After a new draft of people arrive in a rotation at Ziouani, tours are arranged for the first two weekends. These tours purpose is to allow the new draft to experience the local sights and sounds. The first weekend was the tour of the Syria.
Because the tours were on both saturday and sunday, we were split into two groups. My group went on the sunday tour. We wore our tan uniforms and blue berets, we also made sure that we were carrying nothing that had Israeli markings. We left the camp on two buses. We turned right and headed towards the AOS. 200 meters later we arrived at the Israeli checkpoint. Here we had to present our U.N. ID cards. Those of us that had a special card would be able to cross anytime the border was open, but the rest would need to be put on a special crossing list. The Israeli soldier entered our name and number into the computer in front of him. This would make it easier for us to cross in the future. This procedure took about 25 minutes for all of us.
Then we were directed through the gate on foot and walked for another 100 meters. Here we arrived at the U.N. Military Police gate. Again, we had to present ID and be entered on a computer. This is so the U.N. can keep track of who's going back and forth. Once we finish here we walk another 100 meters and arrive at the Syrian gate. Here we show our ID and the Syrian soldiers check the crossing list. This crossing list has to be entered to the Syrians by the U.N. at least four days prior to a crossing. This means that if you didn't have one of the orange crossing cards, you had to put your name in to request crossing permission. Then it would be sent to Damascus and then down to the border.
One more thing, this whole border crossing thing was a major pain in the neck because the U.N. is the only one allowed to use it. This crossing is the only border road between Israel and Syria and the only one allowed to use it is us. We patrol it, we even have our own checkpoint, we are the only ones allowed to use it, but if your name's not on the list then you're not crossing.
The Syrian gate is located on the edge of what used to be a big arab town, Kunietra had a population of fifteen thousand people at the beginning of the last war. The town in now ruined by explosions. The popular thing to do is to debate who destroyed the town. Some claim that the Israelis bombed it and forced the population out. The other view is that the Syrians evacuated the town and then rigged all the buildings to explode. This view is the more popular one because all the building show evidence of internal explosions and it would be highly unlikely that every bomb dropped by the Israelis would make it through a window to explode inside of each house. The place is now a propaganda site for Syrians to bring their children and show them Israel across the border and the awful evilness of the Jews.
From here we continue up the road towards Damascus. We make a short detour and stop at the U.N. camp called Faouar. This camp is home to the Austrians and a couple Canadians. As we arrive here we drive through an arab settlement. Each home is built with lava rocks and looks like Bedrock City from the Flintstones. It appears to be extreme poverty but the people that we see look happy and the children seem healthy. I can't help but notice how stunningly beautiful the people are. The arab children and women have such beautiful features and smiles. The women dress in bright dresses that are more like robes and the children are just in shorts.
At Faouar we stop to show the tour the camp and explain what happens here. I'll talk more about this place later when I explain some of the jobs I do.
We leave Faouar and continue on to Damascus. We travel through a couple arab towns and are told which ones have the shops that cater to us. The best town and closest to our camps is one called Khan Arnabi. We'll be stopping here on the way back.
We continue along the main road towards Damascus and see Arab men riding donkeys, children playing next to the road and women carrying bundles of the flat middle east bread. We also see lava rock everywhere. All the hills in this area are extinct volcanoes and have left there evidence of past eruptions all over. This is good as the small settlements have used this rock to build houses and fences. If a person wanted to they could make a fortune in barbecue stones.
On the outskirts of Damascus we are shown a huge tent city. This, we are told is made up of the population of Kunietra, the bombed out town at the border I already mentioned. It looks just like the refugee camps you see on the news. Later on I'll be seeing more places like this and see that the Arabs are actually quite content to live in these "towns".
Right at the edge of Damascus we see an air base. This is the site from which Syria launched all of its air attacks on Israel and took quite a pounding during the last war. Now it is the principal Palestinian Liberation Army training school. In fact a year later I watched a movie about the Lockerbie plane explosion and saw this very camp featured as such in the planning of the bombing. We notice that the Syrian air force still uses the air base and see some of their helicopters flying around.
As we continue into the city it starts to look more western. I don't mean cowboys. We immediately start to feel the urgency of middle east driving. If you don't drive aggressively you get cut off and accidents are inevitable. We are told what some of the buildings are and really have no idea where we are. We end up on the edge of a hill that gives us the best view of the city of Damascus. It is a large, dirty, congested, poor city with about three million people.
Next we head into the center of town and after being forced to endure the HFC (holy fuck circle) at its best, arrive at what is called the art souk. HFC will be explained later, as I have some stories about it. A souk is best described as a mall. In the middle east they don't build shopping centers like we do. Instead it is like being inside a mall but outside. All the stores open and spread there wares onto the street like a bazaar and every thing is on a barter system. If you ask how much something is, you must be prepared to buy it. Once you are told the price you must immediately counter. This continues until you finally give in and buy it. In the art souk we see leather, baskets, gold, silver and other things that are hand made. We get the chance to practice buying here and the Arab salesmen are quite lenient with us.
