10 Things about the Holy Land You Probably Did Not Know

Having just returned from an extensive 8-day learning tour of The Holy Land, I thought I would share with you the following:

1.    The Holy Land is comprised of two nations: Israel and Palestine. To be sure, Israel and its number one ally, the US, do not recognize Palestine as a state, but almost every other nation in the world does.

2.     The Christian Church has been present in The Holy Land since the time of The New Testament and is still very much alive there. And some of you thought it was all Jewish or Muslim.

3.   We have The Christian Church to thank for sparing the so-called holy sites, some of which are in Israel (e.g. Jerusalem and in Nazareth) and some of which are in Palestine (e.g., Bethlehem).

4.  Ramallah, the seat of government in, and Bethlehem, also in The West Bank of Palestine, have Christian mayors by law, as established by former PLO leader, Yassir Arafat.

5.     Buildings in Palestine or Palestinian areas of Israel can be distinguished by large black water tanks on their roof. This is because Israel controls the water in The Holy Land and only turns it on for Palestinians several hours a day, often beginning at 4 AM. This causes sleep problems for many Palestinian mothers who get up at that hour to do the laundry before the workday begins.

6.    The Palestinians, Jews and Christians who lived in The Holy Land since the time of Jesus coexisted peaceably for the most part until the formation of the nation of Israel in 1948.

7.     The Christian churches you see in The Holy Land today only date back to the fourth century AD/CE at the earliest.

8.   Against the wishes of Britain, who was in control of The Holy Land at the time, and the United Nations, Israeli terrorists at the time of the founding of the state of Israel, evicted the residents of over 500 Palestinian towns and villages from their homes, often at gunpoint. Despite promises given at the time, none have been allowed back home since then - 1948.

9.    There are still a number of refugee camps to house these Palestinians, e.g., in Jerusalem itself, and Bethlehem (three in that area), with all the limitations that refugee camps have with infrastructure and resources (i.e., not connected to the hydroelectric or water and sewer networks that surround them), run by the United Nations in The Holy Land, in which Palestinians have lived since 1948 when they were expelled from their homes by Israel. Some are large enough to qualify as cities in their own right.

10.  On the other hand, since 1967, when Israel took over control, i.e. “occupied” Palestinian territory, over 500 Jewish communities have been established illegally, according to international law, on these occupied territories. These are often referred to as "settlements," which for many may suggest small pioneer-type communities, when in fact many qualify size-wise as cities in their own right and have all the infrastructure and benefits of any modern city, including a network of obviously illegally built highways connecting them, which are often entirely off-limits to Palestinians, or at least only open with severe restrictions, as in “checkpoints.”