Worktrek 1

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Worktrek 1

• Towards Jerusalem
• June 2011

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Itinerary

• Mon Tel Aviv to Jericho
• Tue Jericho, Ramallah, Nablus
• Wed Nablus, Sebastia, Nazareth
• Thu Galilee, Capernaum, Nazareth
• Fri Galilee, Banyas, Golan, Nazareth
• Sat Bet Sean, Qumran, Wilderness
• Sun Bethlehem, Wilderness
• Mon Bethlehem
• The second week was based in Bethlehem, with
  visits to Herodium, Hebron, Jerusalem, Masada,
  Engedi, Dead Sea
• Mon via Yad Vashem to Tel Aviv

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Monday Tel Aviv to Jericho
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Jericho Intercontinental Hotel
A SPOT OF LUXURY TO SET THE TONE
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Tuesday Mount of Temptation
Monastery on a Mountain.
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Mount of Temptation, Jericho

• Cable cars

• Fertile land

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Three cities of Jericho

• 1. old city excavated deep pits show levels

• No remains from Joshua.
• Rebuilt in Ahabs time.
• Zedekiah fled there before he was captured.
• Saw his sons killed, then lost his eyes before
  going into exile.

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Three cities of Jericho

• 2. NEW TESTAMENT CITY
• Different site
• Now just ruins
• 3. CURRENT CITY
• Oldest inhabited town

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From Jericho to Nablus

• winding road

• bedouin

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Bedouin

• Keep animals in desert
• Live in tents
• Government pressure to live in houses

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Ramallah (Gods Mountain)

• carob juice seller

• yasser arafats tomb

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Dr Husam Zomlot

• FATAH Deputy commissioner for

• international relations

• The right of the Palestinians to
  self-determination is clear.
• Israel must pull out of the occupied territories.
• Palestinians have protested peacefully, but since
  the peace process began, Israeli settlements have
  trebled.

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Why does Israel break the law?

• Fear factor
• Ignorance factor
• Comfort factor
• Balance of power
• ANC worse than South Africa
• Aim - ethnic cleansing
• Means intimidation force

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Israeli Government Policy

• un-nationalise Palestine
• separate West Bank from Gaza
• occupy West Bank by building illegal settlements
  and military bases
• carve up the West Bank by Israeli-only roads
• politically eliminate Palestinian power
• socio-economically strangle Palestinians
• make it difficult for Palestinians to stay
• confiscate IDs of Palestinians whose life is not
  based in Jerusalem for 3 years

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How should Palestinians respond?

• Negotiation is a futile game
• Resist peacefully (keep moral high ground)
• International pressure boycott Israeli goods
• Hamas and Fatah need to get together
• Build institutions to serve Palestinians
• (not to demonstrate being worthy of statehood)
• Focus on Palestinians right to move freely
  within their own country

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Important factors for and against

• IN FAVOUR of resolution

• obstacles

• Most people want peace
• Judaism is about justice
• 5 main pro-Palestine voices in USA are all Jews
• Obama favours a 2-state solution UN recognition
• 60 of Israelis are Arab Jews from North Africa

• Evangelical Zionism in USA
• 80 million want Israel to pave the way for
  Messiah
• The West is cowardly
• e.g. Britain favours a 2-state solution, but does
  nothing
• 1967 recognition of Israel as a state, but
  Palestine only as a people (rep by PLO)
• disputed or occupied?

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Wednesday -Nablus (new city)
Built by Romans on ancient site of Shechem
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Acts 8 a city of Samaria?
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Samaritans

• Smallest minority in the world
• Left behind after Assyrian invasion of Northern
  kingdom (722 BCE)
• Only 700 remain
• 400 live in Nablus
• Only accept Torah

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Nablus High Street
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Nablus Market
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Nablus Market
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Nablus Market
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Nablus local sweet speciality

• SOFT CHEESE sugar

• 1.50

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Bread shops
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Nablus Soap Factory

• inside

• outside

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Former Soap Factory bombed
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Nablus Anglican Church
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Father Ibrahim
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Five problems

• Jerusalem
• Borders checkpoints
• Settlements
• Water
• Refugee camps

• All overcome by 1-state solution

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Practical steps

• Gathers Muslims, Christians Samaritans
  together.
• Joint youth camps.
• All Imams in Nablus gather together regularly for
  a meal at the church.