From here we head to the main souk. This is located inside the walls of the old city of Damascus and I'll talk more about this place and the sights here later. I'll say that we are taken to some of the better shops that cater to the U.N. We are shown the best silver shop, Silver Mikes. We are also shown the places that sell tablecloths, mashaloms ( arab robes), cloths, bathrobes, backgammon boards and other uniquely Arab items.
At noon we are led to an Arab restaurant. Here we are seated and brought tea, pop or the strong Arab coffee. Then we help ourselves to a buffet of Arab food. The tastes and smells could not be rightly told on paper so I'll just say that as a big eater, I was in heaven. I absolutely enjoyed everything on the menu. After gorging ourselves we were led back to the buses and started back to the camp.
We made our stop in the town of Khan Arnabi and were introduced to the businesses there. First there is Jewelry John. His name is Menachim or Mike and sells gold. Puzzle rings, chains, pendants, U.N. rings and custom gold orders.
Penguin Mikes is owned by another Menachim and sells table cloths, mashaloms, t-shirts and other Arab souvenirs. He'll do custom orders on t-shirts and jackets. He and I became very good friends and actually started having Koran studies.
NAI's is a music store. This is the place to pick up tapes. Every thing is what we would call black-market. It has been copied and then sold cheap. The quality of tapes bought this way is great and anything recorded is available. This place provided most of the music tapes purchased by people in the camp.
Shizaars is the best t-shirt store in Syria. This store sells about five hundred different picture t-shirts. Every section that wanted their own design on a t-shirt got them here. This was the place to buy leather sun glass cases with trade badge or U.N. logo. I bought one with the Logistics logo on it.
These are the main stores that I shopped at. There are many more and I'll talk about one or two of them later as I tell some of my stories. From here we got back on the buses and returned to Bravo Gate. This is the Syrian gate and again we have to go through the clearances. We walk from here to the Charley Gate, the U.N. M.P. checkpoint. Here the Police enter our names and check our bags to see if we have items that are forbidden in Israel. Then we walk to the Alpha Gate and the Israeli soldiers go through our stuff with a fine tooth comb. They also have the vehicles pull into a bomb pit. This is so they can check under and in the vehicles for bombs or contraband. I should mention that the M.P.s have the capability to do dog searches of vehicles and luggage at the Charley Gate.
We arrive back at Camp Ziouani at five o'clock and most of us go straight into the mess hall for supper. This was the end of quite an enlightening day. The point of these tours is to show us the customs and people that we will be working around for the next six months.
The second weekend tour is in Israel. We, again, are split into two groups. On this tour we are allowed to wear civilian clothing as long as there are no shorts or halter tops. We eat breakfast and have to be on the bus by 7:30 a.m.
There may be a map somewhere in this book but until you see it, you'll just have to picture the route in your head.
We leave the camp and drive around the base of what we are now referring to as "spy hill". We are traveling along the northern edge of the Israeli / Syrian border and are heading north west.
We go through a well kept Druze Muslim town and learn that the people living here chose to do so after the last war. They had been given the option of returning to Syrian territory but declined due to already being established. We continue on until we are on the edge of a deep green valley. We stop at a place that gives us a great view of Nimrods Fortress. This is the remains of a Crusader castle. It was built here because it gave the best view of the valley which was really a caravan route to Damascus from the Mediterranean. This castle was huge in its day and even though we are about a kilometer from it, we are impressed by the size of it. Later I'll get the chance to actually go to it and I'll say more about it then.
Just a short distance from here is an area of northern Galilee that is called the Banias. This is a place with waterfalls and lush vegetation that was a favorite place for travelers to stop. Jesus and his disciples were here and Jesus asked them who they thought he was.
In Matthew 16:13 it refers to this place and its real name of Caesarea-Philipi. Jesus said, "who does man say that I am?". It was quite a wonderful feeling to know that I was starting to get to the places that I had grown up learning about, with respect to Jesus.
From here we continue along the northern border until we arrive at Metula. This is a large town located on the border of Lebanon. This is a very modern community that supports the arts minded person. Freedom of expression in words and crafts abound here. We are here to be shown a giant recreation complex. This building was built by Canadian Jews and is called the Canada Center. In side is a huge ice rink, large pool, weight room, courts for sports, an outside pool and a shooting range. We are told that on tuesdays we have a run here in the evenings and by just showing our I.D. cards we can get in for free. The only thing we have to pay for would be the shooting and skate rentals. I'll be talking about this place later in one of my stories.
Metula is also a tourist attraction for one famous place. The Good Fence Metula is our next stop. Here we are shown one of the only two border crossings into Lebanon from Israel. It is called the good fence because a few years ago when this crossing was closed to travel, a pregnant lady from Lebanon came to the border to beg to be allowed into Israel to be able to get medical assistance for her delivery. She was initially refused entrance but through persistence was granted access. Her baby was delivered safely and the story spread. In Lebanon there is not the medical facilities available for difficult births and as word spread about this incident, people started coming to the gate. Soon hundreds of women were coming to ask for permission to enter and were being allowed. Now this gate is the only free crossing point into Israel. Security is still high but as we shop at all the little kiosks set up around the parking lot we are introduced to the shop keepers. We learn that they all live in Lebanon and cross every day into Israel to run their shops. They do not have free travel in Israel but are allowed to work here at Metulla.
