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Normally terrorists attacks feel so distant. They occur in a distant country and to a people that appears to be so different compared to “us in the West” (at least I think that’s the reason). It’s quite strange that I don’t react in the same way if something happens on the other side of the country and the other side of the earth. I wish I didn’t but unfortunately I do.

The last week there were two attacks that, to me, were very similar—the one in London, and the one in Netanya. I’ve been to London a few times, been at the places of the attacks, and had some coworkers in London at the time of the attack. And I’ve been in Netanya a few days, been at the mall that got attacked (stayed just a few hundered meters from it), and had some friends in Netanya at the time of the attack.

For “normal” wars there are often quick fixes, a few peace treaties, some trade agreements, a “victory” or two, and the war can be all over. But how do you stop terrorism? I don’t believe declaring war on terrorism is the answer, it’s like declaring war on evil. As long as there is oppression, despair, poverty, them vs. us, and so forth, there’ll be terrorism. But I’m clueless of how to make it stop (just as I’m clueless about international politics as you can tell).

Did I tell you about my vacation?

So there I was, a little more than a week ago, at the airport in Vienna, waiting at the gate for the flight to Tel Aviv, Israel. The last few days had been a little bit chaotic and I did only decide to go to Israel one and a half week before getting on the plane in Copenhagen. Now I was sitting there reading a book, listening to music, and looking at the other people who also were waiting at the gate. What made these people go to Israel of all places? There were quite many old people, perhaps visiting their relatives, perhaps going there for the first time after putting aside some money for a long time, or perhaps they’ve been there many times. There was the nun, probably going on a pilgrimage. There were some businessmen and other assorted people. And there was I.

Just a few moments earlier, I got questioned by a security woman who I was, why I was going there, what I was planning to do, and so on and so forth. The answer I gave was “tourism”, and that’s true. I was going there mainly to visit a friend, who has been asking me about coming down for quite some time now, but also to see the country which I find quite interesting. Israel is a country with a long history (ok only nearly sixty years, but the area has a longer history) that is important for a lot of people and religions. It is also a country with many wars, terrorism and other tragedies in the past and present.

Israel is a controversial matter. I realize that going to Israel is seen by many as a Statement, as a choice for Israel and against Palestine. But I’m not a political guy, I really don’t now that much about the conflict between Israel and Palestine. Occasionally I watch the news, and see some news about Israel (mostly bad stuff) but I haven’t done any thorough study. Perhaps it’s irresponsible of me to go there without some more knowledge, but I digress. I think that most people judge way too early. All conflicts like these are enormously complex, and there are no simple causes, nor solutions. It’s temptingly easy to sit here in my safe kitchen, in the “neutral” Sweden, and based on the mainstream media choose side. But unless I have at least a faint idea of the area, history and culture, I’ll refrain. Moreover, choosing side is what I believe is at the heart of this conflict, just as any other conflict. We against Them. The Good against The Bad. Both “sides” have done wrong in the past, but going forward I feel it’s more constructive to choose the side of We against The Conflict. But I might be just a tad naive and afraid of making up my mind, it has happened before.

Anyhow, the hour in Vienna went by really quickly, so after a couple of hours I arrived in Tel Aviv. The following week I spent in Tel Aviv, Netanya, Jerusalem, and a road trip to the desert, Dead Sea, Sea of Galilee, Golan Heights, Mount Carmel, Haifa, and Caesarea. I saw a lot of sights, “holy places”, people and scenery.

Security

Security was one of the first thoughts that ran through my mind before the trip. You know, the suicide bombers and all that. At first it felt a bit weird to me with the security measures, the search for weapons when going into malls and stores, the checkpoints on the road, the soldiers all over the place and so forth. But I got used to it surprisingly quickly. And it actually provided a (false?) sense of security. I felt almost as secure, if not more, as I do in Swedish cities and after a while it didn’t felt too spooky to walk amongst, and eating next to people with weapons, although I’m not a big fan of weapons.

I spent a part of Friday, whole Saturday, and Sunday morning in Jerusalem. Before going there I heard that thousands of extremist Jews were going to the Al-Aqsa Mosque (on the Temple Mount, which is the Muslims third holiest place, and the holiest place for Jews) and thousands of Muslims were going there to stop them. When I got to Jerusalem I didn’t see that much of the coming demonstrations, there only were a lot more policemen and soldiers than usual (I was told). I visited the Western Wall around midnight on the Saturday but it was very calm. The outcome of the demonstration was relatively small, with only a few dozen of extremist Jews showing up.

An other event that happen as I was in Israel was the 15-year-old who got arrested as he was trying to ignite the bombs he was carrying. We drove through the West Bank, I’d guess 10-15 kilometers from the checkpoint where he was arrested, the evening before.

