9. Nablus to Duma - 11 miles

 

In his book Palestine Walks, Raja Shehadeh contrasts bucolic walks in the Palestinian countryside with the realities of living under occupation.  Today could have been a chapter from his book.

 

Driving out of the city and through the seemingly deserted Hawarra checkpoint*, once the most notorious in the West Bank, the service-taxi dropped us off at Awarta and we were soon climbing up to Ain Olim (Spring of the Camel).   

 

   

 

The view back to Nablus from Ain Olim

 

As we circled Mount Urma we could see illegal settlements on neighbouring hilltops. 

 

Families from a nearby village were harvesting their olives and we were invited to share their breakfast while Habib brewed the chai nana (mint tea). 

  

Olives have to be picked with care

 

3kg of olives produces 1kg of olive oil for which the growers receive $10
These olives produce the highest quality Zaytoun olive oil which sells in the UK for £20/litre

Palestinian hospitality -
it would have been poor etiquette not to have accepted
the invitation to share this family's breakfast

Nidal's friend Habib who joined us for two days -
perhaps escaping from his three wives and nine children
The master of bush tea with two handfuls of sugar per pot! 
We would stay at his home in Duma

We arrived in Aqraba where we saw the village olive press in action and enjoyed a lunch at the Women's Community Centre.

Olives are washed before the oil is extracted
  Olives picked after rain bypass this stage, command the highest price and produce the finest oil

The politics of the landscape changed rapidly after lunch.  Illegal settlements dotted the parched hilltops.  The land below, under threat of confiscation, lay fallow.  A crop of wheat had been burnt by settlers before it could be harvested.  It was a spectacularly bleak landscape.

As we approach the hill-top village of Duma (population 3,400), with its fine mosque, we got our first glimpse of the Bethlehem wilderness stretching out towards Jericho and the Dead Sea.



Iain rests in the shade of a 2000 year old olive tree at Duma

For the last two days we have diverted a little from the 'Bethlehem 2000' route and maintained an illusion of 1st century travel, but Duma and the surrounding area brings home one of the major issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - land.

Duma village lies within Area C** and the Eastern Segregation Zone*** making the village and the surrounding area vulnerable to further expropriation by the Israeli government at any moment.  Since 1967 Israel has been using its leverage over Area C to loot and confiscate Palestinian owned land in order to accomplish its major plan of controlling the Eastern Segregation Zone. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-24802623   For Israel the zone constitutes a defence shield for its future border on the Jordanian side, on the other hand, it imposes facts on the ground in the long term so it would be impossible to withdraw from it in any negotiations with the Palestinians.  For that reason, Israel works in a systematic approach in that zone to take full control over the area by building new settlements and expanding existing ones, erecting outposts and establishing military bases for its army.
 



Nidal and Habib outside his home in Duma

 *Nablus however is clearly surrounded by razor wire and checkpoints and can be very quickly isolated.

**under full Israeli military and civil control

***eastern part of the West Bank

8. Fara'a to Nablus - 11 miles

Before setting off we had time to visit the Al-Fara'a Compound.  Built by the British in 1932 as a military camp and prison, it achieved notoriety between 1982 and 1995 as a Israeli detention and interrogation camp.  Today it is a thriving youth centre.

It was a long climb out of Ain Fara'a and we did not reach the plateau until lunchtime.  This part of our trek follows the 'work in progress' 250 mile long Abraham Path from Urfa in eastern Turkey to Beersheba in the Negev desert of southern Israel. 

Looking back at Fara'a - a long climb

 

 

A shady spot for a rest, picnic lunch and Asr (noon) prayers

The route now followed quiet roads and by mid afternoon we arrived on the edge of Nablus at Jacob's Well, where Jesus met the Samaritan woman.

Now he had to go through Samaria.
So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”
(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
John 4. 4-10,

 



The church in the grounds of Bir Ya'qub monastery
at Jacob's Well 

Our guides in Nablus where two 'liberated' Muslim media students who proved to be far more interesting than the crumbling Ottoman architecture and remnants of the British Mandate.

