it also possesses enormous potential as a
tourist destination. The city’s streets are as clean and pretty as any
Mediterranean hilltop town, and brimming with inexpensive restaurants
serving fresh falafel and mezze, hotels and coffee shops where nergilehs
(pipes of flavoured tobacco) and small glasses of sweet, mint-flavoured tea
are passed around. And even a hardened cynic might be hard-pushed not to
feel some reverence in the small cave-sanctuary where Jesus was supposedly
born.
Sadly these days Bethlehem is perhaps most famous for the nine metre high
concrete wall that snakes around the city, cutting it off from Jerusalem and
much of its own land. “Now we are entering the prison,” grinned our taxi
driver, without a trace of bitterness, as we drove through the main
Bethlehem checkpoint of that formidable structure in the sepia morning
light.
No amount of news footage had prepared me for the first sight of the "separation
barrier". In the taxi, an initial murmur of shock was followed by an
awed silence, broken in turn by disbelieving laughter at the sight of the
huge sign which papers the wall in festival colours on the Jerusalem side: "Peace
be with you from the Israeli Ministry for Tourism."
To have international visitors witness the realities on the ground in the West
Bank is a key aspiration of groups such as ATG. They are aware that media
representations of Palestinians rarely help to generate sympathy for their
plight. As Dr Majed Nassar, from the Health Works Committee asserted when we
saw him; “At present Palestinians are in a very lonesome situation: I think
we have never been so lonely.”
You know there are always two sides to a coin. I do feel for the people
of Palestine, the suffering they are experiencing with the wall and checkpoints etc, but let us not forget ,why the wall and checkpoints are there.It is, that before the wall was up Israel suffered
many deaths at the hands of suicide bombers which to a very
large extent is not happening now. So, what is the answer men,women and children dying at the hands of suicide bombers or having the wall to protect life.Hamas does not want to live in peace with Israel. It cannot live in peace with their own pepople, as witnessed recently by taking over Gaza.
People in Israel are also going through traumas. No mention
is made in the media about every day raining of Kassams
rockets in Sderot, where children are traumatised every day.
Their schools are especially targeted and life is hell for everybody. I really hope peace will prevail with goodwill from
Abbas and the new government and Olmert
Myer Cohen, London, England
Yes yes, a good place for a holiday. Might I suggest traveling on to Baghdad afterwards (another place where the British have shown their 'insights' into the world situation).
sam, edinburgh, scotland
People always complain about the security measures installed at aiports both in Tel Aviv and airports around the world for travellers to Israel. This is true for Jews, Israelli's as well as everyone else. No-one is exempt from security checks. But in a country where attack is always imminent, are you surprised? It is tiresome (I have experienced this myself) but comforting at the same time. .
Sharron, London, UK
I have been toying with the idea of booking a trip with ATG for months now. After reading this article, feeling equipped with real knowledge I could not find in any guide, I finally did it and will be winging my way to the West Bank very soon. Thank you
Sharon Edmonds, Nottingham,
I have to say I loved your article. I too went to The West Bank on holidays and was amazed at how terrible the situation was, and how much I enjoyed myself.
What is shocking though is the amount of mental and physical barriers that were thrown up by those who should have known better. In particular my embassy, which gave me such dire warnings, that I almost cancelled. Warnings they must have known were false.
I travelled -a girl on my own- for three weeks and felt completely safe. The only people who scared me were Israeli settlers and teenage soldiers at checkpoints with guns as big as themselves. I too am returning- if they let me in.
Well done on a great article,
Yael
Anne Kennedy, Dublin, Ireland
Reads as balanced and informative. Encourgaes me to make a visit sooner rather than later with my young family. The need to know is very helpful indicator,
Abdulkhaliq Dhalech, Gloucester, UKof GB