In this full day tour, I will introduce you to two nomadic communities that have lived on the fringes of society for generations. Since the days of Cain and Abel in the Bible, there has been tension and animosity between those who settled down to plow the land and those who shepherded their flocks and opposed the fencing in of the land.
The Bedouin are an ancient group of desert dwellers from the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa. Living in small bands, they traditionally practiced a nomadic pastoralist lifestyle that involved moving from pasture to pasture with their herds of livestock depending on the season. With the rise of the nation-state and the spread of modernity over the past century, most Bedouin have settled down and incorporated into the labor economy.
Our tour begins with a short drive from Jerusalem to the Bedouin village of Khan al Ahmar that lies just off the national highway to the desert oasis town of Jericho. Though numbering only some two hundred people, Khan al Ahmar has regularly been in the news for well over a decade.
Members of the Jahalin tribe, the residents of Khan al Ahmar have lived at this location since the 1970s. Since 2010, the Israeli government has threatened to demolish this encampment on the grounds that it was illegally constructed on the incorporated land of a nearby Jewish settlement. This has galvanized support for the Bedouin and resulted in a series of court cases that even reached the Supreme Court.
The Court, however, ruled in favor of the government, so it remains unclear how much longer the community will survive at this location. We will meet with some of the locals, visit the small school that serves all the children in the surrounding area, and hear about their struggle to remain in this place.
From here, we continue down the highway to the “Sea Level” point where there is the option of a short camel ride and the place where we will meet our Bedouin hosts who will escort us to their tent. After some traditional coffee and sweets, our host will share with us some Bedouin customs and recount his personal family story. Following our discussion, we will enjoy a traditional Bedouin meal with salads, rice, and meat.
After lunch, we will drive down to Nabi Musa where, according to Muslim tradition Moses is buried. We will visit this maqam, or holy site and learn about the history of the site.
Optional: From here, we have the option of driving down to the Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth, where you can float in the buoyant salty waters.
On our drive back towards Jerusalem, we will stop at the Domari Center, located in the Shuefat neighborhood. The Domari people or Gypsies, originated in India and have lived in Jerusalem for over a millennium. Traditionally, they worked as blacksmiths or performed as itinerant artists in a nomadic lifestyle that took them to all corners of the Middle East.
In fact, Europeans initially thought that Domari originated in North Africa and the term Gypsy is a bastardization of the word Egyptian. In Israel and the Palestinian Territories there are only several thousand Domari, but in Syria and Jordan there are large communities numbering in the hundreds of thousands.
Our visit takes us to the Domari Society center, where we will meet with Amoun Sleem, the indefatigable Domari activist who founded the Society in 2005. The beautiful center is a place to maintain gypsy culture while providing educational programs for Dom children and empowerment for Dom women.
The center houses a small shop with handicrafts made by Dom women. All proceeds from these sales go to finance educational programs for the community. Here our tour concludes, and we return to Jerusalem.
Optional: If you are interested, there is the option of participating in a Gypsy handicrafts workshop.
For Questions, Contact Dr. Eyal
At 053-3328322
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