 

7. Zababdeh to Fara'a - 12 miles

More than half the population of Zababdeh attend church on Sunday and we were invited to a sung Mass at the Church of Visitation before the promise of another enjoyable day (apart from the occasional low flying Israeli F16) walking over the Nablus Hills.  Leaving Zababdeh we passed Sheikh as Siri where a Jordanian feudal system had existed until 1967.
    

Looking back towards Zababdeh

With fine views towards Jordan, we walked between almond and olive groves, through a pine forest, reaching the broad sweep of Wadi Bidan, a picturesque fertile valley rich in mountain springs, by mid-afternoon. 
 

 

 

Chick peas and lentils had been planted.  Permits for irrigation are impossible to obtain but some ingenious rain-water gathering devices had been built and the fields ploughed in a way to absorb the coming rain, when they would be re-ploughed and sown with wheat and onions.  


Waiting for the rain

 

A chicken farm - the inspiration for Chicken Run perhaps?

At Ain Fara'a we were invited to stay at our guide's home in the refugee camp and as we approached the town greenery came into view!



Approaching Ain Fara'a

 

An American company own a block of land on the edge of the town and grow herbs which are harvested daily for export to Europe.  A computerised irrigation system exists and the herbs are packed on site and exported through Ben Gurion airport without border or customs inspection! 



Spring onions growing near Ain Fara'a




Shadows lengthening as we approach Ain Fara'a with its fine Mosque

Family life for Nidal, his wife and eight children follows a strict Islamic tradition but after dinner we were privileged to meet his charming and beautiful eldest daughter, an English Literature undergraduate at An-Najah University in Nablus.



Fara'a refugee camp

6. Faqu'a to Zababdeh - 13 miles

Just a few minutes drive from Jenin found us in Faqu'a (1411'), the start of our walk and our first experience of the rolling eastern hills of Palestine. 



We're off.....Iain, Lars, Nidal S and Johannes

Past the villages of Jalbun and Al Mughayyir, 13 miles up and down and along the dry river valley of Wadi Far'a to the town of Zababdeh (1082'), on the ancient Roman trade route, our next overnight stop. 

With the sun rising over Jordan and Mount Tabor visible in the haze behind us we set off out of the village down a path between orchards, almond trees and olive groves, the aroma of fenugreek, thyme and sage in the air; this is Marj Ibn Amir the most fertile land in Palestine.  The olive harvest was starting and fields were being prepared for planting winter crops - tobacco and onions - that can survive without irrigation, which is strictly prohibited by the occupying Israeli authorities.

Leaving Faqu'a
 

Marj Ibn Amir

  

The first of many family groups we would see harvesting their olives

The dry fertile limestone landscape was dotted with serene villages of poor streets, narrow alleyways and beautiful old houses. 

It was in one of these villages, Burq'in, that Jesus healed the ten lepers.

On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. 
And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance 
and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” 
When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed.  
Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice;
and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan.  
Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine?  
Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 
And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well
Luke 17.11-19,



St George's Orthodox Church in Burq'in
built over a cave where lepers were quarantined 

The church at Burq'in, in regular use by the small orthodox community of some 60 Living Stones, is the fifth oldest sacred Christian place and the third oldest church in the world.  This story describes the place and atmosphere far better than I ever could.
http://marthame.wordpress.com/2007/10/21/burqin/




Hard trekking through Wadi Fara'a

We ate our first picnic lunch in the shade of a carob tree and sampled its delicious ripe fruit. 

Exhausted after seven hours walking Zababdeh came into sight.

Zababdeh has a Mediterranean climate with intermittent rainfall.  Since the establishment of neighbouring Israeli settlements and military outposts only 20% of the former water supply is available to the town and despite being in Zone B* residents are not permitted to dig more wells.  Our guide told us that the population (3,700) was "a mixture of Christian (64%) - Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholic and Anglican (each with their own churches) and Islamic (32%) living a harmonious village life and sharing religious festivals", yet again dispelling the popular media pretext for the declining Christian population in the Holy Land, where there remain only two other towns with a Christian majority. 

