RSS

Contact us

Sunday 7 September 2008

Armageddon is up the road

Paul Wood visits the Holy Land

Like everything else here, the tunnels are controversial. In 1996, excavations triggered clashes in which 80 people died. So when we are finally spat out of the underground maze, emerging, slightly to our surprise, from a nondescript door in the wall close to the Via Dolorosa, the Israelis provide an armed escort back to the Western Wall.

Those feeling more adventurous can visit the West Bank. Bethlehem is just a few minutes’ drive from Jerusalem. You drive out through the industrial suburb of Talpiot and past the red-roofed settlement blocks which Israel is building to redraw the map of Jerusalem, prior to the peace agreement which never comes.

The entrance to Bethlehem is marked by ‘the wall’, part of the separation barrier which Israel says is needed to stop suicide bombers coming from the West Bank. It is a fence in places, but in Bethlehem it is huge concrete slabs, pressed right up against some of the houses. Graffiti artists have taken advantage of this, including Britain’s own Banksy. When Tony Blair visits the Bethlehem Intercontinental Hotel, he looks out on an original Banksy showing a little girl in a pink party dress detaining and searching an Israeli soldier in full combat gear.

The centre of Bethlehem is Manger Square. There is a mosque on one side, the Church of the Nativity on the other. Like the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, it was built by the Roman Emperor Constantine and his mother Helen. It has a tiny, low door at the front, originally to stop horsemen entering. Down below is the small dark cave where Jesus was said to have been born. A nun lay full length on the floor of the grotto, weeping, when we visited last.

This visit, last month, happened to coincide with the public funerals of four Islamic militants killed by an Israeli hit squad the day before. Manger Square was packed. There were bursts of automatic gunfire over the heads of the mourners as the four bodies passed by, wrapped in flags, the faces uncovered. A neatly dressed middle-aged woman in a headscarf began abusing the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, blaming his policy of talking to Israel for the four deaths. ‘You dog of Bush and Rice,’ she screamed, ‘I hope you die an ugly death.’ Another similarly dressed woman objected and there was an unseemly exchange of blows between the two women in their funeral best.

More articles from: Lucy Fleming | this section

Print this article  |  Email to a friend  |  Permalink  |   Comment

Post this entry to:   del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit

Advertisement

Spectator Business | Apollo Magazine

Corporate | Advertising | Privacy | Terms

Spectator, 22 Old Queen Street, London, SW1H 9HP

All Articles and Content Copyright ©2008 by The Spectator | All Rights Reserved