during one rocket day i decided to head up to nablus, one of the largest palestinian cities in the west bank. it is quite a trip from my home in beer sheva – a bus to jerusalem, another through the checkpoint to ramallah, and yet another to nablus. nablus is a really interesting place. i spent a few sweaty hours climbing mount gerizim which overlooks nablus, home of most of the last remaining samaritans of biblical fame. quasi-jews, they believe that the true site of the original temple was on mt. gerizim as opposed to in jerusalem. every year they hold a big ritual/sacrifice thing there. they even have their own ancient language. it is a small community of about 800, and until very recently they strictly disallowed intermarriage with anyone else, so unfortunately they have all kinds of rare genetic diseases. from the mountain one looks down on the balata refugee camp, the most populous in the west bank, where 30 000 people live in an area of 0.25 square kilometers.
in nablus i also went to beer yakoub/jacob’s well, the place where jesus met the woman at the well, and ate the local delicacy – kunafa, which is made from soft goat cheese, butter and honey and comes in flourescent orange and green varieties. unfortunately, nablus has a reputation for being a very hostile place for anyone suspected of being israeli. i was approached by some young guys who tried speaking a few hebrew phrases to me to see if i knew it. that day i didn’t know a word of hebrew – slightly less than what i’d know on a normal day. rumor has it that if they find out you speak hebrew, they’ll lynch you right there on the street 🙁
