CHELLA PIETROFORTE, TULLIO BONOMETTI, GUIDO BRONTESI, SANDRO GHITTI

JOURNEY DIARY

A ON FOOT IN

THE HOLY LAND

11th march 3rd april 2014

1° / mar / 11-3 / BRESCIA MILAN TEL AVIV YAFO / plane
2° / mer / 12-3 / GIAFFA AKKO / train
3° / gio / 13-3 / AKKO I’BLIN / on foot / 25
4° / ven / 14-3 / I’BLIN NAZARET / on foot / 25
5° / sab / 15-3 / NAZRET MOUNTE TABOR / on foot / 18
6° / dom / 16-3 / MOUNT TABOR LAVI / on foot / 19
7° / lun / 17-3 / LAVI TABGHA / on foot / 25
8° / mar / 18-3 / TABGHA TIBERIAS SHA’AR HAGOLAN / on foot / 30
9° / mer / 19-3 / SHA’AR HAGOLAN BEIT SHE’AN SHLUCHOT / on foot / 28
10° / gio / 20-3 / SHLUCHOT SHADMOTMEKHOLA / on foot / 22
11° / ven / 21-3 / SHADMOT MEKHOLA YAFIT / on foot / 30
12° / sab / 22-3 / YAFIT JERICO / on foot / 22
13° / dom / 23-3 / JERICO JERUSALEM / on foot / 30
14° / lun / 24-3 / JERUSALEM / on foot
15° / mar / 25-3 / JERUSALEM JENIN / bus
16° / mer / 26-3 / JENIN NABLUS / bus
17° / gio / 27-3 / NABLUS RAMALLAH / bus
18° / ven / 28-3 / RAMALLAH HEBRON BETLEHEM / bus
19° / sab / 29-3 / BETLEHEMJERUSALEM / bus
20° / dom / 30-3 / JERUSALEM EN GEDI / bus+ on foot / 8
21° / lun / 31-3 / EN GEDI MASADA MITZPE RAMON / bus+ on foot / 10
22° / mar / 01-4 / MITZPE RAMON JERUSALEM / bus + on foot / 8
23° / mer / 2-4 / JERUSALEM / on foot
24° / gio / 3-4 / JERUSALEM MILANO BRESCIA / Plane

Total kms on foot: 300

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15th tuesday 25th march JERUSALEM JENIN

Inizio modulo

From Damascus Gate we take a bus to Ramallah; after forty minutes we see the disgraceful wall, 8 meters high, which encloses Palestine into a large prison. The checkpoint of Qomlandia shivers us and our thought flies to the sad times of the Berlin Wall.
In Ramallah we take a small bus to go directly to Jenin, the martyrs’city of Palestine. The landscape is hilly and the roads are worse than those of Israel.
In Jenin the brother of an acquaintance of ours comes to pick us up and we go to his house in a village not far from Jenin. It 'sa house built in the countryside, with a garden and fruit trees. His father welcomes us warmly with his wife and his sons and their wives . The family is very united and the father shows us his house. The unemployment rate in this area is very high and is almost two-thirds of the active population .
Then wego to Burq'in to visit the Greek orthodox church of St. George, built in the place where, according to the Gospel, Jesus healed ten lepers. In the courtyard of the church, considered one of the world's oldest churches (dating back to the fourth century A.D. ), there is the cave where the lepers were used to retire.
We ask about the political situation in Palestine and with great serenity, but also with deep sadness they tell us that Palestine is surrounded by a wall eight meters high and it is the largest prison in the world, the Palestinians cannot have an airport and cannot move to the Arab part of Israel or Jerusalem without a documented reason, without a visa and only during the day.

Surfing internet we know that on the last Saturday between 3 and 5 in the morning three boys were killed by the Israeli army during a raid andthe house, where they were staying, was destroyed. We go to the cemetery of the martyrs for the Palestinian independence of Jenin, we see the three tombs with the portraits of the three killed boys, a manis praying and crying on one of the graves; two holes had already been dug and are ready to be used for those who will be killed by the next Israeli army raid .
With difficulty we reach the place where the raid took place; we stand speechless, we see a mess: a demolished door, a destroyed house and thousand shots of machine guns on the walls. The house was destroyed in the maze of alleyways of the Jenin refugee camp, built to house refugees from Haifa , Tel Aviv, Akko in 1948.
After seeing these frightening images, we stay speechless for a long time .
In our guesthouse we go to bed early and turn off the light; we sometimes hear gunshots near and far, we do not understand well the meaning, Chella has a troubled sleep during the night.
Wednesday 16th March 26 th JENIN NABLUS

