"Make Hummus, Not Walls"

On Wednesday, my mom and I had a tour to Bethlehem and Jericho. On the way to Jericho, we drove through the Judean desert by the Good Samaritan Inn, the An Nabi Musa Mosque, and Beduin settlements. The guide pointed out the Dead Sea as well. We stopped at sea level before continuing to the city. In Jericho, we stopped at the sycamore fig tree that Zacharias supposedly climbed to see Jesus. We all saw the Mount of Temptations before going to the tel of Jericho. Before going to the lookout for the Mount, we had to pick up a Palestinian tour guide. Jericho boasts itself as the "the Oldest City on Earth" dating back to 8000 BCE.  At the tel, we saw parts of different walls, the layer dating to the Neolithic time period, and more. 

Then we made our way to Bethlehem. During the drive between Jericho and Bethlehem, our Israeli guide said something that stuck with me. The guide said "you make peace with your enemies because you are already at peace with your friends." We were dropped off at the barrier to Bethlehem. We walked past the wall and entered the city and got on a different bus, with a different (Palestinian) guide. On our way to the Church of the Nativity, on one of the walls inside the city, there was graffiti that read, "Make Hummus, Not Walls." The statement refers, not to old, but the new walls surrounding the city of Bethlehem, in the Palestinian Territories, from Israel. At one point, our tour guide was telling us about the rest of the day and he mentioned having to go back past the wall and I just shook my head and said, "It just seems silly" to which he agreed. It was interesting to see both sides of the situation.

In Bethlehem, we started by visiting the Church of the Nativity. The Christmas service of the Church of the Nativity is broadcast around the world. There we saw the spot where Jesus was supposedly born and the manger where he was laid. After lunch in a restaurant off of Manger Square, we visited the Milk Grotto. According to legend, Mary and Joseph stopped there to feed baby Jesus during their flight to Egypt, during which a drop of milk touched a red rock turning it white. On our way out of the city, we stopped to overlook Shepherd's Field. To exit Bethlehem, we basically had to go through airport security, minus taking off one's shoes.