Palestine

Central Square

"How was your visit to Palestine?" A question I often get since posting to my Instagram page. "How come I haven’t written about the experience?", comes right after. I did but not in detail but you asked and I deliver, so here we go.

Let me start off by saying the Palestine I visited was not the one you see on TV, that’s Rafah and the West Bank. The Palestine I visited was Bethlehem. The trip was a few hours but that in itself was enough to understand the situation on the ground.

I got picked up in Israel and took the bus into Palestine. We were told the tour bus uses a separate entrance to enter the city than that of the local people. You only knew when you got to the border by seeing the miles and miles of  barbed wire fence. Security is paramount in this region so the bus was checked.

Regarded as the Birthplace of Jesus Christ

We drove into the city and stopped at the basement of a mall. Here is where we met our local guide. We walked around the old city a bit. The city was bustling and we managed to interact with a few people along the way. The city has a few religious monuments scattered across it and we ended at the manger that is said to be the birthplace of Christ.  We then moved to government buildings and narrow walkways and I have a different view while going back to the bus.

The West Bank and the Gaza Strip are different from what I experienced and if those places actually survive the current events, who knows what they would look like then. So the next time I say I visited Palestine, you now know what I meant!

Residential street in Bethlehem

Editors Note: Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of any parties mentioned. None of the entities mentioned has reviewed, approved or endorsed the content listed in this post.