Monday, November 11
Today we visited the grave of David Ben Gurion, after
walking through a nature reserve where we saw several native Ibex. We did have
some sort of educational talk at this point but after the last night, I may have fallen asleep in the warm sun
instead. You can surely tell that exhaustion is starting to set in, as my
photos become fewer and generally worse for wear.
We went to the Gaza border and talked about some of the
issues associated with the Gaza territory and the Palestinian Israeli conflict
in this region. Nearby, we visited a local organic farm and planted some vegetables
which have grown considerably since.
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| The Gaza wall. The closest city to the wall is far in the distance. |
Returning to Jerusalem, we got to attend the General
Assembly of the Jewish Federations. We watched a series of speeches and
interviews of prominent Israeli figures, including the CEO of El Al Airlines,
and the CEO of SodaStream, which is a company facilitating social bonds between
Israelis and Palestinians by building factories where members of both communities work side by side.
After the seminar there was a massive party just for all the Birthright groups;
dinner was ready to go, there was live music and everyone was dancing.
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| Joel from our group started drumming during the DJ set for several hundred people in the audience. |
Arriving late back at the hotel, we still had a sociable
group activity before retiring to bed.
Tuesday, November 12
This morning we visited Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial
museum. We had a guided tour through the museum – and if touring, I think it’s
worth getting a guide for this because we learnt so much more than what was
available to read on the signs. It’s impossible to see the entire place
thoroughly in one day, there are so many individual stories from survivors that
are documented. We focused on the history of Hitler’s rise to power, how the
socialist government was elected, and how he changed the way people perceived
their society through propaganda and military training.
Usually it is arranged for a Holocaust survivor to come and
speak to our group in person, but we weren’t able to experience this because
the survivor that would have talked to us passed away. This just emphasises the
importance of a place like Yad Vashem; the work it does to document the stories
of the individual survivors, and archive the evidence gathered of the crimes.
The number of survivors still here to tell their stories is dwindling, and
there is no evidence to substitute hearing from someone who experienced these
crimes against humanity first hand.
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| This is from the organic farm near Gaza, but I put it here because I don't have photos from this day. |
Our next activity was a huge contrast from Yad Vashem. We
headed to Beit Shemesh, which is D.C.’s partnership community. We were greeted
at a local restaurant for snacks and a brief introduction to the town, before
we visited a mosque for a talk about Muslim culture.
We walked to the local community centre, where we divided into small groups and visited with the Israeli Arabs in their homes. The three of us had an amazing time at Ahmed’s house, which was pretty much built by his father. As the kids grew up and got married, they would build an extra level onto the house with an additional flat for the new family. We met the whole family, they offered us snacks and drinks and then we chilled out on the patio with some argilah. This was our first experience of an Israeli home on our trip, and everyone on our tour was impressed with the hospitality we received. We were sad to leave our new friends in Beit Shemesh.
We walked to the local community centre, where we divided into small groups and visited with the Israeli Arabs in their homes. The three of us had an amazing time at Ahmed’s house, which was pretty much built by his father. As the kids grew up and got married, they would build an extra level onto the house with an additional flat for the new family. We met the whole family, they offered us snacks and drinks and then we chilled out on the patio with some argilah. This was our first experience of an Israeli home on our trip, and everyone on our tour was impressed with the hospitality we received. We were sad to leave our new friends in Beit Shemesh.
For our last night in Jerusalem, we went to town. The locals
were keen on taking us to Kings bar in the town centre. Again we all had a
blast in town, but it also had the bitter taste of the final night of the tour.
The group had grown so close in ten days. I’ve been on group tours before, but
Birthright was such a personal journey and we had all grown by our experiences
together over the past days.
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