Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Holy Land Tour

[JW] Lost in Old Jerusalem’s maze of ancient corridors, and distracted by tourist kitsch for sale, I stumble over a plaque on the ground, alerting the clumsy in Hebrew, Arabic and English that the stones I’m walking on are from the end of the Roman Period—3rd to 4th Century C.E. It’s no longer PC to say A.D., or even B.C., Before Christ, instead, what seems even more presumptuous, it’s now C.E. “Common Era”. And so it is re-written.

[Ambient audio inside church]
I climb a few stairs to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the same church where the C in B.C., was crucified, buried then resurrected. This is where the story of Jesus ends, or starts again, depending on how you look at it. Near the entrance is a marble slab, not the original stone, upon which his body fell and was anointed. There’s a line to kneel down and kiss it. Because I believe in the flu virus more than Jesus, I pass. Exiting the chapel, I push my way through tight throngs of Christian Asian tourists taking photos and realize that I’m the greatest foreigner in this land…not because I was born ten time-zones away, but because I believe it was man who created God.

[morning noises: prayer calls, bells, roosters: [JW-groggy] “five am….”]
[JW] In Jerusalem, religions compete to see which can get you up the earliest. Call to prayers from loud speakers in minarets try to beat the roosters. Then come wake-up bells from churches. Not even an Atheist can over-sleep in the holy land. I’m glad Jewish temples don’t announce the early morning. But what got me out of bed in an ‘apocalypse now’ moment was a noisy Israeli helicopter hovering over the Temple Mound (Haram al Sharif), the place where God told Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, one of Judaism’s most holy places; and, all things being crowded in Jerusalem, it’s also where Mohammed dreamt of flying to heaven to be with Allah, a holy site for Muslims. The helicopter was circling the iconic golden Dome of the Rock, where Muslims were gathering in the nearby Mosque to hear a fiery Imam speak.

The Israeli military, fearing violence, dispatched a helicopter. No one was floating up to heaven today. And young Arab adults, the most incite-able, were not allowed to enter the area. Teenagers stammered at checkpoints around the Muslim quarter infront of Israeli soldiers with big guns. Guns are everywhere in the holy land, even children run around with toy pistols—I don’t like seeing kids with toy guns because eventually they both grow up.

That night I photograph the iconic golden dome of the rock, trying to frame in an almost full moon. It’s the same moon the three wise men would have seen at some point on their journey. The same moon, the same stars, Abraham and Sarah would have gazed at. It is the same moon I saw as a child, the same moon I see when I am back home, when I am anywhere in the world. The moon has watched humans from the beginning to the time we touched it. The moon makes the world small and laughs at time. 1/15th of a second: Click. I’m done for the night.

[O’Sullivan] OK, my name is Michael O’sullivan, I’m originally from Ireland as you can hear by my accent…
http://hearvox.com/wip/jw/OSullivan_TEMP_221.mp3
[JW] I wanted to talk with someone who knows about ethnic conflict and division, and actually found an Irish catholic priest working in Jerusalem,
[O’Sullivan] OK, if Mary and Joseph were to leave Nazareth today…first of all, they wouldn’t be able to take the road they took two thousand years ago, and because of the road system and the checkpoint system, passage from A to B is extremely difficult. If of course they arrived at the checkpoint in Bethlehem, they would probably be sent away.

[O’Sullivan] For Mary and Joseph today, theoretically it would be impossible to go to Bethlehem. Of course, as Jews, they couldn’t officially enter into Bethlehem,
[JW] Let me repeat that: Jews are not allowed into Bethlehem, the birthplace of the world’s most famous Jew.
[JW] To be specific: Israelis citizens aren't allowed in Area A, or areas under control of the Palestinian Authority. Bethlehem is in Area A.
[O’Sullivan] Mary might be obliged to give birth at a checkpoint, which happens occasionally.
There’s another problem today. Because of a snaking security barrier, the birthplace of Jesus is no longer in Israel, though just a stone’s throw away, it’s actually now in Palestine. If Jesus were to be born in Bethlehem today, he would, technically, be Palestinian.
[O’Sullivan] If Christ were to come back again today… He probably would be received the same way. He may not be crucified, but probably put on an electric chair or something, yes, of course…. I think his message would be very similar, and I think his message would be just as pointed, and even as harsh.

[JW] The conflict between the Jews and the Palestinians is an ancient grudge, going way back to the time when people not only worshiped but actually talked to God. Like when God told Abraham to look to the stars as his descendents would number. Maybe that’s the moment the grudge started. When Abraham’s wife didn’t get pregnant, he turned to the bed of his maid, Hagar, and a son was born: Ishmael. Then God, as gods sometimes inexplicably do, as promised, finally came through and Abraham’s wife, Sarah, had Isaac. Little Ishmael, father of the Arabs, and his slave mother, were kicked out of the home in favor of Isaac, father of the Jews. Abraham, Abram, Ibrahim —Christianity, Judaism, Islam—they all share the same father.

Maybe since it started with one being kicked out of a home, houses are the territorial front-line today: One afternoon I watched a Palestinian home being razed in the shadow of new settlement apartments. Another day I witnessed Isaac in an armored humvee chase Ishmael, in this case two old Arab men and three donkeys, off farmland they did not have the correct papers to work on. Isaac said they were too close to a settlement—I could see no buildings anywhere. Because of it, in a few springs from now, an olive branch will not grow. No olive oil will be made, no money will be made.
And so it is, and so it will be.

