Today I woke up to such beautiful scenery of the desert mountains. Another early start to get to Masada. We went up on a cable car to the ancient ruins of Herod the Great. He built palaces for himself on the mountain and fortified Masada between 37 and 31 BCE. I was pleasantly surprised how well we did going up and exploring the ruins with the wheelchair! It was pretty Rocky but we did it! Gee was it scary going up in the cable cars at such a height, we saw some incredible views. So many of these places I’ve been to on this trip I have had no idea ever even existed!
After trekking up the mountain we all got on the bus and traveled to another ancient ruin. This one is one of the oldest, dating back to 5thousand BC! It was called “Bet she’an National Park; it was in the middle of a shithole in a Jewish community. There were hardly any tourists because this place when it was active didn’t have a religion! Incredible! Funny how so much of the population in this world today are sheep! People will go to made up modern day ruins over religion but because this hasn’t any it’s empty. Our guide was saying how he can’t make sense of it.. How there’s still 95% of uncovered ruins around this area but there isn’t enough interest or anything stimulating from any Bible for people to bother about it.
This country is so rich , so much to see and learn! Just from being here a week I’ve gained so much.
After we saw this incredible site we got on the bus and traveled further north. We stopped to visit the place Jesus was baptised. There were lots of people there, getting into the water.. Some even naked. It didn’t really interest me very much, I couldn’t quite understand how this one story has made such a massive impact on so many peoples life’s. Making people go into a trance, getting undressed and crying in the water because thousands of years ago one person was apparently baptised. Anything could have happened back then and it’s been like Chinese whispers ever since.
Anyway, after that we drove more north to the city of Galilee. Fortunately we are staying at a wonderful Scottish hotel. It very much reminds me of dad. From the carpets, to the furniture, even some of the workers are Scottish! Made me think, imagine if my father actually knew I was over here! He would seriously have a fit! Probably not speak to me for a year like when I got my tattoo! (Thankfully that’s almost disappeared after 5 sessions of lazier )!
But hopefully after this trip and the one in Iran I can go back to Australia and explain to him in person what an educational experience this and the next trip will have been. I don’t know though! Scottish blood! Still will probably hit the roof and have a fit.
Just before dinner we met with some of the other people that are here with us with National Geographic. We all had a discussion on the current situation with Israel and Palestine. Apparently the Israeli settler that spoke with us on Monday (the one that came with us to Ramallah In Palestine) wrote up an article about what she went through that day and how much Israel and Palestine should be at peace. There was a great deal more to it and our leader of the group is converting it into English.
I was surprised that everyone else was also very pro Palestine. Considering majority of them are American Jews, they see that the Israeli government is corrupt and things are very wrong here.
We were talking In Depth politics tonight. I recorded it all!
It makes me giggle a bit..This little blonde Aussie actually having an interest in politics!? I have surprised myself! The adrenaline talking about it within the group though.. I really feel drawn to it.
One of the ladies from National Geographic is in human rights and she said depending on what I want to be able to try help in she has many contacts in london. I thought it would be fantastic to be able to do a day or even half a day at least a week of volunteer work in an office for children’s human rights.
There certainly is a real need for help in it..The Israeli government are arresting and imprisoning children as young as 12 years old!! Have a read of this article..
It’s sickening. A lot of Palestinian children go to prison for stone throwing, Israeli Military say it’s a terror attack. There just angry because this idiot government is pushing Palestinians out of there homes for Jewish settlers. And the process on how the settlements are established are wrong too. The government demands they need that land for the military that eventually gets turned into settlements. This explains the procedure of what the corrupt government does to establish these communities.
It’s sad, unfair and not enough talk is done about it. While we were all talking in the dining room before dinner tonight, some of the waiters were giving us all very dirty looks. The body language was quite obvious how touchy this topic is. I can see so much tension between the two. One of our group leaders was explaining they had a discussion in public at a restaurant about this talk and some people over heard at another table, came up to them and verbally started attacked them, telling them they should go kill themselves, that they hope they get raped by Arabs! I couldn’t believe this!
This is why no Israeli talks about this. The people know it’s bad but are taught to just put there head down and pretend nothing is going on.
Although it’s such a complex and sticky situation here I’m so SO happy and grateful I have had the opportunity to join such an educational trip. It’s opened up my mind and possibly new doors in my life.
My world in a diary 