On pilgrimage, Day 2

March 23, 2009
We’re are officially on Day 2 of the trip. The day started off with Iyad (our tour guide) taking us to Mount Scopus to see panoramic views of Jerusalem and the West Bank. Toward the West Bank, the landscape is dotted with Palestinian villages and Israeli settlements. Here we caught our first glimpse of the Wall, which separates the Palestinian and Israeli sides. The Wall extends 17 miles into the West Bank (Palestinian territory) from the Green Line, the point the United Nations originally outline in 1948. We could see the Wall dividing the road—on one side were Israeli cars (marked by yellow license plates) on the other side were Palestinian cars (known by their white and green license plates). According to Iyad, it used to take 30 minutes to travel between Bethlehem and Ramallah (both located in West Bank territory) as drivers took a straight route through Jerusalem; today, it takes as much as 2 hours for Palestinian drivers to travel get to the same destination because they must take a round-about road where they encounter checkpoints.
During the midday, we viewed the Dead Sea Scrolls found at Qumran. The scrolls and their commentary were written and kept by an Essenes sect who lived in the desert. Through discovered artifacts and the writings of Josephus and other early historians, we know that they were a pious sect who gave shared their goods, lived in piety, valued the community, and preserved the Holy Scriptures.
Later in the evening Iyad walked us to Damascus Gate, where excavations have revealed major constructions of the Romans in the 1st century, the Byzantines during the 4th and 5th centuries, and the Crusades of the 11th and 12th centuries. Since space is limited, everything in the city is built in layers and you can tell each period by the type of construction and the way the stones are chiseled. Excavation wasn’t undertaken until well into the 20th century and such layers would not have been visible until the dirt and stone was unearth.
The events of the day have lead me to ponder the meaning of displacement and the ways in which communities attempt to preserve their history and identity. As time goes on, displacement becomes a reality. Walls have been breached and extended, rival holy sites have been destroyed and rebuilt, civilizations/peoples/nations have been defeated and begun anew. And yet, they have left behind ruins and markers of their presence that allow us to have a better understanding of who they are and give us an understanding of our shared humanity. Jane and Michael
Pilgrimage links: Website and Photo Album