the wall is the first thing you see before you enter bethlehem
in hebrew it's called the security fence in arabic the wall of apartheid
as a foreign visitor getting in and out is easy
you just strike through an israeli checkpoint and emerge in bethlehem no questions asked
the wall looks different on the inside the great concrete slabs are covered in drums encompassing
every emotion from hope to despair i visited israel and the occupied palestinian territories
best referred to by the un back in november 2019 a year and a half later and i still don't know how
to best talk about my experience and so i decided to let somebody else do the talking claire anastas
claire is the owner of the guest house my friend and i stayed at in bethlehem so beautiful this
is just absolutely precious she spoke with such clarity and so much candor and i knew she'd be
the perfect person to shed a bit of light on what is a hugely complicated situation so here's claire
my name is claire anastas i'm a mother for four children two boys and two girls
i'm living here in gracious tomb area in the main entrance of the bethlehem city from jerusalem
which it used to be the most vivid street for
for everybody for jewish palestinians tourists the area started changing since
they set up a military the israelis military army camp in our backyard it was like crossfire often
it started more dangerous more horrible because they blocked the main road and became isolated
no work no income no life the army is to come in at midnight and if we delay they can
bomb the door it's strange to listen to stories of bombs and snipers in bethlehem one of the holiest
cities in the world and according to the new testament the birthplace of jesus christ the vast
majority of palestinians are muslim but to this day bethlehem has a sizable christian community
including claire and her family and like them many of bethlehem's residents rely on tourism for
their income rachel's tomb and the church of the nativity being the two most famous religious sites
and there are also dozens of hotels tour companies and my personal favorite incredible restaurants
all of which depend on foreign visitors but the construction of the wall hasn't just impacted
the resident's livelihoods it's essentially left them trapped they put the wall in one day
after they did for two months and when the children went to school they came back find
themselves very alive and weak too because of racist room that's they infected of my
youngest son who was seven years old and he and he said to me mom let us leave please
his name is daniel i asked him to give us the last chance because we can make the life possible
where it is impossible and we build started building the guest house here
started with inviting my friends and we have like a foreign bright getting married my cousin the
army told her you are in the most safety place so stay there because they would protect the
tourists because it's controlled by completely by israeli military army in this area and we are
controlled by them but we don't have rights to ask back even if we pay property taxes to them
and other taxes to palestinians so we have we cannot ask for any justice and right at all so
amen imagine we don't know who we are belong to to us for one justice and right we are still affected
we are still struggling until now with the big issues just to force us to leave this place
to learn more about those who like claire have decided to stay behind in bethlehem i headed to
the waldorf hotel it was started by famous british street artist and political activist banksy and
aside from being a hotel it's also a museum a museum dedicated to the biography of the wall and
it doesn't just tell the stories of the locals it also shares an israeli perspective and interviews
with their soldiers if you do visit don't miss the small bookshop the staff are extremely
knowledgeable and eager to recommend books you might enjoy i got a copy of mornings in jenin
by susan abulhawa and it ended up being one of the best books that i read in 2020 tell me about
the role that kindness plays in your life how are you able to stay kind when life is so tough
yeah this is what i decided to be like even when we used to welcome
the army we welcome them with a smile and kindness and we used to help some of them
and imagine they were like it's confused as we are like we should be tough when you give love
and happiness and joy you will get back the same and believe me and people will feel
shy to deal with you aggressively and that's actually what saved my own life from the art
who were aggressive behaving with us when they've seen that we are kind and like smiling and behave
politely we avoid not at least to crash my face with the girl like we have many incidents happen
if we didn't act this way we would be killed or at least injured or cut words we do love them
we forgive them but they think we cannot forget the stories it stays in the mind in the memories
you know in my children childhood life one of the saddest realizations when visiting the west bank
as a tourist is how different your experience is from the daily realities of local residents
it was so easy for my friend and i to explore the area we visited jericho went for a dip in the dead
sea in short we had a great time but despite living so close to these incredible places
most palestinians rarely visit with all the checkpoints physical roadblocks and a huge
israeli military presence it's hard even just to move from one village to another and that's to
say nothing about actually leaving the waldorf area palestinians who live behind the wall can
only leave if they have a valid permit usually for purposes of work trade or medical treatment they
can only leave through gates available to them about half of the 63 currently inside the wall
these gates only open for a few hours each day and sometimes they don't open at all like during
israeli holidays or following violent clashes but again none of these restrictions apply to foreign
visitors and i would really like to encourage you to visit there are so many incredible places in
the west bank there's bethlehem there's jericho the oldest city in the world there's beautiful
napolis on which i have a whole separate video on my channel or how about a salt lake so big
it's known as the dead sea it's the lowest land point on earth and because of its water's high
salt content you can actually float on the surface how's it going very good very muddy very healthy
and then there's the most famous city of them all jerusalem jerusalem's interesting for several
reasons it's considered holy by all three of the major abrahamic religions judaism christianity and
islam both israel and the palestinian authority also claim the city of jerusalem as their capital
although neither claim has much international recognition it's too complex a topic to get into
in this video but worth reading up on because the status of jerusalem remains a highly contentious
issue while you're in jerusalem visit the temple mound where you will find the dome of the rock
and al-aqsa mosque and don't miss the nearby western wall also known as the wailing wall
and then just wander around the city eat lots of food and speak to everyone you meet because
it would be such a shame to visit this part of the world and not get perspectives from
both sides in order to build empathy and a clearer picture of what is really going on
in the lives of ordinary citizens like claire do you have any advice on how to be more kind
i advise everybody to to choose what they want to be at least for their dignity as a human being
because with keeping your dignity it gives you the strength and the power and love in your life
and and nothing impossible if they try to solve things with the nice and calm but
but with the anger everything would be complicated some people don't believe in god but they can be
kind and very kind as well because they have pure emotion pure hearts and they can be kind without
like no need to learn the kindness the most important is what the person decide to be himself
that's the most important my own life although admittedly very different from claire's
has taught me similar lessons we can choose what happens to us but we are always fully in charge
of how we respond to it and i often think about claire when i find myself in difficult situations
because if she can live life with such positivity and kindness underneath the
shadow of an eight meter wall then so can any of us thank you for watching and see you next friday