Bethlehem

My July 4 was a lot different from what I'm accustomed to. At the sweet invitation of a friend of a friend, I traversed across the city to the Arab bus stop and caught bus 231 to the city of Beit Jolla in the West Bank. There WAS a moment where I got off at the wrong place (there aren't named or numbered stops, you just hope you can match the descriptions)... I called Jamison and said, "I think I'm in the wrong place. I'm standing on the side of the road and there's a place called Panorama Market beside me with a yellow sign." 😂 He asked me to describe the view across the street and, just from that, knew where to come pick me up. As he pulled up, I said, "You didn't plan on a bumbling southerner taking up your whole Saturday, did you?" 😳 He took me to his home where I met his sweet family, then he gave me a tour of the Church of the Nativity. After that, we spent more time with his family, then his small group arrived for Bible study. His kindness continued when he drove me all the way back to my hotel instead of me taking a bus or cab. It was a GREAT day!

If you've ever turned on the news, you haven't had to wait long for some sort of story about Israel, Palestine, the West Bank, Gaza. I will admit that, prior to my trip in October, I honestly believed that people were crouching around corners shooting at each other all the time. That rockets dropped from the sky every day. October killed a lot of that media hysteria for me, but yesterday dispelled even more media stereotypes. Yesterday I was in the West Bank. Outside the fence. Through the checkpoint. And do you know what I found? Not gangs of weapon-toting, hostile people. No, I found adorable brown-eyed boys sucking on two fingers outside a store... kids on bicycles flying through parking lots... gentle men singing "Oh Holy Night" in the cave of the Nativity... families walking home from buying groceries... I guess if there is ONE THING I want you all, my students, to gain from this trip, it's this: People are people. No matter where they live or what their political affiliation is or what religion they are, they are still people who laugh, love, and live just like you. And if you cut them, they will bleed like you. It's a little ironic that the people I was with yesterday are considered by many to be "enemies of Israel (read: the Jews)" and I want to use their lives to further my purpose in Holocaust education. But to me, that's THE WHOLE POINT of Holocaust education. We have to see what happens when people are stripped of their humanity, demonized, monster-ized, viewed as "other". It's not about politics at all, it's about PEOPLE.

Pictures are the Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem, and my only view of the Stars and Stripes on Independence Day as I passed the American Consulate!