Touring through the West Bank/Palestine can be pretty tricky due to the conflict between governments, religions, and people. I chose to sign up for a tour at my hostel to tour the West Bank/Palestine area, with a group of backpackers. Abraham hostel provides excellent tours to not only folks who stay at their hostel, but also people who don’t, so definitely check them out. Even though this is an Israeli company, the guides they affiliate within both West Bank/Palestine and Jordan are renowned certified local guides. Our guide for the tour through West Bank/Palestine is actually with a guy who does governmental PR work. He is thoroughly versed in the politics and the people in West Bank/Palestine. He was incredibly open to talk about everything, his view on the war and conflict around his refugee home, etc.
Please note that West Bank/Palestine is still a conflict area. Occasionally you might have encounters with gas grenades, armored convoy, open conflict. One of two tours will be required armored escorts for the safety of the guests(you). In the most extreme case, our guide said they generally would place their tourists behind the corps of journalists to use the journalists (who are less likely to be harmed) as meat shields, really unsettling thought though our guide seemed to be very relaxed about it. When I asked him about the constant danger, he said this: “us Palestinians, we are stubborn. We don’t care to hide in buildings when shells are firing all around us. We just sit outside and smoke shisha like you see in the news.” A way of life that is foreign to many of us in the group, fortunately. We live in relative peace and believe peace as the world’s homeostasis. From our view, the world of Palestinians’ seems to be impossible for us. For the Palestinians, they are used to the change and chaos; chaos is the homeostasis. Chaos sets their pace of life. Watching the chaos unfold daily is their TV drama, except, this is their actual life. As the hotel manager told me, “if you want to do field anthropology fieldwork here, you need two bottles of whiskey every day.” That is the Palestinians’ life reality. They have learned to live with it, and to thrive in uncertainties.
The murals and graffiti around the West Bank/Palestine recorded these everyday conflicts and expressed the wishes of Palestinians as well as others around the world. These are wishes for a peaceful and more loving world.
Plenty of other important sites to see around West Bank/Palestine. These sites are especially meaningful if you are a Christian, or if Jesus meant anything to you. The birthplace of the Christ, the baptism site, Mount Temptation, and the ancient city of Jericho are all in West Bank/Palestine. Despite the constant conflict, the Church of Nativity can be a very crowded place that also closes occasionally for religious holidays. Be sure to check the operating hours and dates before you go.
