Carlton Reid11:41 am EST
For many centuries the primary destination for most of those visiting Bethlehem has been the imposing Church of the Nativity. But there’s now a newer and very much secular attraction in town: the Banksy-designed Walled Off Hotel. Opened in 2017, the hotel—which boasts that it has the “worst view in the world”—overlooks Israel’s controversial and deeply ugly Separation Wall.The punningly-named hotel and the divisive wall are two out of 21 stops on a new, four-hour guided cycling tour of Bethlehem, the West Bank town tagged in the New Testament as the birthplace of Jesus. Much of the 20-kilometer tour is flat, but there are some steeps, eased not-at-all miraculously with a battery-powered tailwind. By using electric bikes, the organizing company is hoping to attract those who might otherwise be deterred by the hills, the heat, or both.
I did a preview version of the tour last week. It was bracingly cool in the early evening of a Palestinian Spring; the weekly tours will be staged when it can get brutally hot. “Temperatures in Bethlehem can be quite high with intense sunlight,” warns a leaflet for the tour. Bring water, sunscreen, and an open mind.
The licensed guides who lead the tour don’t bombard with politics while pedaling (they’re too busy avoiding the motor traffic—there are no bike lanes in Bethlehem) but, by following the wall and stopping at a 72-year-old refugee camp, it’s impossible to avoid discussing human rights, occupation, and Palestinian-flavored activism.
In truth, kickstarting these discussions is the reason for the tour. While you’ll alight at the shepherd’s fields (there are two different locations, one with a Greek Orthodox Church over it, and another covered by a Roman Catholic one—infighting has a long history in this part of the world) and end at Manger Square, the tour’s stop-offs at biblical sites major on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict rather than religion.
“What you have to understand,” pointed out Bike Bethlehem organizer George Rishmawi, “is that everything here is political.”
Bethlehem’s New E-Bike Tour Pedals Politics And Banksy – Forbes
Carlton Reid11:41 am EST For many centuries the primary destination for most of those visiting Bethlehem has been the imposing Church of the Nativity. But there’s now a newer and very much secular attraction in town: the Banksy-designed Walled Off Hotel. Opened in 2017, the hotel—which boasts that it has the “worst view in the… [Read More]
