The Bethlehem Hotel InterContinental

UPDATE
I went back and the crowd was thin enough for a friend to take these:

Today I had a lovely day swimming with friends at the gorgeous Hotel InterContinental in Bethlehem.

I decided not to take (close) pictures of the pool area because there were so many families with so many different manifestations of modesty. There were women wading in the pool up to their knees in trousers and long sleeves and veils with their babies, teen girls in leggings and t-shirts, women and girls in swimsuits with and without shorts over them, with and without t-shirts over them. Little kids in swimsuits and water-wings. Men and boys in swim shorts, mostly without shirts. At least one European tourist in a Speedo.

The hotel is lovely and the grounds are amazing.

 

And then there was the ride home. One of the Israeli soldiers at the checkpoint decided to make me and another woman get out of our friend's car and walk. They sent the driver through the checkpoint without us. Then they delayed opening the gates for a while. And when we got to the last security booth, the soldier was taking a private call and ignored us. After a while he yelled at us to get out. It was annoying and disappointing, but nothing compared to what our Palestinian friends have to go through every day.

The Dividing Wall

Ephesians 2:14
"For Yeshua himself is our shalom: he has made us both one and has broken down the m’chitzah which divided us." (The Complete Jewish Bible, a Messianic version)
"For Jesus is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us." (The New Revised Standard Version, a widely used academic and congregational translation)
I got a really good look at the Wall today.

Not the Western Wall, bathed in prayer, but the Wall of Separation, the Security Fence, embroiled in different prayers. I saw the olive groves on the Israeli side of the wall.

I asked to whom did they belong. To a number of Christian communities and to some Bethlehemite families. I asked who tended and harvested them. The religious workers tend the trees that belong to their houses. And the families don't tend their trees much any more. For security reasons. In the interest of national security. The wall cut them off from their own land. The security forces assured them that they would be able to pass through the checkpoint "as needed." As the security forces determined. They are not free to visit their trees whenever they wish. There is "no reason" for them to go to their trees apart from harvest time. Not to sit, read, eat or pray under their trees. At harvest time they are regularly denied access to their trees. For security reasons. Their olive trees are untended and we are all the poorer for it.