Nabil and his friend
While traveling in Israel I made many new local friends. Every other night we stayed with different local families in Jewish and Arab areas. It was beautiful to make those connections and see how the local people live. One local friend was very unexpected---my Jordinian/Palestinian friend in Jericho. This was one experience I never imagined.
We arrived in Jericho as the sun was setting. We found the Mount of Temptation, Herod's palace, and we were looking for Zacheus' sycamore tree and wanted to see the ruins of old Jericho. We could not find the sycamore tree and so stopped in the downtown area for a break.
Everywhere you look woman are accompanied by men. Women are covering their heads. Obviously, Sharia law exists in this city. I had just finished reading a book called Princess about the life of a Sultana in Saudi Arabia, which has very strict Sharia law. I was just a little bit scared, because we were 4 woman driving in a car without our heads covered. And then Kelly decides to go walking on the street and take pictures. The rest of us were too scared to get out of the car. I gave her my shawl and told her to cover her head, because I didn't know how strict the Shariah law was and I didn't want her or us getting taken to the police. When she comes back she says she met two men who said they knew where the Zacheus tree was and to follow them in their car. So we follow them to the Zacheus tree. And then they said they could take us to the old city of Jericho. Now mind you it is dark outside and we don't know where we are. They had been true to their word and led us to the tree so we followed them.
When we parked the car they took us to the Tourist Police. I'm thinking why are we going to the police station. We walk in and the police are eating their dinner. They look at us and seem alarmed, because the little girl was wearing a shirt with the Israeli flag. One of the men who was guiding us started talking to them. One of the police turned out to be a tour guide and told us, because of this man and who he was he would show us the old city of Jericho, but that the touring hours were over. So this tour guide left his dinner and showed us the old walls of Jericho that came tumbling down when God's chosen people obeyed Him and didn't fight, but sang in worship to the Lord Most High. It was incredible. I didn't fully understand what was happening, but knew God had orchestrated something special for us to be there.
After this tour, I thought we would leave Jericho, but one of my traveling partners asked one of the old men where we could eat. Before we knew it this old man had invited us to his home for dinner. Now mind you this whole time I am on edge, because I don't know if we can really trust these guys and what their motives might be. But when do you get asked to the home of a Palestinian for dinner. Nabil, the old man who was able to tell the police what to do, who's house we came to for dinner, turned out to be a retired Colonel of the Palestinian Liberation Army and he proceeded to tell us his whole story. He is not really Palestinian he confessed, because most Palestinians are really Jordinians who crossed into Israel to try to take land away from the Israelis. This is actually true of most Palestinians. People in the West don't seem to understand that they originally came from Jordan and crossed illegally into Israel and then took up arms and fought the Israeli's for land. He fought in the army and was shot and sent to a POW camp in Zurich where he learned English. He was friends with Yasser Arafat (can you see the picture of Yasser on the wall?). Nabil was considered a great hero in Jericho and could do as he pleased, and used his power to help us. And he told us if we ever needed anything from Palestine to call him.:) He had 8 children. His wife greeted us with kisses and his daughters gave us their costume jewelry and perfume. It was quite the experience. He was very kind to us. I was very grateful for the welcome, because to begin with I was quite scared. I know God was protecting us and sent that man to help us.
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