Ramallah, the bustling center of Palestinian life, is just a 20-minute drive from Jerusalem, but for Israelis, it might as well be on the other side of the world.
Since a major round of Israeli-Palestinian fighting more than a decade ago, Israelis have been kept out of Palestinian cities by the Israeli military and their own fears.
However, after several years of relative calm, a few have begun trickling back in tours led by Palestinian guides and guarded by plainclothes Palestinian security agents.
On Wednesday, about two dozen tourists from Israel and of other nationalities went to Palestine’s de facto capital to visit the mausoleum of former Palestinian president Yasser Arafat and a shrine to national poet Mahmoud Darwish.
The travelers had to apply for special army permits to enter Ramallah on the tour organized by IPCRI, an Israeli-Palestinian group promoting coexistence that has been taking Israelis to the West Bank since last year. With new funding, the group is hoping to organize several trips a week, tour organizer Gershon Baskin said.
Wednesday’s excursion took place during the Jewish holiday of Passover and those observing religious tradition unwrapped matza — unleavened bread — during lunch at a local restaurant as Arabic music played in the background.
Itai Artzi, a 27-year-old sociology student from Jerusalem, said he had hoped to get to know Palestinians better and “go through the psychological barrier that the Israeli government is trying to put between Israelis and Palestinians.”
In the end, the group did not get to talk to Ramallah residents and Gross said he would have preferred less politics on the trip and more opportunities to speak to people.
The hosts seemed eager to rush the visitors through the stops to avoid any possible incidents. Even at a local restaurant — where US Secretary of State John Kerry once stopped for lunch during one of his many mediation trips — they were ushered into a separate room.
Palestinian guide Osama Elewat said that despite the limitations, he believes the tours can help shape Israeli public opinion.
“I believe this is the best way to show ... that we can build our state, that we can take responsibility,” he said.
Baskin said such trips are needed to foster understanding after years of forced separation that has deepened divisions.
“There will never be peace in this land unless the people living on the land talk to each other and ... drop these walls of fear, animosity and hatred,” he said.
While some Palestinians, especially shopkeepers, would welcome large numbers of Israeli visitors, others dismiss the possibility of normalizing relations while the Israeli military occupation continues.
“Normalization is the attempt to deceptively project something abnormal as if it were normal,” said Omar Barghouti, cofounder of a Palestinian-led boycott, divestment and sanctions movement aimed at ending the occupation and what it considers other Israeli violations of international law.
“Ethical coexistence can only come as a result of ending oppression and injustice,” Barghouti said in an e-mail. “Israelis who support comprehensive Palestinian rights under international law and ‘coresist’ oppression are welcome.”
One of the stops on Wednesday’s itinerary, the village of Nabi Saleh, was canceled at short notice because of an internal Palestinian debate over what constitutes acceptable relations with Israelis.
Like several other villages, Nabi Saleh has been holding weekly protests against Israeli practices in the West Bank, including the confiscation of land, that are often joined by Israeli and foreign activists.
“Usually, we accept these [visiting Israeli] groups,” said Bassem Tamimi, a Nabi Saleh protest leader who has been repeatedly arrested and jailed by Israel.
He said Wednesday’s visit was called off because there was a sense that Palestinian public opinion is largely against Israeli visits to Ramallah and attempts at normalization.
The Israeli tourists came to Ramallah with their own issues, including security concerns, but also a lot of curiosity.
“The Palestinians are our neighbors,” Tel Aviv resident Gavin Gross said. “We are right on top of each other. Jericho, Bethlehem, Ramallah, they are short drives from Jerusalem, and I can’t sit here and think that there’s something there that I am not allowed to see. That’s why I’m here.”
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in