Religion

Israel is a country where religion is very visible, just as I thought before I went down. The orthodox Jews wearing black clothes in 35 degree Celsius, Christian pilgrims, and places that are holy to loads of people wherever you turn. Israel is a very important country for Christianity (2.2 billion followers), Islam (1.3 billion), Judaism (4.3 million) and probably a number of other religious groups. I visited a few sights and places with religious connection. The Western Wall with hundreds of praying Jews, Calvary with hundreds of presumably Christian tourists in a large, and dark stone building, which I found a bit creepy. I saw Gethsemane, Mount of Olives, Gehenna (often used as a image for hell), Ein Gedi, Capernaum, Mount Carmel and a few other. For me there are no holy places, but nevertheless it’s interesting to see the places which have had a large impact on today’s society, and to which many people travel from far away due to their holiness. I would of course prefer if some of the places were less exploited, but that is unavoidable I guess.

Nature

I expected the nature to be quite dry and desertish. But the first few days I spend in and around the cities, and if you disregard the palm trees and some other exotic (for certain values of exotic) plants and trees, the nature was quite similar to the Swedish nature. It is spring in Israel now, with temperatures between 25 and 35 degrees Celsius during my week there (which would be really good summer days in Sweden), thus nature is still quite green. But then we rented a car and went to the desert. The desert was incredibly beautiful, especially the mountains. And the view from Masada was stunning. Taking a swim, or float is probably a more descriptive word, in the Dead Sea was a bit weird. Then we went up to the north. To the fertile plantations around the Sea of Galilee, and the green Golan Heights with the beautiful nature reserve of Gamla. There are many types of nature and scenery in Israel for sure.

Traffic

In Sweden the traffic is quite calm and organized. We park at designated parking places, wait calmly for the green light, and the cars are normally not that dented. Not so in Israel. There they honk the horn for just about anything and all the time, almost all cars are dented, people park and double park everywhere, and the pace is quite high in the cities. The public transport works quite fine though. I went by train a few times, bus one time, and Sherut a few times. Sheruts are vans, taking something like 8-10 people, which follow the bus lines, but they start when the van is full, and you can get on and off wherever along the line you want. It’s a really affordable and easy way to travel. And there was only one time when the Sherut was close to bump into another car, so it’s reasonable safe.

When we were going to rent the car in Jerusalem we took the cab to the rental place. The day started out just fine when another car ran into the cab, fortunately without destroying anything. We continued, rented the car, and as I was sitting in the rental car on the sidewalk another car ran into the left rear mirror, fortunately without destroying it. We started and drove (I co-drove) 200 meters and took a left turn, unfortunately without missing the scooter that tried to overtake us. It was still before noon and we had been part of three accidents. The scooter driver was lucky to not get injured (his jeans were less fortunate), so we got away with thinner wallets and a dented rental car. The rest of the trip was less eventful, in that regard, but we saw a few car accidents. So even if driving a car is quite risky, it’s certainly something I recommend. Without the road trip I would have missed so much of impressions and scenery.

Life

One of the questions I had before going down to Israel was how the life for the people in Israel is. Does everything orbit around the conflict? I think that I now can understand that you can live a normal life there, without constantly having to worry about the safety. I got used to the security checks after a little while. When we went to Jerusalem two days before the demonstration of extremist Jews and Muslims, nobody was worried for their safety, just about the increased hassle of the extra security checks. I guess there are people there who are very political oriented whose life really do orbit around the conflict, and there are people who doesn’t care, and doesn’t even look at the news. Just as everywhere else. I have, of course, no idea of how you feel when a friend dies due to the conflict, which I guess is quite common, and it’s a calm period in the region now, but still the life there seemed quite similar to the life elsewhere.

Israel is a country with a lot of different ethnicities, where everything is incredibly mixed. For instance, the Old City contains four quarters Jewish, Christian, Armenian, and Muslim despite its small size of 1 km². As mentioned above, the Western Wall and the Al-Aqsa Mosque are really close, and if you walk a few meters you get from Jewish areas to Muslim areas. Even among the Jews it appears to me that there is a lot of diversity, probably due to them living in many different places before immigrating.

I mainly visited Jewish places, and most people I met and talked to were Jewish. I really can’t say that much about the Arabic population, since the main interaction I had with them was eating at some Arabic restaurants.

One interesting thing to me was the Shabbat. During Friday evening and until Saturday evening Jerusalem was paused. No busses on the roads, only a few cars, almost all stores and restaurants closed, and everything incredibly quiet. I must say I quite liked it.

Ending thoughts

So there I was in Vienna, again. This time waiting for a plane to Copenhagen. The week in Israel went by fast. I got to see the modern parts, the cities, the malls etc, and I got a sense of the history, the religious sights, and the archaeological sites. It is a very interesting and controversial country. From the outside there seems to be only the conflict, but once there you see so much more. Now when I hear something about Israel on the news, I look with an increased interest, and perhaps I have a possibility to understand somewhat more of the conflict. It was a trip that provided a lot of diverse impressions and experiences, and I would love to return sometime in the future.

(See here for more photos from the trip)