Monday -Beginning our explorations

We set out from our hotel in Jerusalem, heading north.  We will be in Nazareth this evening but lots to experience before shutting down for the night.
As well as the original 12, we have been joined by 8 others who signed up for the post Sabeel trip. So we have a couple from England and the rest from the USA.    They will stay with us for atleast 2 days.
We headed to Joyous, but tried to take a short cut but ended up in a Jewish Settlement. This enabled us to see the differences when we did finally reach Joyous.   Here we were greeted by Abu Azam who is a successful farmer. He talked about the challenges he is facing in trying both to retain his land for himself and to pass it onto his children and grandchildren.  There are all sort

s of legal roadblocks, and he has spent much money on legal battles. We also had the chance to talk with 3 of the Ecumenical Accumpaniers who had just come back from interviewing the family of a young man that was arrested in the middle of the night.   Night arrests are fairly frequent occurances in Jayyous, but often those arrested in the middle of the night are children., under the age of 16. One of the EA's reported seeing an 11 year old arrested.  He was released a few hours later, but had spent the time with his hands bound with plastic zap straps, and blindfolded in the back on the floor of a military vehicle.
We were served a lovely lunch of chicken, rice (2 types) and salad with fresh herbs-lovely.
After lunch we walked to take a look at a thousand year old olive tree.  I am going to try to post a couple of great photos if there is a computer in our Nazareth hotel. We then walked a couple of km to the agricultural checkpoint which only operates during harvest season. The rest of the time it is locked and there are twice daily patrols to insure no one has jumped the 12 foot fence with razor wire on the top.
Then it was time to head to Nazareth.  We cleared the checkpoint without a hitch, though this is frequently a spot that insists on thorough inspection.  Fortunately not today.
Lots of traffic on the road, but we arrived safe and sound by 6 pm then checked into the Nazareth Villa.  A lovely hotel, nice rooms and great food for dinner, then time for a walk.