Galilee - Part 2

Throughout our trip to Israel we visited several kibbutsim, often having lunch there. My stereotypical view of a kibbutz was quickly shattered as we saw that not only are these very modern communities but they have diversified into some unusual industries.

For example, one we visited near the Golan Heights, is at the centre of the Israeli film industry. Here, they dub foreign films into the Hebrew language and insert subtitles onto films. We watched a documentary film about the Yom Kippur war in 1973, told from the point of view of one tank commander. It included a lot of original footing from that battle and how the small tank troop miraculously overcame the much larger Syrian tank troops. It was a present day demonstration of how God has preserved the State of Israel and protected them through their recent wars.

Another Kibbutz, called Ein Gev, is situated on the shore of the lake. Tourism is the main industry here, with a large shop and tours on a small train around the site. Evidence of the 1948 War of Independence is spread throughout, kept as tourist attractions.

Quite a lot of archeological digging and preservation has taken place on the site, also. This is an example of an ancient olive press.

Dairy and ostrich farming are their other main incomes. Although the ostrich is not a kosher meat for Jews, this kibbutz raises and trades in ostrich meat to secular Jews and foreign tourists. Our guide demonstrated the size and strength of ostrich eggs, by standing on them. One egg can make an omelet large enough to feed 14 people!

Ein Gev also has a large fish restaurant where we ate St Peter's fish. The story is recorded in Matthew chapter seven, where Jesus told Peter to open the mouth of the first fish he caught and use the coin found in it to pay the temple taxes.

On the tables were interesting place mats: some were quizzes, others were lists of the most common Hebrew words, with the translations in several languages. The Hebrew language uses a unique script, very different from this Roman script. There are 27 letters in their alphabet and no vowels, but modern Hebrew does include some dots and dashes, similar to those used in shorthand to denote the vowels. They also start writing from the right hand side of the page, like other Eastern languages. Many of the information sheets and shop signs had the English on the left and the Hebrew on the right, balancing the text beautifully.

I was fascinated by the language and although I cannot understand any of it, I collected some examples of everyday use of Hebrew, like promotional leafets at the supermarket. The currency of Israel is the Shekel, which replaced the Pound in 1980. There are currently around ten Shekels to one British Pound, which made it very easy for currency conversion.



Having spent a day both around and on the Sea of Galilee, the following day we travelled to the Upper Galilee area to the region of Cesarea Philippi and right up to the Lebonese border. We stopped at a military garrison which had been used up to 1967 to explore the trenches and underground tunnels, at the end of which there were look out bunkers into Syria. This was not the place for those suffering from claustrophobia.

This sign post indicated the direction of some important cities and metal cutouts of soldiers on the bunkers added realism to its former use.

Now, the outpost is used to display artwork made from disused vehicles and military hardware.

We then travelled to Ceasarea Philippi, named by Herod's son Philip. The roman Emporer Augustus had given Herod the Great the city of Paneas. Herod had built a palace to Caesar there and dedicated it to the Roman god Pan.

It is also the source of the River Jordan, at the foot of Mount Hermon.

We collected bottles of Jordan water, for posterity!

However, the main reason we had come to Caesarea Philippi was that it is the site of a very important question that Jesus asked his disciples: "Who do men say that I am?". Peter's answer showed that he had received special revelation from the Holy Spirit: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus then declared: "you are Peter, and upon this rock (Petrus) I will build my church."

These words from Matthew chapter 16 are recalled in a sand pattern.

The metal roller has the pattern of the words printed into it, so as it is rolled over the sand in the base, the text appears in several languages. This is the English version,.

As had happened in many of the key locations in Israel, one member of the group shared some teaching on this point before we split up to look round on our own. Here we found a low wall surrounding an old olive press. This photo only shows about half of our large international group.

The Galilee region is known as the 'bread basket of israel'. Fresh water from the lake is used to irrigate their crops. Israel pioneered the 'drop feed' method of irrigation. Nowhere did we see sprinklers spraying crops, distributing water to unnecessary places. Israel's method is to take the water directly to the roots of the plant, so that as little as possible evaporates or is wasted growing weeds. In this way they have truly transformed some of their former desert regions. The vision of Israel's first president, David Ben Gurion, was to make the Negev Desert bloom and he is buried there.

In many places we saw huge banana plantations, some envelopped by netting like on the Mount of Beatitudes, or with blue bags covering the developing bunches, presumably to protect them from disease or to delay the ripening process.

Before returning to the hotel we travelled to the northern most tip of Israel, at the border with Lebanon.

From this lookout post from the 70's you can see the border quite clearly. It is where the green area changes to brown, in this photo. A road on the Lebanese side runs just in front of a large plain dotted with military bunkers, and Lebanese villages in the distance.

From this vantage point we were able to see just how lush and green Israel is, compared to its neighbours.

On the quay side at Tiberias this water feature in the shape of the Sea of Galilee, shows where the River Jordan enters and exits. It has powerful jets of water spraying diagonally across the centre from both sides and showed the water level, in metres below sea level.

Lit up at night I thought it made a very powerful statement, literally and metaphorically!

This last photo is unique, in the sense that I know that no one else has one like it. It was taken late one evening at the hotel, when a drama group presented their version of the events that took place at Masada.

It was a rather odd play, presented in Hebrew, but Marie Louise and I, the only people from our group present, understood most of it and quite enjoyed it.