Daily Dispatches from Israel/Palestine (2023)
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Day 8: Last Supper and Return to New York
It was not yet 6 a.m. when we were roused from our beds by a hotel-wide security alarm at the Batsheva Hotel in the heart of Jerusalem. The announcement was in Hebrew, and none of us could understand it. Was it a fire? A bomb? Our WhatsApp group kept buzzing: “What on Earth was that?”…
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Day 7: ‘The Past is my ID’: A Visit to Dheisheh Refugee Camp
The wheels of the Lilian, our trusted bus, spun on empty streets this morning. It was Saturday, Shabbat — the Jewish day of rest. Roads that are normally busy and chaotic lacked any sign of life. But as soon as we left the bus at Bethlehem’s Dheisheh refugee camp, we were welcomed by blasting music,…
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Day 6: Breaking Bread in Bethlehem, ‘Holy FOMO’ in Jerusalem 
On Friday, we met tour guide Saleem Anfous, who took us through the Old City of Bethlehem. Our first task was to taste it. We stopped by a bakery for ka’ak al-Quds, a bread covered in sesame seeds that’s also called the “Jerusalem bagel.” The bakery owner estimated that his traditional wood-fired oven, passed down…
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Day 5: Reporting in Jerusalem, and a View Behind the Wall
After days of gloomy skies, the sun returned to Bethlehem and Jerusalem, just in time for our first day of solo reporting. Most of us boarded our faithful steed, a bus we now call ‘Lilian’ at 9 AM (not so) sharp, and headed into Jerusalem. This morning also marked the first instance that our group…
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Day 4: Rain on the Stones of Jerusalem: On the Ground in the Old City
The early-morning sun reflected off the rows of white houses of Bethlehem as we started the day. Storm clouds started to roll in as we packed into our blue bus that we’re affectionately calling Lilian. As we started the journey towards Jerusalem, rain began to fall. There was a palpable energy from yesterday’s interviews with…
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Day 3: Baptisms in the Jordan and the View From an Israeli Settlement
In the trusty hands of Zaki, our driver from East Jerusalem, we loaded into our big blue bus and departed Nazareth for a drive through the Jordan Valley toward Bethlehem. In stop-and-go traffic, under a milky sky, we passed through rolling hills, a rainbow of greens, browns and purples, as we made our way to the…
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Day 2: From Mary’s Well, to a Church Halfway House to an Ahmadi Mosque
By Ania Gruszczynska and Nora Zaim-Sassi This morning, we met Bassam Hakim, our tour guide around Nazareth. Hakim grew up in the city in a family devoted to hospitality. “Nazareth is my passion,” he said, by way of introduction. We made our first stop at Rehov Hagalil Street’s graffiti wall. Although Nazareth is in Israel,…
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Day 1: In the Footsteps of Christian Pilgrims
The New Testament describes the miracles Jesus performed — many of them near the Sea of Galilee, in the northwestern corner of Israel, where he spent much of his adult life. The Sea of Galilee, the lowest freshwater lake on Earth, was the focal point of today’s trip for us on our first day in…