Sea of Settlements

So this weekend, I headed up to the Sea of Galilee. I met a Danish guy named Kristian on the bus who was traveling on his own for a couple months, so we decided to stick together. We walked around for a little while, had a few drinks, then headed to the super market before Shabat started. We got a little picnic for our night by the sea. Then we headed to the beach for a swim in Lake Kinneret (what everyone here calls it since it's not actually a "sea" at all), smoked some argeelah, then found a place to camp out for the night. We slept on some rocks and pebbles, not too comfortable, in a non-camping site about 5 feet away from the water, it was a good time. Interesting fact I learned from Lonely Planet, Jesus may have actually walked on ice on the Sea of Galilee during a freak climate shift which froze the shallower parts of the lake instead of miraculously walking on water. I think that's still impressive though, I mean have you ever tried to hold your composure while casually walking on ice? Not an easy thing to do. The next day, we met up with Trin and hitchhiked to Haifa (what should have been a one hour trip took three, three car rides and one short bus ride). We saw the Baha'i gardens and then headed to the beach. The Baha'i gardens were remarkable by the way, perfectly trimmed, each blade of grass seemed to be the exact same height. We could only view the bottom terrace since we weren't Baha'i which sucks, there's about ten other garden terraces, a temple, and five massive buildings including the Baha'i International Court and a massive library of religious and holy texts. Those would have been great to see so I'll probably just convert and then head over again, maybe. After the beach, Kristian and I caught a late bus (after Shabat ended) back to Jerusalem, I slept there, and then got back to the farm this morning. Long weekend but overall good time. Kris may be coming to work on the farm sometime this week so it will be cool seeing him again.

Now I'd like to talk about the settlements a little bit. I know I already mentioned them but I learned a little more about them as I've lived here. There are five Israeli settlements around this farm and three smaller Palestinian towns. The largest Israeli settlement is 20,000 people and dwarfs the smaller Palestinian town nearby. We can see all of this since the farm is on a hill 950 meters up. According to international and Israeli law, these settlements are illegal (it is illegal to settle on occupied land which is way there are no American settlements in Germany or Japan for example). The Israeli government recognizes this yet requires military personnel to maintain and guard the settlements in the West Bank and Gaza. This confused me, I thought that Israel was just going against international law but they actually contradict themselves when sending military to watch the settlements. Settlements usually start with an ultra-orthodox Israeli pitching a tent somewhere in the West Bank, they then contact the Israeli government and they are sent military personnel as protection until the tents grow into houses into towns into cities. Each settlement around the farm has a large tower (I'm assuming for water) with a giant blue Star of David painted on it which are all facing this hill. I think this use of a religious symbol for political means is ruining the meaning and beauty behind it (just like the Crusaders used the crucifix and Terrorists use the crescent). Another interesting aspect of the settlements are the people, I have not spoken to them personally but other volunteers have and found out that the people are truly scared to come visit this farm. They fear that once they do, they will never be able to go back home (I'm not sure if this means they are scared for their lives or what but it's interesting). My only thoughts on the reason for this way of thinking is to blame the government. I know it sounds like I always turn to blaming the government but people's minds are affected mainly by either government, religion, or the media. In Israel, the religion and media are both heavily impacted or utilized by the government - there isn't really a seperation between the three - therefore, the people are convinced that this farm, this peace project, is filled with deadly individuals. Good news however is that some people from the settlements have visited the farm, I at least know of one, so that's always a step in the right direction.

In the end though, the government uses both religion and media in a negative manner to achieve its political means. This deeply disturbs me and would still do so if it was in any nation; there's an apartheid going on here right now. There are illegal settlements constantly being built and growing, a massive wall dividing Israel proper from the West Bank, finger printing for every Arab who works in Jerusalem and lives in the West Bank, and the list goes on and on. I don't want to write too much more since this is already a long blog but I feel that these are important issues to understand and to address head-on. Right and wrong should not be this hard to distinguish from one another, especially in this day and age.