We stayed and enjoyed an evening with a Catholic family, but I was asleep in bed long before the end of Arabs' Got Talent.



* subject to Israeli military control and Palestinian civil control

5. An easy start

As befits a pilgrimage, the Nativity Trail was originally walked all the way from Mary's House.  'The route from Nazareth to Mount Tabor and on to Faqu'a passes through suburbs and along roads and has little to recommend it other than the ascent of Mount Tabor'.*

At home in the English Cotswolds a group of internationals walking beside a main road would attract little more attention than a piercing blast from the air-horn of a juggernaut as it hurtles past.  Not so here, and trying to approach notorious northern Israel roadblocks and checkpoints on foot especially into the West Bank may have scuppered our journey on day one. 



"Keep smiling but remember that guy pointing his camera at us"
IDF recruits at the Kotel, June 2011

Bypassing the boring bits did not sound like cheating, and so after a whistle stop tour of Nazareth

The El Babour spice market and ancient grinding mill

we boarded the sherut, that would later drop us at the Giboa-Jalame checkpoint, for a leisurely stroll through the wooded hillsides of Mount Precipice (1296') and Mount Tabor (1930').

Located on the ancient Via Maris between Egypt and Damascus, Mount Tabor has been important since early times.  Its unique shape ("nubile breast shape" was our guide's description) captured the imagination of ancient peoples such as the Canaanites who attributed divine qualities to the mountain. 

View of Mount Tabor from Mount Precipice

In biblical times the area was the scene of many fierce battles not least the Battle of Megiddo (hence Armageddon) in the 15th century BC.  Since then everyone from Alexander the Great to Napoleon and General Allenby in WWI seems to have fought here.  Today only paragliders battle the thermals. 

Mount Tabor's holiness stems from the Christian tradition that the Transfiguration of Jesus took place here.  Since the 4th century Mount Tabor has been one of the holiest Christian sites.  A Crusader fortress fell to Sultan Baybars in 1263.  In 1631 the Franciscans returned, and over the following centuries churches and monasteries were rebuilt.  Arriving at the top the most prominent structure is the Franciscan basilica, designed by another Italian architect (and monk) Antonio Barluzzi and completed in 1924.  It is approached through the gate of the Crusader fortress.  


The Basilica of the Transfiguration



Although typically a little hazy to the west we could see Haifa on the Mediterranean, to the north the Golan Heights and Mt Hermon (9300') the highest point in Syria, to the east the Jordan Valley and the Sea of Galilee and to the south, the direction we would soon be walking, the plain of Jezreel and the Gilboa Hills.

The Jezreel Plain and Gilboa Hills from Mount Precipice

It was mid afternoon when we walked across the border with our luggage, turned our watches back one hour and took a service-taxi into Jenin for a not so late lunch. 

(Iain, a town planner, took a few surreptitious photos.  Is this a model for a future security border between England and Scotland?) 

Once described by travel writers as the most beautiful town in the Middle East, clearly Jenin still bears the scars of a large scale military invasion some 11 years ago.  Our enthusiastic local guide was upbeat, but perhaps premature, about the return of tourism - we were the only guests at the newly built but forlorn New Gate Hotel.   I was glad that the inspirational Al-Huria Youth Theatre (Freedom Theatre) http://www.thefreedomtheatre.org/ who I had seen perform at their home in the Jenin Refugee Camp** in 2011, and where a generation of youngsters have transformed their trauma into artistic pursuit, seemed to be going from strength to strength.
 

Downtown Jenin

 

New Gate Hotel, Jenin

*Walks in Palestine and the Nativity Trail,  Di Taylor & Tony Howard (2001)
**1.4 million Palestinian refugees and their patrilineal descendants live in 58 refugee camps in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank.  Their 'right of return' was recognised in UN Resolution 194 in 1948.  In total 4.95 million (UNRWA statistics, 2012), with many of those recently being made homeless in Syria, they remain the largest displaced population in the world.