day 14

Seeing as the trip began on a Wednesday, and it is now our last morning in the Holy Land -- we fly around 4pm -- that means it must be day 14! We arrive back into York in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

The last day was varied and enjoyable as we split off into smaller groups, then we reconvened for a fabulous meal in East Jerusalem together. The many and various activities of the day were satisfying and the stories we have heard and shared since coming back to Jerusalem and Bethlehem will live with us all for a long time.

The families in Beit Sahour are under extreme pressures and all the ordinary ones too. That has meant that for some of us, we have been a helpful distraction from the daily hassles, and have been suitably entertained. For others it has been a matter of fitting in with or fitting around the family we have been with. This section has been fascinating. Beit Sahour to Jerusalem without a separation wall would only be 5 miles, with it, it is well over an hour away with three bits of transport and a checkpoint. Even after three days of trudgery it amazes me that some have to do it as a commute (which for a Palestinian will often take 2 hours not one) and that many many more would give practically anything to have that same freedom.

Our group, though, its a tour group, and we've got this journey to make one last time. A tourist coach transferring us to the airport must be one of the fastest ways to get through on a day like today. It is likely that the checkpoints will be very difficult for locals after yesterday's killings in Tel Aviv. The coach will even be faster than being a foreign diplomat or an MP -- they have been told by Israel that if they come into the West Bank for meetings with any Palestinian MP (Fatah or Hamas) they will be boycotted by Israeli and disallowed to return to Israel for five years.

Some of us, I imagine will be coming back in far less than five years; moved, inspired, provoked and changed by this remarkable and troubled part of the world.