No 5 - Things look different on the ground

This is without question the most exciting and interesting day of our little journey through Israel. Today we took a tour Green Olive Tours through the Westbank took.
Early in the morning we met our supposed tour guide. He had some interesting stories to tell. Although he lived the last eleven years in Belgium, he never received the Belgium citizenship. As Isreal does not regard him as an Israeli citizen he is now stateless. Right after the first checkpoint on the boarder to the Westbank we realized that they actually messed up the different tours by accidents. In consequence we had to wait at the non-called boarder for another guide, who picked us up with his taxi and brought us to
Ramallah. Here we had to go through another checkpoint to enter the city. Just walking through this highly armored checkpoint was already an absolutely weirded experience. It got even more confusing when we reached the other side. Good thing that our new guide picked us up right at the boarder. He is a pretty cool dude, a huge fan of Banksy and having lived in Canada for the last years, which made communication quite easy. On top he came with an early 1990s Mercedes E-Class stretched limo with six doors.
Leaving the checkpoint behind us we immediately entered the Palestinian refugee camp in Bethlehem. I haven't seen a place like that ever before in my life. The camp itself looks like a bunch of tiny houses, all of them somehow interconnected with each other. It is surrounded by the wall and military watchtowers. The Israelis call it a security fence, the Palestinians a separation or even apartheid wall. I wouldn't go so far, but this wall definitely makes their life incredibly harder. When you are in there it feels like an open air prison. The wall itself is covered with graffiti from locals and artists worldwide. We saw some of the famous Banksy street artwork. Like the little girl with the balloons flying over the wall or the little girl controlling an soldier. The houses next to the wall look all kind of endangered. Covered with bullet holes, it gives you a feeling about the tensions in the Westbank. We visited a local information and visitor center ran by a Palestinian NGO, which closely works together with the UN. They told us a lot about the struggles they are facing in maintaining their services. Later on, another local drove us from Bethlehem to Ramallah. On the ride it was interesting to see how the country is cut into pieces. The settlements basically posses about their own water and electricity supply and are connected to other settlements by their own roads. Most of the roads are for the use of the settlers only. Another critical issue is the access to water. Whereas even illegal settlements are quickly connected to the water infrastructure and have all day water access, most Palestinian houses get water supply only for a few hours a day. This contradiction is visible when you look qt the roofs of the houses in the Westbank. On every Palestinian home one can see big black tanks or barrels, which they use to collect water once they get access to it.
Entering Ramallah is a pretty odd experience. Ramallah is one of the few places completely controlled by the Palestinian authority. Right at the entrance to the city it is stated that no Israelis are allowed in the city. In return no Palestinians are allowed to enter Israel (with the exception of Israeli Arabs and Palestinian citizen of East Jerusalem). Which restricts the freedom of movement especially for the Palestinans, who in order to go abroad need to posses a Jordan passport.
Ramallah itself is surrounded by the walls of the nearby settlements. The city center however is lively and hectic. It looks like a huge Arabian market. To my surprise it seems to be a really liberal place. Hotels everywhere, street music, all kind of shops and cafes and many luxury cars. A pretty big contrast to the refugee camp we saw the beginning of the day in Bethlehem. After having a coffee at Ramallah's famous Stars&Bucks we left the city by bus. Only half an hour and another Israeli military checkpoint later we arrived back in Jerusalem.
This day left me back with extremely mixed feelings. This is not the right place and time to discuss the roots of this conflict, but seeing what happens on the ground gave me a really direct impression. The situation in the Westbank is the complete opposite to the life in Tel Aviv. In the latter one Arabs and Jews life together peacefully in a multicultural global city, whereas in Jerusalem and the Westbank ethnicities are strictly separated. The argument of the Israelis calling for security may follow a certain rationality. However the outcome on the ground seems to make things way worse and widens the gap between Israelis and Palestinians. Separation, suspicion and isolation are pretty bad preconditions for peace.
This day definitely made a dent on me. However all the things I saw today need time to process. I get the feeling the deeper I dip my nose in this conflict the more it becomes unclear to me what is going on for what reason.