Part 2 of the Homelands adventure...

Ok well I prayed my Friday prayer and took about a gazillion photos which i probably will upload onto facebook.
Anyway after finishing the prayer and taking the photos i tried to find my driver, and with the help of people speaking to my driver I was able to find him, he then took me to the mount of the olives, which wasn’t anything great however the views from the top were breathtaking, where you got to see the whole city, and she the old city walls and the religious sites and tombs it was just amazing!

Then we went to the west bank and drove pretty much straight through security which i thought was a bit odd but then i realised the secuitry didn’t care who goes into the west bank just who comes from it, and its sad as their is no protection. This one guy from Bethleham was telling me that if an Isreali arab had him in his car in occupied Palestine, the isreali arab would get 6 months in prision, a fine and license taking away, he goes its worse to have a Palestine in your car than drugs, and that hit home. Then i saw the much publicised ‘Wall’ and it brought tears almost to my eyes, the messages people wrote saying like ‘you stood by while they built this’ and ‘is anyone watching what is happing’things along these lines, its so heartbraking, people often say its a prison but until you go and see you don’t realise how much, i mean some of the areas look fairly vibrant in the west bank like Bethleham but you go near the boarders and the outskirts and you see exactly what is going on, and the west bank is supposed to be semi-allied with Isreal so to imagine how bad it is in Gaza isn’t even worth mentioning. You feel so helpless and thats probably the worst feeling, it has to offer so much, you have Nazerth and Bethleham truly important sites for Islam and Cristianty and you have other areas where if opened up would be hiving with activity like Rumallah and Hebron but they don’t have that opportunity...

Then when we were leaving the west bank, we went through the security checkpoints and it was so weird seeing the solderis, you have these really young girls who look like proper jewish princess (those from Manchester will know what type im taking about) and they have these massive Guns and security vests, but then when you speak to them you get so infuriated because their just as ‘blonde’ she goes to me wheres ur visa, i go it was on a paper but they took it at the crossing, and she was like why was it on paper (its common for people to get Isreali stamps on a piece of paper as otherwise you wont be able to visit many Muslim countries with an isreali stamp) and all the security personal know the reasons why people ask for a stamp on a paper but their just being difficult. Anyway she then goes does Qatar not like isreal, whyyyy? And i go no they like but then i blagged i had to go to Saudi as well thinking thats obvious, and she goes does Saudi not like Isreal but whyyyy? And i thought u dumb b!tch i very rarely use such words but this was just a joke, and go no they don’t like and i don’t know why and she was like oh, at the end, then her general guy comes and he obviously knew and just said ok.. but its astonishing

Then i went back to my hotel which wasn’t the greatest espec for a supposed 4 star Golden Tulip hotel, its very good for those like me who just came to pray at Al Aqsa as its about a 10 mins walk and so in that sense is a perfect but in any other situation it is a joke! I had to go back anwway as my camera battery died,(like i said a gazillion photos!)
Aneway my plane has been called for Doha so will write the rest back in Doha inshallah...

ASif