[Checkpoint Sounds]
[JW] Two-thousand years after Christ, four-thousand since Abraham, the entrance to Bethlehem does not resemble a Christmas card, mainly because of the tall concrete security wall/barrier/fence (there are many names). Completed a few of years ago, just before Christmas, the bullet-proof wall cuts off Bethlehem from Jerusalem—birth from re-birth, the star of David from the Christmas star, Christmas from Easter. It’s way too tall to see over.
A large banner by the Israeli Ministry of Tourism hangs against the wall next to a gun turret that says in English, Hebrew and Arabic: PEACE BE WITH YOU. So it is written.

[Phyllis] They have a wall around Bethlehem, you can’t get through. Really terrific Christmas card.
[JW] Phyllis Weisberg is part of Machsom or checkpoint watch, a human rights group of Israeli women that monitor and report, and try to help, at checkpoints. We’re at the Colindia checkpoint, it’s the main checkpoint where Mary and Joseph would likely have to pass today.
Today however, because of the poor conditions in Palestinian hospitals, it’s much safer to give birth in an Israeli hospital in Jerusalem.
[Phyllis] They would never have gotten through. Even if she had to give birth it would have been a problem, there’s cases of people giving birth at checkpoints because they couldn’t get through and make it to the hospital.

[Abid speaking (Arabic)]
[Inter-cut with translations]
[JW] Abid worked for twenty years at (a popular hotel) (the Crown Plaza Hotel) in Jerusalem as a waiter. He and his wife arrived at this checkpoint last year, her water already broken, but the soldier wouldn’t let her pass because their permit was for two weeks later—she was two weeks pre-mature. It was a medical, as well as a political emergency. Abid’s an Israeli citizen, but his wife is from Ramallah, and if the child is not born in Israel, its life, politically, socially, could be very different. They found a way in somehow but don’t want to share how.

[JW] It’s hard to phrase sometimes, the question of belief. I asked an Arab taxi driver in the West bank one day if he spoke Hebrew, he replied with disgust, “No, I don’t speak Jewish.”
[Phyllis] I’m a non-believer, but I’m Jewish. What we’re doing doesn’t seem to have anything to do with Jewish morality, morality in general, with anything good. Nothing good can come of this. It’s not Jewish, not Christian, not Muslim, it’s just bad news all around. Can’t put a fence around yourself and have people living in the third world 5min from your home. But if you deprive them of hope, they you’re going to really need your fences because people without hope explode.

[JW] I talked with Lizi Sagie, another volunteer and a Zionist, she’s a believer. While talking to me she was struggling with finding the right word in English to explain what was going on and has to ask Phyllis, all the while a boy is trying to sell us a pack of chewing gum,
http://hearvox.com/wip/jw/Checkpoint_15.mp3 [15sec]
[Lizi Sagie] Phyllis? how invol? Ignorance. See this kid? He has no school, no kindergarten, no love. He knows nothing but Israel hates me. We have to respect everyone. (is this Jewish?) no, this is the opposite of Jewish, it is to see the ugliest part of my country and it hurts. It hurts a lot.

[JW] I leave them and enter into Bethlehem, they can not follow, it is written. Soldiers behind blast-proof windows wave me past as I hold up my blue American Passport. Entering Bethlehem really IS like entering a developing country, or a country not able to develop. The Palestinian side of the barrier wall is dense with graffiti, busted fences list every which way, and rubbish heaps dot the landscape. The tourism economy has been equally devastated and taxi drivers clamor for my business offering to take me anywhere for special price. “Jesus?” asked one driver. What? “Where Jesus born?” Yes, I say, I’d like to see that.
[Music]
Birth is a joyous thing, especially when unexpected, after giving-up hope of ever having a child. Sarah and Abraham must have laughed with glee when they had Isaac, for Sarah thought she was too old, God said different, God was right, and so it was. The name “Isaac” means “He Laughs” His laughter and blood becomes David’s. David’s blood then begets and becomes the blood of Jesus. A lineage dripping with laughter, but blood is mixed with tears. Ishmael, the name, means “He Weeps” The brother of Isaac, the brother of Laughter, weeps to this day.
[Church Ambient]
[JW] Jesus, was born in a fireplace. Or what looks like a fireplace: a marble hearth underneath the main alter inside the church of the Nativity—one of the worlds oldest functioning churches. Even if it’s not the actual place where the manger was, it is now.
A woman enters the room, gets on her knees in front of the shrine, leans into the hearth-like space and kisses the floor, kisses the space where the idea of Jesus was born. She rises back up and exits through the opposite stairway. She doesn’t seem happier or changed in anyway, almost like she does it daily, like it was nothing special, more like something that has to be done.
[checkpoint sounds]
It takes me over an hour to get through the checkpoint back into Israel, cramming into throngs of Palestinians trying to get through as well. Hand-scanners had just been installed—the latest security technology. And like most new technology, new interfaces, many elderly people were unclear on how use it. Soldiers shouted instructions through an intercom but eventually had to risk their lives and come out.
I watch as A young Israeli soldier presses his hand over an old woman’s so it lay flat on the scanner. It was the most contact I’d seen between an Israeli and an Palestinian on my whole trip.
Together, Isaac and Ishmael waited till a red light turned green.
[End]