During the night Chella and Sandro have not slept well for the near and far gunshots and for the calls to prayer coming from the loudspeakers of the minarets at 4 o’ clock in the morning.
The sun rises again and everything is normal and calm; after a nice breakfast, we visit the old town of Jenin with its narrow streets and the Grand Mosque.
We take a bus to get to Nablus, a city of 140,000 inhabitants with a chaotic traffic inside.
The hotel Yasmeen , we have booked, is cheap, nice, in the downtown and close to the old town. We walk along the souk, full of shops and traffic of customers and merchants; we look at the ancient hammamAl Hana , an old Turkish bath, open indifferent days to men and to women and we visit a factory of soap that is made with caustic soda and olive oil .
On foot we move towards the Balata refugee camp and at its beginning we find the well of Jacob , where, according to the Gospel sources,Jesus met a Samaritan woman, who offered him some water; the Byzantine church that houses it, was renovated in 1960.
Just inside the refugee camp there is the tomb of Joseph , which in recent years has been the center of clashes between Muslims and Jews who come here to pray every night. A Palestinian policeman stands to guard the site, that is protected by a wall and a large iron gate.
By taxi we go fifteen kilometers northwards of Nablus and visit the ruins of Sebastiya, including the largest amphitheater of all of Palestine and the Byzantine church, built on what was supposed to be the tomb of John the Baptist. The whole site is a little bit neglected, it should be cleaned and illustrated; but you can imagine it in all its grandeur .
We cross three tanks that run at 5 o. Clock in the afternoon to sow fear and do some raids against alleged terrorists .
On the top of the hill there is the temple of Gerizim of Samaritans, a community of 700 people living on the top of the mountain to be away from the harassment of Arabs and Israelis; they believe to be the true interpreters of Judaism and they can marry only within their community.
We have dinner in a restaurant eating half a chicken each and in the evening we can rest well in our beautiful and convenient hotel.
17th Thursday, March 27 th NABLUS RAMALLAH
After the usual hearty breakfast, we take the bus to get to Ramallah. On the bus we meet a professor of geography and an official of the Palestinian Authority, which , for the duration of the trip, illustrate the plight of the Palestinian people; between Nablus and Ramallah there are two checkpoints that are activated in the evening or in the morning by the Israeli Army .
They tell us that Palestine is still occupied by the Israeli army and tanks during the night or during the day do the safari and often strike and kill Palestinian alleged terrorists only for the fact they state that Palestine must be independent .
Manara Square with four columns and four lions showing the main founding families is the center of the cityof Ramallah.
Easily we find the Latin Catholic Patriarchate not far from downtown. It is located inside a large courtyard, where there are various types of schools, a boarding house and a church .
At 11.00 we meet Annina , the Austrian girl whowe had met in Acre and who will take vows as a nun of the Holy Saviour congregation in the month of October in Vienna ; we buy a bottle of water and a swarma , we eat along the way ; we go to El Qubeibeh, one of three towns that claim to be the ancient Emmaus, mentioned in the Gospel of Luke for the meeting of Jesus just risen with Cleopas and Simon.
We take a servis, Annina knows why the driver, because she is living here for several months . We pass near the wall and in some parts the road passes through a tunnel in the middle of a series of two walls, the scene is really creepy .
The capital for the Palestinians was Jerusalem, but today the palestinians can not enter without a visa. This is the reason why Ramallah has become bigger.
with Annina we go to a beautiful villa owned by a German association for the Holy Land, which is used by the Sisters of the Holy Savior as a retirement home for old people with special needs, where Annina work as a volunteer. Besides the nuns there are some local and some volunteers from Austria and Germany.
If there it were not the wall, it would take about twenty minutes to Jerusalem, but now to get to Jerusalem, you have to go from here to Ramallah and Jerusalem through the checkpoint Qomlandia .
We visit the Church of the Manifestation, a Franciscan nun shows us and tells the story according to the Gospel of Luke. The church is great, but in the area there is only one Catholic family ; The church is full only on Easter Monday because many Christians and Muslims come here for a pilgrimage.
Back in Ramallah, we go to visit the Tomb of Arafat, guarded by soldiers, it is a large building of white marble. We are the only visitors and there is only one memorial wreath from a delegation of the European Parliament. Then we go to the fruit market , which overflows from all sides .
Meet Farah assistant pastor that hosts us in two rooms in the parish ; he tells us that the Palestinians are enduring their Calvary, but in the future there will be a revival.
The courtyard of the parish is full of young people, I talk with one of them, who considers the killing of three young boys of Jenin is a normal and daily event because the goal of thr Israeli government is to scare the Palestinians so that they go away .