Last week I journeyed to Kibbutz Neve Ur in the Beit She'an -- this is just north of the boundary of the West Bank and south of the Jordan Valley, divided from Jordan by the Jordan River. Hopping off the bus on the highway at Neve Ur was glorious - warm breezes, trees, and gorgeous topography. To the west are hills, directly to the east are the kibbutz fields and east beyond the Jordan River are the mountains of the country, Jordan. (ed note: the original of this had the directions reversed. I shouldn't write blog posts late at night! Israel is west of Jordan, it hasn't moved!!)
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| At the highway |
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| Walking to the kibbutz |
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| Looking across the fields to Jordan |
I went to the kibbutz, not to apprentice as a kibbutznik, but to visit my friends Marla and Raviv and their kids. Raviv grew up here and they were home to visit his parents. The first thing I did after I arrived was eat fresh, organic dates. Amazing. Then before long we were off to tour the region. Our first stop was a neighbouring kibbutz where we ate hummous at the cafe. Hummous in Israel -- when you go to a restaurant for it, it is a meal -- is quite different from what you get in North America when you order hummous. It's still made of chickpeas and tahini, but it's usually served warm and topped with roasted eggplant or stewed chickpeas or even sausage. And, it's served with amazing slippers of bread. Yum. Hummous can be a serious bone of contention among Israelis. Don't ask more than one person at a time where to get the best hummous -- the discussion will never end. Seriously.
After lunch it was on to a tour of the Kinneret (aka Lake Tiberias and the Sea of Galilee). Jesus is meant to have done much of his work in and around the Kinneret...and perhaps even walked on it?!
The hills that rise on the east side of the Kinneret are the Golan Heights and Israel's border with Jordan and Syria. Beyond the north end of the Kinneret is Lebanon. This is another part of the country where not everyone agrees with the present borders. In the meantime Golan Height's wineries are creating award-winning wine.
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| The Kinneret |
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| The Kinneret beyond the fields |
Water trivia time:
The Kinneret is Israel's largest freshwater lake and it's below sea level! Running from the north to south of the Holy Land through the Dead Sea and on to the Red Sea is an extension of the Great Rift Valley that starts in Kenya. Much of it is below sea level.
The Jordan River flows out of the Kinneret; the Kinneret is the country's largest surface reservoir (there are two large aquifers (groundwater reservoirs) - the Coastal and the Mountain). It's such a big deal, the government updates daily a webpage that reports the level of the water in the Kinneret. Apparently, you can have water cooler conversations about the level of the Kinneret...hasn't happened to me yet. I don't have any close up pictures of the shoreline, but the locals have observed recession of the waters of the Kinneret -- what was once underwater is now treed shoreline.
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| The south end of the Kinneret |
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The first kibbutz was established on the south shores of the Kinneret in the early 20th century. Later, kibbutzim would dot much of the Jordan Valley and the Beit She'an.
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| Looking south of the Kinneret in the Jordan Valley - more cultivated land |
On the way back to Neve Ur, we drove up a local large hill (I hesitate to say mountain), called Star of the Jordan, to see the remains of a crusader castle (called "Belvoir") and enjoy the view. The castle construction started in 1168. It is thought to have been one of the most important crusader fortresses with its commanding view of the valley through which anyone travelling south to Jerusalem would have passed. The Muslims took the fortress in 1189 and later dismantled it.
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| Looking northeast from Belvoir |
While up on the hill we had the chance to see, amongst the lowing cattle, a Thompson's gazelle! Apparently, some of the animals who hang out in the southern end of the Great Rift Valley have ranges that extend to the Holy Land. (Maybe they heard how good the food is up here?)
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| Thanks Wikipedia! |
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And, we had the chance to drink Arabic coffee. Up to this point on this blog I haven't said much about politics. This isn't actually all that easy since in everyday life in Israel the politics are pretty much in your face. We went up to Belvoir to see the view, and not to see the castle (because we were travelling with two kids under 5) and because Marla and Raviv got married under a beautiful tree up on the hill. Since I missed their wedding, I wanted to see the spot where it all happened. We ended up with a cultural exchange.
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| The tree |
The tree happens to be in a national park. And it was Eid al-Adha. Unsurprisingly, we found an Arab-Israeli/Palestinian (what an Arab Muslim living in Israel calls herself is not uncomplicated) family having a picnic up at the lookout. Arab hospitality is pretty legendary, and it was no different this day. We were served cold drinks and they tried to feed us dinner; we had to beg off having eaten bowls full of hummous and bread only hours earlier. Then we were hanging out, drinking Arabic coffee, which is, well, as Marla said, "like medicine [of the best kind]". If you like coffee with cardamon it's hard to beat a well made Arabic coffee. I've been in this situation (the beneficiary of Arabic hospitality) before, but not in Israel where everything is...just so different. The older men, Raviv and Raviv's mom were conversing in Hebrew, mostly (I was told) discussing how the valley had changed over the years and children, in between scoping the hill with binoculars looking for gazelle. Marla was making sure we didn't end up with plates full of food to eat. Anyway, it was one of those moments where us and them seemed to fade and just a for a little bit we were people sharing a lovely afternoon in October.
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| Looking south east, drinking Arabic coffee |
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| Crusader castle ruins beyond the fence |
The next day I had a tour of the main kibbutz operations -- fish ponds and dairy cows. Along the way we stopped to climb an old tractor and visit the petting zoo (all kibbutzim have a petting zoo?!) that included a very showy rooster.
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| An old tractor |
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| The kibbutz rooster |
And, then it was back on the bus to Jerusalem...Yerushalayim in Hebrew...it actually sounds way better.
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