Israel – between joie de vivre and suffering

28.09.-10.10.2023

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“Put the flag down, this is not Israel!” – this is what passing motorists and passers-by shout at us, sometimes angrily. Unthinkingly, we kept the Israeli pennant on Astrid’s bike when we set off from West Jerusalem towards the Dead Sea, and now we are riding through East Jerusalem, the Arab part of the city that is suddenly clearly also recognisable to us. People’s clothing – men without kippahs, women with hijabs and long black dresses – audible muezzin calls and the sudden absence of Israeli flags make it clear to us that we are already in the West Bank, part of the Palestinian autonomous area. Despite the hatred already palpable here, we do not yet suspect the escalation this conflict will experience so soon.Since the starting point, the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, but at the latest since the abolition of the British protectorate in 1947 and the Arab-Israeli war that followed Israel’s declaration of independence in May 1948, violence and hatred have been dragging on.

But how differently our stay had begun! After the 30-hour overnight flight from Nevşehir via Istanbul, we arrived in Tel Aviv rather tired, but it was only a short way by shuttle train and from Savidor central station by bike to our hostel directly on the beautiful beaches of this city. A flair of Venice Beach or Santa Monica immediately took us in for this recognisably vibrant, modern and fun-loving city. For just under three days we enjoyed watching the beach volleyball and beach football players – there was even a reigning world and a European champion each, dodging the speeding e-bike and e-scooter riders on the specially prepared tracks, enduring the hard clacking at the serious beach tennis tournament, and chilling in the afternoon sun and sunset at Dickie’s beach café with a delicious cocktail and snack.

Of course, we also visited the port and the old town of historic Old Jaffa and the alleys of Neve Jedek during bicycle tours along the spacious boulevards with their shady green spaces and playgrounds, as well as the houses of the Bauhaus architects expelled from Weimar and Dessau by the Nazis, some of which have been magnificently restored, and observed the hustle and bustle around Dizengoff Square. The time was too short to take it all in, but enough to develop enthusiasm and a sense of well-being for this city.

The picture in Jerusalem yet was very different. During our time there, the city was dominated by thousands of pilgrims, many of them international, from strict Orthodox Jewish families, who flock to the city for the week-long Sukkot, the traditional Feast of Tabernacles, and dominate the streets. The obligatory visit to the Temple Mount with the Wailing Wall, the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock with the mass of Orthodox pilgrims turned out to be an equally impressive and alienating experience. The cultural conflict between the secular majority and the strict Orthodox minority in Jewish society, which purposefully strives for increasing its influence, is conveyed in the observation alone.

Also strange is the omnipresence of police and military, each heavily armed, mostly very young people of both sexes, who, among other things, strictly cordon off the Muslim part of the Temple Mount from non-Muslims at prayer times. A looseness and relaxedness like in Tel Aviv is not to be found here, perhaps with the exception in and around the area of Mahane Yehuda, Jerusalem’s fruit and vegetable market. Here, Orthodox-dressed Jews and Muslims like fashionable and sexy Western-styled young people crowd around the stalls with the colourful offer of nuts and sweets in oriental variety, with chilled juices of exotic fruits or refreshing cocktails and foreign beers. All this with a noise level characterised by the competition between market shouters, Oriental pop blaring from booming loudspeakers and open-air karaoke singers.

The most lasting impression, however, was left on us by the visit to Yad Vashem, the architecturally outstanding Holocaust memorial. The visit, which ought to be obligatory for every German tourist, once again leaves us, even after our various visits to concentration camps in Germany, Austria and Poland, with a mixture of feelings of shame, anger, bewilderment, shock, dismay, sadness, speechlessness and humility, silent and with tear-filled eyes for long minutes as we make our way back to our accommodation.

After three days we set off in the direction of the Dead Sea, happy to finally be back on our bikes, but unaware of the huge hurdles we have to overcome on the way east. Jerusalem, situated on steep hills, no, mountains, confronts us with unbikable gradients of more than 20%, where even pushing becomes a torture, just as the ride along Highway 1 becomes a dramatic stress test and the onward journey to the Dead Sea with the crossing of the Wadi Og an extreme off-road exercise.

Spectacular, scenically unique, but topographically and climatically highly strenuous is the drive along the western shore of the Dead Sea, lined by barren mountain ranges bizarrely shaped by erosion, wonderful the view across to the Jordanian side, which appears in soft pastel shades in the afternoon and evening light. A relaxing stay at Kibbutz En Gedi with a visit to the nature reserve of the same name and the refreshing waterfall path through the Wadi David. The visit to the Miami-like seaside resort of En Bokek with a relaxing swim in the Dead Sea was to be the last happy moment of our stay in Israel.

While the control when crossing the border in the Negev desert from the West Bank back into Israel was still relatively relaxed, everything changed dramatically just one day later due to the terrible events in the Gaza Strip. The ‘En Gedi Camp Lodge’, which was almost fully booked on arrival, emptied completely within a day, fear, horror and worry appeared on people’s faces and great uncertainty about the progress of our journey gripped us despite reassuring comments from local people and ultimately led to extensive re-planning with the aim of leaving the country as quickly as possible and, after a short stay in the holiday resort of Eilat, which – unusual for the season – is already totally empty, to reach safe Jordan, not at least to reassure our worried families and friends.