Masada

Crossing through my most hated place on earth - Qalandia Checkpoint - I saw three Palestinians turned away and I thought to myself: "This is a bad omen".

We were on our way to Jerusalem to pick up a rented car and make the hour and a half drive through the heart of the West Bank to the Dead Sea and the Herodian hilltop fortress of Masada. Our unexpected stop at Qalandia meant that we were late - the fact that they were turning Palestinians away who in all likelihood had the proper and necessary documents to enter Jerusalem was making me nervous about what sort of state of mind the Israelis might be in right now. Between the equally stifling nationalism and temperature of Masada and the relaxed atmosphere of the Dead Sea my anxiety would be eased.

We picked the car up from Green Peace Car Rental in East Jerusalem and we were quickly on the road with John behind the wheel. Getting onto Highway 1 was fairly easy and soon we were driving out of Jerusalem and past the first of the settlements. Highway 1 cuts directly across the West Bank from Jerusalem to the Jordan River a few kilometers south of Jericho where it meets up with another highway (90) that runs north-south along the river and the Dead Sea to the south. Highway 1 is also, in reality, a settler road.

After the 1967 war in which Israel began its brutal occupation of the West Bank, the Israeli government set up settlements throughout Palestinian territories and in particular along the Jordan River as advance warning posts against any possible Jordanian attack. Despite the Peace agreement between Israel and Jordan, Israel has maintained its illegal settlements along the river and elsewhere in the West Bank. Roads were built to connect these settlements and use of them is highly restrictive. They are modern, well lit and well defended roads that are used almost entirely by the Israeli Military and their settlers and are off limits to most Palestinians even though they lie entirely within the West Bank. Palestinian infrastructure, subject to continual attacks by the IOF (like the destruction of Nablus' municipal buildings I described earlier) has left their roads in a constant state of disrepair. Palestinians use Palestinian roads. Israelis use Israeli roads.

The modern Highway 1 led us to the modern Highway 90, Israel's longest highway that runs from the border with Lebanon in the north, to the point of the Negev in the far south, along the Jordan River and the Dead Sea. The fact that we drove such a distance in an hour and a half left us all a little shocked after spending the last few months traveling at an agonizing pace through checkpoint after checkpoint. The only time that we were stopped was at the place we assume would be the "border" between the West Bank and Israel proper, just north of the Spa town of Ein Gedi. We pulled up to the policeman and before we could speak he waved us through.

We drove past Ein Gedi - where we would return later in the afternoon for a "float" in the Dead Sea and moved on towards Masada. Lying 30Km south of Ein Gedi, Masada emerges from plain of flat desert between the Dead Sea and the towering Wadis of the Judean Wilderness. Declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2001, Masada is a plateau on top of a steep mountain 450 meters above the Dead Sea. 300m wide and 650m long, the plateau of Masada was built into fortress by King Herod between 37 and 6 BCE. Masada, however, takes most of its fame from the siege that was laid to it by the Romans, when it was the last holdout of the Jewish Zealots during the Great Revolt in 73CE. After months, the Romans completed a ramp up the side of the mountain at which point they attacked the wall and breached it. That night, so goes the story, the Jewish Zealots chose "death over slavery" and killed their families and each other until one man was left to kill himself. Josephus, the famous Roman chronicler of the Great Revolt recounts the speech made by the rebel leader to his people and this account has in many ways become extremely important for the contemporary State of Israel. So much so that members of the IOF's more elite units are actually sworn in to the military on top of Masada where they take an oath to "never let Masada fall again". Masada thus becomes a metonym for the State itself; any attack against Israel is an attack against the last group of Hebraic (thus "proper") Jews; allowing the enemy (Palestinians, Lebanese....) a victory means the redistibution, like in 70CE, or the total annihilation of the Jewish population. This mentality is totally ridiculous and seriously impedes any potential for peace in the Middle East.

The idea that the Zealots were "freedom fighters" is abundant at Masada - they are referred to as such in both the presentation video in the welcome center and in the literature provided for tourists. The irony that Israel is currently in a war with people who are widely described by their own population and others, as "freedom fighters" and alternately by their enemies as Islamic "Zealots" is not lost on the four of us as we wander the compound. We are aware of the problems in the historiography of Israel's national narratives and Masada brings so many of them out. But problematic visions of history aside, Masada is still an impressive site. To think that the Zealots had stores of food that could last them for years atop this barren hill and that they could watch below them as the Romans slowly built their ramp is chilling.

After spending an hour touring the site we decide to take the Snake Path down (we took the cable car up). The long winding path was steep at times and with the loose rocks under our feet it proved slow going. It took us 45 minutes to descend the path and at the bottom we collapsed under a canopy from exhaustion and the intense heat. I sat on the bench and tried to steady my legs as they wouldn't stop shaking. The tortuous climb down the mountain left me baffled as to how people actually climb up the same path. When I could finally stand we made our way back to the car where I was to do one of the mot dangerous things I can do in Israel: get behind the wheel - for our drive up to Ein Gedi and the Dead Sea.

Pictures:

Masada, the Snake Path and Cable Car from the Visitors Center

The view of the Dead Sea, The ruins of Roman camps, and the Visitors Center from the top of Masada