Yad Vashem (updated)

 I travelled into Jerusalem to visit Yad Vashem, the Jewish National Holocaust Centre. My purpose in going is to get a balanced view of the situation here. 

Yad Vashem is in West Jerusalem, so travelling there was a new experience. I did some research and discovered that the tram would take me directly there from the Damascus Gate bus station. I was pleased that I mastered the ticket machine and enjoyed riding this new tram through the city. I noticed that both Palestinians and Jews were using the tram.

Yad Vesham is at Mount Hertz, the last stop of the tramway. From there it was a pleasant walk through the woods.

Yad Vashem is beautifully constructed and well designed. I visited just the Holocaust Museum - there are other parts to the very extensive centre. 

I had an English Commentary with headphones to help my understand. The Museum tells the whole story with many, many photos, documentary evidence and artefacts.

Understandably, photographs are not permitted, so I cannot give you an impression of the design which takes you on a walk in time. As you emerge from this Museum, you come out onto a platform with a spectacular view of Israel - the land given to the Jews.

The magnitude of the trauma of this event and the impact on the Jewish Nation cannot be underestimated. There are 1 million visitors to this Museum and it is part of the school education and soldiers' training - there were several such groups at the Museum. I understand that there are still around three stories on the Holocaust every day in the main Jewish Press. It has made a deep, deep continuing impact. It is difficult to comprehend the scale of the human cruelty and the lack of support for the Jews at this darkest hour. The visit has saddened me greatly. 

Having enjoyed the modern tram, I travelled back to Bethlehem on an extremely crowded small coach - 30 people on board a vehicle designed for 24. Everyone must be back inside the wall before the curfew and their day permit expired, or face arrest.

We dismounted at the checkpoint and went on foot through the turnstile. We emerged inside the wall. The picture is what used to be the main road into Bethlehem, now a deserted cul-de-sac.

As I walked home, I recalled hearing earlier about laws being passed to discriminate against an ethnic group, about people being herded into ghettos, and about walls being built. 

And today (Friday) I learned that the spectacular view from the Holocaust Museum includes Ein Karem, the village where Mary met Elizabeth when they were both pregnant and where John the Baptist grew up. When we came on the pilgrimage last year we heard how the people living in Ein Karen were forced to flee from their homes in 1948 when Jewish forces "depopulated" all the Palestinian villages. In 1999, around 1,800 people from Ein Karen were living in  refugee camps in the West Bank.

It is a shame that providing rights to one group has to result in such pain to another.