Easter Sunday this year, I went to the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem, Israel.

Bethlehem is in the Palestinian West Bank behind the Wall. Isreal built the wall to stop the terrorist from coming into Jerusalem. Going into this city was nothing like going to Palestinian Nazareth.

I felt like I was walking into a prison. Guard towers and passport control. There was razor wire and a long walk through a caged area. I am adventurous to a fault, but I thought this time I made the wrong decision. I felt it. I saw lot’s of graffiti on the wall.. like the photo above. I took several photos.

Jewish guides are not allowed to enter so we had arranged an Arab to meet us and take us to the Church of Nativity. He was a Palestine Christian. He was great. We have a good time and felt like we were in good hands.

Several days later, I was at the Ben Gurion airport, going through their brutal security. They MRI my bag and send me to a table to go through everything I have… item by item. They ask for my digital camera.. I gave it to them and they take it away. How was I to know, they were going to look through all of my photos? They see the ones I took in Palestine.. like the one above.. and decided they needed to question me more in-depth in a interrogation room. I waved goodbye to my friends as I am lead away. Hours later after many many questions and a little bonus search I was released.

How was I to know I shouldn’t have taken those photos in Palestine? I didn’t mean to… it was interesting to me, so I took them. The IDF didn’t like them. They asked me if I believe that Israel occupies Palestine land? I said no.

live it once.. love it…

~lg!