In the land of milk and honey

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I've just returned from Israel - and am trying to adjust to being back in London. What a trip! From the moment I landed I loved it- the people, the land, the history; everything just felt incredible. I felt totally alive in Israel, and now I look back at the last week and know it was a life changing experience. One hears so much about Israel/the middle east/the Palestine issue, and so many people (in my case my partner, mother, colleaugues and friends) all tried to persuade me not to go because it was too dangerous andpolitically incorrect. It didn't feel dangerous, (although I accept with love the worry expressed by those above) it just felt good to be there. On my return last night I watched one of the films I bought in Tel Aviv, called 'The Bubble" by Eytan Fox and cried over the misery of the troubles there so poignantly portrayed in a film piece about gay love between an Israeli and a palestinian, destroyed by the forces beyond themselves .... I only went through one checkpoint on the way to Masada and the Dead Sea- and experienced nothing of it really on a tour bus but the movie resonated with me.

One of the best bits of the trip was going to Shul there in Tel Aviv: seeing the array of people who had emigrated to Israel- and really feeling welcomed as part of the congregation there on Shabbat, of course the worst bit was leaving. I just wasn't ready.

Tel Aviv from Jaffa




The Sephardic Shuls in the Old City, Jerusalem






The Western Wall, Jewish Quarter, Jerusalem
The only remains of the temple





Old City Walls of Jerusalem



Jerusalem from Mount Scopus



Yad Vashem, 16/04 (Jerusalem). Words cannot express the feelings of visiting Yad Vashem (the memorial to those who were murdered in the shoah). The day I was there was Yom HaShoah (the Jewish national memorial day of the holocaust) - more than 5 million adults and 1.5 million jewish children were murdered during the period of the second world war. This place moves you - beyond what can be described -










Masada is a hilltop fort near the dead sea- the site of the suicide of 960 Jewish zealots who took refuge there after the second temple and Jerussalem were destroyed by the romans in AD 70. The zealots held out at the fort for 3 years, but finally the romans looked likely to suceed in getting to the top and the Jews there comitted suicide rather than face slavery.


Comments

Unknown said…
wow peter, how wonderful to have such a life changing experience!
27 April 2007 at 18:41:00 GMT
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