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Jacobs Well
Between Mt Gerazim (blessings) Mt Nebo
(curses). Story of Jacobs well parallels modern
water struggle. Palestinians can only dig 70 m.
OK for surface water, but not for artesian wells
(living water in Jn 4).
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Orthodox Convent
Very few Greek Orthodox churches left most taken
over by Franciscans. Destroyed in 529 -
Justinians persecution and 614 -
Persian invasion. Present convent rebuilt in
1990.
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The road to Sebastia (Samaria)

• Olive trees cut down by army.
• Some over 100 yrs old.
• Destroy evidence that Palestinians have been
  there for generations.
• Palestinian farmers have to grow citrus fruit
  less profitable.

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Parallel with Nebuchadnezzar

• Cut down trees
• Put stones in fields
• Block wells
• Aim - make land less inhabitable
• Nehemiah had to undo the damage

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The road to Sebastia (Samaria)
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Hussams story

• Visited Jerusalem as a boy with his father
• Not to speak Arabic in public
• Arrested at 15 for not carrying papers
• Enjoyed stoning soldiers
• Arrested at 17, interrogated for 54 days
• 6 months in prison.
• City decided not to pay taxes to Israel
• Resisted debt collectors
• Wanted person shot in the leg
• 3 months in hospital
• 1991 15 days in prison
• Spoke to a guard who seemed OK.

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Hussams story

• Introduced to nonviolence
• Became a tour guide
• Studied nonviolence
• MA in conflict resolution
• Now trains people in nonviolence in West Bank
• Sees his previous acts as nonviolent resistance
• Active and non-active ways of being non-violent
• Active options awareness raising, direct action
  and strategic campaigns

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Sebastia (Samaria)
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Samaria

• can refer to
• the region of Samaria
• the city of Samaria
• a city of Samaria
• The capital city was
• first Shechem (Nablus)
• then Samaria (Omri)

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Three temples in Samaria

1. Ahab
2. Omri
3. Herod

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Travel to Nazareth

• Passed olive trees planted hundreds of years ago.
• Olive trees take 75 years to mature, and live
  almost forever.
• People of the land love the land and invest
  their lives in it.

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Nazareth Guest House
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Thursday - Nazareth
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Nazareth
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Mount of Beatitudes
Blessed tooba in Aramaic is an active word
standing up, being involved
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Capernaum
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Peters house, Capernaum
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Capernaum Synagogue

• Solid wall to north
• External stairs to balcony for women
• Men (downstairs) have better view
• Jewish Christians
• 1 Cor 1435
• ask their husbands at home

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Boat - Lake of Galilee
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Friday
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Breaking bread by the Lake
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Hazor National Park

• tell
• city set on a hill
• Canaanite period

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Caesarea Philippi

• Gates of Hades
• Temple to Pan
• Also called Panyas

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Caesarea Philippi

• St George (El Hadr) was a Druze
• Became a Christian local hero.
• Killing the dragon was probably stopping the
  annual sacrifice of a virgin to the river dragon.

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Golan Heights (Southern Syria)

• Druze village
• Lunch in a house/school
• Medical Centre
• Minefields

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Who are the Druze?

• Branch of Islam.
• Roots are a mixture of Greek philosophy and
  Buddhism.

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Nazareth Synagogue Church
Saturday
Luke 416-30
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Sunday
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Church of the Nativity
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Monday - Final wilderness meal

• Then travel to Bethlehem
• 3 Christian cities in W. Bank
• Bethlehem
• Beit Sahour
• Beit Jalla has 9,000 Christians and a further
  60,000 in Chile

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The Wall
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