the christmas journey

Preparing-St-Peters (Photo: Yuval Ben Ami)

A Christmas journey part 12: Own personal Jesus

Jaffa – Yad Hashmona – Jerusalem, one last cup of eggnog Click here to read the Christmas Journey in its entirety There’s this place, a very nice place, on the promenade that runs along the Tel Aviv- Jaffa shoreline. If you look to the north, there’s Tel Aviv. Then, if you look to the south,…

By Yuval Ben-Ami December 23, 2011

A Christmas journey part 11: Granpa Frost & Snowflake

<< The Christmas Journey Home Petah Tikva – Ben Gurion airport – Ashdod – Givatayim, Merry Rashdistvo! I was hungry, walking at dusk into the city of Petah Tikvah from the Baptist Village. I took a peek into a a small Russian tavern. The looks of it didn’t really work my appetite, but something in…

By Yuval Ben-Ami December 21, 2011

A Christmas journey part 10: Two Jews

<< The Christmas Journey Home Jaffa – Kfar Habaptistim – Petah Tikva, conversing with the converted. As a new day dawned, I decided to go out looking for Protestants. If there’s anything the Holy Land hasn’t much of, it’s Protestants. They’re here, to be sure, but in small numbers. Palestinian Protestants are rare, and while…

By Yuval Ben-Ami December 20, 2011

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A Christmas journey part 9: O little town

<< The Christmas Journey Home Jerusalem – Bethlehem – Hebron, the very heart The time has come to follow the star to Bethlehem. I’m planning to be there for the grand finale, of course, but knowing just how uber-overcrowded the city becomes on Christmas Eve, I figured a pre-holiday visit would offer more insight. Besides,…

By Yuval Ben-Ami December 19, 2011

A Christmas journey part 8: Where the lovelight gleams

<< The Christmas Journey Home Harashim – Tel-Aviv central bus station – Hatikva, Home for Christmas At sundown on Friday I arrived at my favorite place in the entire country: The tiny community of Harashim. It was founded in the 70s as part of Ariel Sharon’s plan to Judaize the Galilee. Scores of small towns…

By Yuval Ben-Ami December 18, 2011

A Christmas journey part 7: The children of God

<< The Christmas Journey Home Nazareth – Tiberius – Capernahum – Safed, Of war and peace “Peace on Earth.” – When living in the States I would see this statemet/wish/declaration of intent printed on Christmas cards and spelled out in Christmas lights. It seems to be a slogan of the holiday, and to be honest…

By Yuval Ben-Ami December 17, 2011

Santa's bankrupt. Please help!

A Christmas journey part 6: Santa is bankrupt

<< The Christmas Journey Home Important update: I turns out that this post is partially the fruit of a technical error. In the days preceding its publication I was told in confidence by my colleagues at +972 that no money at all was donated to the project. We contemplated what to do, and I decided…

By Yuval Ben-Ami December 16, 2011

A Christmas journey part 5: Suspending disbelief

<< The Christmas Journey Home Nazareth Illit – Nazareth Proper – Cana in the Galilee, Christian for one day. Shimon Gapso is mayor of Nazareth Illit, a city of 40,000 situated on a hilltop overlooking Nazareth proper. Nazareth Illit was designed to be a Jewish-only “answer” to the Galilee’s main Arab-speaking hub, but over the…

By Yuval Ben-Ami December 15, 2011

A Christmas journey part 4: The stranger

<< The Christmas Journey Home Tel-Aviv – Haifa – Afula, twixt two bearded men. I brought Ruthie a couple of small treats from Ramallah. One of them is a chocolate Santa, which looks entirely out of place in Tel Aviv’s surroundings. As I headed out this morning, I kept thinking of how foreign this holiday…

By Yuval Ben-Ami December 14, 2011

A Christmas journey part 3: ‘Tis the season

<< The Christmas Journey Home Ramallah – Wadi Qelt – Beir Zeit – Ramallah: popping into summer. My Australian readers will have to forgive me on this one, but Christmas is about winter. The first condition to knowing holiday spirit is a Jack Frost-bitten nose. This is why I was so glad to arrive last…

By Yuval Ben-Ami December 13, 2011

A Christmas journey part 2: Comfort and joy

<< The Christmas Journey Home Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Taybeh: A tale of two beers My Christmas journey begins with a death threat. On Sunday I published a piece in popular Israeli news site “Mako,” concerning the murder of demonstrator Mustafa Tamimi in Nabi Saleh. Tamimi was shot at point blank from within an armored IDF…

By Yuval Ben-Ami December 12, 2011

A Christmas journey part 1: Harnessing the reindeer

<< The Christmas Journey Home I grew up in a land without Christmas, or at least that’s what I thought. My childhood home stood on French Hill, a Jewish settlement built in East Jerusalem in the early ’70s. Today I know that many of the city’s diplomats live on that very same hill, and that…

By Yuval Ben-Ami December 11, 2011