We leave here and head south toward the Sea of Galilee. Our next stop is at the site of the sermon on the mount. The Mt. of Beatitudes is now a beautiful church, as we would soon see all the holy sites have been turned into churches. The book of Matthew chapter 5 calls this place a mountain but it is actually just a high slope over looking the Sea of Galilee.
From here we drive a short distance to the shore of the Sea, actually it is just a lake. Tagbha is the site of the miracle of five loaves and two fishes. Matthew 14:15 starts the story of how Jesus took five loaves and two fishes and fed a multitude of people.
Our next stop is just a bit north of Tagbha on the west side of the lake. Capernaum was the home of the disciple Peter and Jesus was here a lot. The town still has the remains of buildings of that time and St. Peters house is still there. Although you can't get to it because there is a huge ultra modern church built over top of it. This church looks like a spaceship because it is built on angled iron stilts.
We continue are trek along the shores of Galilee and at the north end we cross the Jordan River, actually it's a creek. At one time it was a huge river and could only be crossed at a couple of places. We stop for prepackaged lunch at a public beach on the east side of the lake. All around the lake are tourist resorts and it is all very tidy, except this beach. There is garbage everywhere and it stinks. I can't figure out why we would even stop here until I notice people taking pictures of a sign. Shittum Beach is what the sign was supposed to read but with tum removed this beach is well named. I guess our tour guide had a sense of humor. In fact when I drove this tour for the next draft three months later, I suggested we stop here again and we did.
We drive from here further south and turn to the east. We are then afforded our first view of Jordan. Of course we are seeing it across the Jordan Valley and through the security fence. Did I mention that this is the world longest electric security fence. It starts at Rosh Haniqura on the Mediterranean at Lebanon and travels along the Syrian and then Jordan and then the Egyptian borders and ends at the Mediterranean again. It is not just electric, it is patrolled by Israeli gun jeeps. If you touch the fence you can be shot. If you take pictures of any military installation or equipment in Israel, you get into big trouble. We drive along this fence until we arrive at Hammat Gader. This is a tourist waterpark and alligator farm.
This is also the site of the only road sign indicating the route or an access to the Golan Heights. We return along the fence and notice signs on the fence stating "photographing prohibited". I remember thinking that these signs would make a great photo, especially with Jordan in the background. That sounds like a story for later.
We continue on and at the south end of the lake we turn left or south and stop at a place called Yardinet. This is the official Israeli Tourisms site of the baptism of Jesus. We learn later that the most probable place for the baptism in in a restricted military area and as the holy sites are a money maker, they built this one. There is no church here but this is the most popular of all the sites. There are concrete ramps that people walk down to get into the water and get baptized. Pilgrimages from all over the world come here and the estimates are that half a million people a year get baptized.
I liked the concession stand and had an ice-cream. It looked better than the polluted river, anyway. There was also a souvenir shop and they sold all the usual memorabilia and Israeli products.
We leave and head back to the lake. On the outskirts of Tiberius we stop at the hot springs. This is like any other hot springs resort I've ever been to, except for the tans. Israeli women are, well, unique. I think it's the pita bread, I don't know. Okay, that's enough of that.
We stop in the waterfront parking lot on the shores of Tiberius and are given three hours to shop and explore. The waterfront has a walkway all along it that is home to restaurants and vendors of all types. Just up from the water is a corridor with more cafes and bistros. All have outdoor seating and because it is so warm, I sit down at one to have an iced cappucino.
I wait until I have to be at our meeting spot and then join the group. This next stop is called the Galilee Experience. This is in a theatre and is the most informative presentation I'll see for the next six months. What we watch is a slide and audio display of four thousand years of Galilean history. We learn about bible history from Moses to Jesus. Then we are shown how wars and turmoil destroyed the Galilee region. Then it goes on to show modern growth in Israel which is only fifty years. It also explains the historical aspects of all the Galilean towns, some of which I'll be going to on a daily basis for work.
This presentation last for about forty minutes and then it's time to eat. Right on the edge of the Sea of Galilee or Lake Kinneret, as it's now called, is a restaurant. This is where we go to eat on this tour. We are seated and our orders for drinks are taken. I order a Goldstar beer, one of two popular Israeli brands. The other is Macabees and I find it is rather bitter. Then plates of pickles and olives are brought out. These are followed by dishes of dips, sauces, vegetables and pita bread. Humice or ground chick peas is a popular jewish appetizer on pita and we eats tons. We are then given a choice of three entrees, which is a shock because we have already gorged ourselves. The choices are spaghetti, chicken or steak. I choose the steak and find that it is the most tenderest piece of meat I've ever had. The jewish laws have ways of preparing food so that it meets standards, it's then called kosher, and that's why the meat is so good. After a few more drinks and lots of good conversation, it's time to return to the camp. At the end of a long day it's good just to crawl into bed. I'm in the holy land and yet, strangely, I'm home.
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