Germans in the promised land

Post 2 Culture: the complex political social and economic situation of Israel/Palestine

Israel/Jerusalem is a rich tapestry of history woven from the oppression of one type peoples after the next, built on the back of bloody conquest and financed by war it is a testament to the two longest standing achievements of man... war and religion. Everywhere are defensive walls and palaces built on older walls and palaces dating back 8,000 years (2,000 more than the pyramids). Temples built on the ruins of mosques built on sineogouges built on churches built on temples and so on.
It has a lot of promise and, uhm potential and, uhm we share a lot of history and well this is sounding a lot like the start of a dear john letter. I believe that they don’t understand the idea of a tourists and thus don’t like them... and i don’t mean the locals. I found locals in both Iraeli controlled Israel and Palestinian controlled Palestine surprisingly friendly and had little or no concerns over my safety or possessions (not so sure about the bit in-between). I mean the tourist operators... an attitude of “well i suppose I’ll take your money if i have to! But i will charge you twice what you would pay elsewhere and don’t expect a smile” Where ever there is money involved the niceties stop – can you think of any stereotypes that apply here? Also things like internet, online booking, email questions etc all a bit too much for them. If you want something then ring, sure you might only get a Hebrew answering machine but then what did you expect?
Enter the Sabbath. Every Friday in the afternoon everything in Israel shuts down. This is as after sundown Jews are not permitted to operate ‘machinery’ until sundown on Saturday. The interpretation of this varies depending on how jocular the Jews in question are (so more in Jerusalem much less in places like Tel Arvive) but it can generally mean cash registers, cars, buses, fridges, light switches, doorhandles. So 2pm on Friday till Saturday 7pm Jerusalem turns into a ghost town with no public transport (except some taxis) and no shops (except in the Arab areas) few cars and few people on the street. So if, for example - as we did - you want to rent a car, the website will give you the wrong opening hours then everything closes and there is no public transport so your stranded. The airport still rents cars but you have to get there, normally buses and sheruits run but it’s a holiday so they won’t. Once you get to the airport the staff are rude and the costs are more expensive. Speaking of cars, road rules (eg speed limits, u-turns) are enforced by consensus, pushing in and honking, but it works – like many developing countries.
I had some great tasting food but payed for it in not only cash but also by sitting on a toilet (at times holding a bucket) for days. Then as i got better mum got worse so i went on to Petra alone.

Overall ? Israel is an amazing place that has many amazing sites and stories. I had a great time with Mum and Gordon who showed me around the country. It is NOT however tourist friendly. Not that anything bad will happen to you (much, if your sensible) but there is not support structure for tourism, neither the populous nor the government are interested in making things easy for tourists. After all they come anyway right? It is also (probably for similar reasons) not cheap. If you are looking for Cheap and cheerful , don’t come to Israel, you definitely won’t find it here.

P.S. Airport security (like all security in Israel) is no joke. 2+ hours including full baggage search, frisking , interrogation, and x-raying my shoes and camera – but maybe that’s just me. After chatting up the girl doing my bag search (30 min in and I thought it went well, when she asked me into a little private room at the back, but then to my dismay a man entered with latex gloves... but that was just to look though my money, thank god) i think i was picked out because i was a backpacker with a laptop which is unusual in Israel, not that the whole westbank and non-electronic passport stuff helped.