Sunrise from our window at the Paradise Hotel.
We started the day with a hike at the Mar Saba Monestary a Byzantine period monestary in the Judean Desert. Our guide was Imad Atarash, Executive Director of the Palestine Wildlife Society. Mr. Atarash described the of the area's fauna and flora. This is the dessert where Jesus fasted for forty days and nights. We saw the effects of sending raw sewage from the settlements into the stream that cut through the desert canyon in this Holy place.
We next toured the Palestine Wildlife Society's Ush Garab in Beit-Sahour. The Society does animal rescue and environmental work. Ush Garab is a wildlife rehabilitation and environmental center. It is home to raptors, snakes, turtles, and a gazelle. It was able to avoid takeover by the Israeli military by using the Israeli environmental laws which were not previously applied to the Area C land. We learned more about the ecological impact of the occupation.
Mary holding a snake (just to show our grandson Eamon she could)
We next toured Shepherds's High School with Eng. George Sa'adeh, School Director. Although school was not in session, three ten and eleven year old students came in to play for us.
Eng. Sa'adeh then told us about Palestinian education. Palestine has the highest rate of literacy in the Middle East. Their schools graduate many doctors and engineers. However, Israel Does not allow Palestinians to study sciences in Israel universities. It also does not allow the import of supplies for chemistry experiments. Israel does not teach Palestinian history because they don't recognize the existence of,Palestine.
Following Eng. Sa'adeh, Prof. Dr. Qustandi Shomali, in the Arabic Department at Bethlehem University, told us about Palestinian authors, poets and literature over the last 100 years. These include Aziz Doment, Paul Valery Sigmund Freud and Edward Said.
At the end of Prof. Shomali's talk, we were picked up by our host family for Saturday night and Sunday, Atif and Nawal Shomali (Atif and Qustandi are cousins). Conversations flowed easily about family and politics over a wonderful dinner (prepared by Nawal) and late into the evening.
As another example of the occupation, Atif works in Ramallah but is not allowed to drive the most direct road which would be through Jerusalem.
The view from our host family's home.
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