Rachel's Tomb

On my MUST SEE list before I left home was Rachel's Tomb. There is a story in the Bible about a man named Jacob, whose wife dies in childbirth while they are taking a journey towards Bethleham. Jacob then builds a memorial to her. It is called Rachel's Tomb and is a very important site to Mulims, Jews and Christians. I am not sure why it is so important to them or why it seemed so important to me. But I was drawn towards it.

During our very short time in Bethleham we had a wonderful taxi driver who took us to several interesting places, including his mother's home high up on a hill with a beautiful view (more about that later.) He also tried to take us to Rachel's tomb. 4 times. At all different times of the day. We tried it 3 times from the Arab side of the wall and then on the 4th try he dropped us off so we could cross into Isreal to see it from the Israeli side. Or try to see it from the Israeli side.

There was a very high, very solid concrete fence all around where we supposed Rachel's Tomb was. Our taxi driver and everyone in Bethleham we spoke to about it, knew what it was and exactly where it was. Louis ( our taxi driver) took us there with no hesitation. He did, however, warn us it may be closed.

The situation was completely different when we tried from the Isreal side. No one seemed to know what we were talking about and sent us in one direction, through gates and fences and checkpoints and then back another way. There was a blue sign with an arrow that said Rachel's Tomb. We would point at it and repeat ourselves. But the Isrealis seemed at a loss. Several tried to be helpful and even looked at a map with us so we could visit this very important Jewish site that apparently is completely walled off. How can they consider it so important and not even know what or where it is?

Apparently all the Palestinian homes and businesses any where near this wall are closed off from the main stream of society and have gone out of business. The wall was decorated with many political sayings and pictures.

We never did see Rachel's Tomb.

This very small site seems very significant to me. Why would they wall this off? It seems there is an Israeli settlement somewhere around or inside this wall. We could not find the settlements, the empty Palestinian homes, businesses or the memorial. We did find many Isreali checkpoints, fences, police and barricades. It was frustrating to know we were so close and yet so far.

This small frustration made me think even more about what the Palestinians go through every day, many times a day.