To go from Jerusalem to the West Bank, where Bethlehem is, we had to go through security check points and show our passports. Leaving Jerusalem isn't what they're worried about, it's not letting certain people back in.
Our guide Sahar told us this large key shows the symbolic practice refugees here have of keeping their house keys, hoping to someday move back into their own homes that they've been kicked out of by the Israelis. So very sad. Amy told us of many times the Palestinian Arabs being kicked out of their homes and having Israelis move in instead.
Some of the countries people have been kicked out of, and then trapped in the West Bank area, not allowed to return to their homes.
Little street vendors selling a packaged cookie or cake in the parking lot near the Church of the Nativity.
After buying a cake from one boy, another boy rushed to my mom and put on an award-winning show of scrunched up face and near tears, that he was so hungry and needed money. Mom couldn't resist and as soon as she gave him some shekels he turned around, expression changed in an instant, and many more boys raced to my mom, seeing her as a "sucker American tourist." She later told me the same boy who sold her the cake was another one who told her he was so hungry. Another boy asked for money and she said, "I already gave you some." He claimed that no, she gave it to another boy.
These little boys wouldn't leave our car alone! No matter how many times we and Sahar told them no, they kept begging for more money. The economy, as well as the wall, has really hurt the locals' businesses. Many businesses were closed, having gone bankrupt.
Beautiful view of Bethlehem (I assume it's still Bethlehem across the way).
The wall that keeps people in the West Bank in "prison" in their own cities.
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