Tuesday, May 25th - Jerusalem

Greetings Yella Followers,

Today we ventured outside the gates of the Old City of Jerusalem. This morning we left the Ecce Homo and had a lecture with Hamar who is a member of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolition (ICAHD) an organization dedicated to ending the Occupation and achieving peace between the Israelis and Palentinians. Our lecture was held on the Promenade which over looks East and West Jerusalem, with an excellent view of the Old City including the Dome of the Rock. Needless to say it was quite a site to see!

We drove through the city of Jerusalem and had a better look at Jewish settlements and Palestinian villages. We were able to see how they were divided within the city with and without The Wall. That drive led us to the look out point over the Mount Scopus Forest. From this point we were able to see the Dead Sea in the distance where we will be swimming on Thursday and I can't wait!

Then came lunch. We drove to a town outside of Jerusalem and our bus couldn't make it through the busy and tight streets. In order to make it to our destination we had to take taxi vans to navigate the streets. We arrived at the House of Peace around 1pm for a meal of rice, chicken, salad and watermelon. The purpose of this visit was to hear the story of a Palestinian man and his family who have had their house demolished five times by the Israel Government over the span of approximately 10 years. This was all at his expense because he didn't have a building permit to have his house there. However, the Israeli Government wouldn't give him a permit after applying four times.

After lunch we headed to Canada Park which is situated between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. We had a tour of the three villages that were demolished in 1967 because of 'security' reasons. That left many people in those villages homeless and as refugees.

We drove back to the Old City of Jerusalem to the Ecce Homo and we will all prepare for the Wadi Kelt hike from Jerusalem to Jericho tomorrow.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!

Katie Erb