To all of my friends and family, (and now everyone else)

Some of you I have seen very recently, and for others, it has been a long time. As many of you know, earlier this month I took a trip to Israel and Palestine with other college students affiliated with the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts. I promised many people I would let them know how the trip went, and I'd like to take this opportunity to share my experiences with everyone.

For twelve days, I spent my time exploring the lands of Israel and Palestine, seeing the wonders of the Holy Land and learning more about the conflict that is occurring there. We stayed in Jerusalem for a total of four days, living in the old city, or just outside of it. During our time there we visited Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial of Israel. While this was a very emotional way to start off the trip, it gave us a good background about the situation of which Israel was formed. To give us a crash course about the current situation and conflict, we were briefed by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Everything we did was not involved in politics though, the trip also also served as a Christian pilgrimage. In Jerusalem, we visited many of the holy sites in the city, including the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, which is called the Church of the Resurrection by locals. We were also able to visit the Western Wall (aka: the Wailing Wall), which was a great experience. During the rest of our travels, we visited the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, the Primacy of Peter in Galilee, Jericho, and Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. We actually got to take a dip in the dead sea, which was a once in a lifetime experience.

A major chunk of our trip was spent traveling through Palestine, learning about the struggle of the Palestinian people. For four days, we stayed with Palestinian families in Beit Sahour, a city right next to Bethlehem. Before I go on, let me just say that the intention of this email is to not sway your opinion in one way or another, but to simply share all of the stories and sights that I witnessed during my time in Palestine. I've realized that the media does not always tell the entire story, which is true in many situations, and that I would be betraying myself and the others that I have met if I did not share what I have seen.

One of the first stories that my host mother told me was how she was woken up one morning by soldiers, informing her that her apartment was to be seized and demolished because it was "illegal." While nothing more has happened to her home, an Israeli youth peace activist showed us the rubble of Palestinian homes that have been confiscated and demolished for being "illegal."

In the city of Hebron, we walked through the turnstiles and metal detectors that Palestinians had to pass through everyday to walk through their own town. We heard stories of young Palestinian girls getting stoned by settlers as they walked to school, pregnant women and elderly getting tear gassed while trying to pass through a check point, and watched as a group of young Palestinian men were chased down and questioned by Israeli solders.

One of the biggest things we encountered during our time there was the wall (or the barrier as it is called by the UN) that is being built by the Israeli government between Israeli and Palestinian lands, as decided in the 1993 Oslo Accord. This concrete wall, which is approximately twenty feet high, not only separates Palestinians from Israelis, but also brothers from sisters, and children from parents. It runs through the centers of towns, less than 20 meters from houses, or in some cases, running through the space where a house was demolished for the purpose of creating the wall. Many people say that the wall is solely for the purpose of security. This is a valid reason, but then why did solders forbid us to pass through a northern checkpoint into the city of Ramallah, only for us to drive 30 minutes south to pass through an unmanned checkpoint? If the wall was truly for security purposes, I feel like both checkpoints would be manned by soldiers.

I know I must sound awfully biased in this email, and at this point, I guess I still am. My intention is not to make you all pro-Palestine, or to make you anti-Israel. My goal is to spread information, and what I have to offer are stories and pictures. I strongly believe that it is through the transfer of information that peace will come to Israel and Palestine, for in this way people can make informed decisions about who/what they are supporting.

If you are interested in looking at pictures, go to http://IsPal2006.shutterfly.com.

Thank you all for reading this (long) email. Just listening to what I have to say means a lot to me, and also to all of those people whose stories I have just shared. If anyone has any questions about anything I've said, or would like to see more pictures, I would love to talk to you. Other than that, I wish you all the best.

Pax,
Tara