Day 16 - Lehava - Yvonne

We woke up at 5:45am at the kibbutz in the Golan Heights which has been the earliest wake up time yet since the trip started. We then packed our suitcases on the buses at 6:15am. We were going back to Jerusalem to the familiar old hotel Ramat Rachel. We were all soo tired at breakfast, however it was our last breakfast at the kibbutz which we will miss a lot. After breakfast it was creative prayers for the girls and we learnt the importance of being aware of all your actions and its consequences. We then went on a 3 hour bus ride which gave us the opportunity to relax and rest.

When we arrived at Ramat Rachel we had the opportunity to hear from Neil Lazarus, who talked about the politics of Israel in a very engaging and relatable way. I learnt from him that Bibi Netanyahu is currently being accused of fraud in the government, which was interesting as I personally believe that Bibi has been a good Prime Minister to Israel and I was surprised that he had been accused of fraud. We then had a sandwich lunch on the outside grounds of Ramat Rachel.

Next we had another speaker/tour guide called Amir and we went with him to the border of the West Bank where we learnt how the people living in the West Bank are controlled by Israel. This was confronting to see the separation of the West Bank and Israel and how the security around the Palestinians trying to get out of the West Bank is very extreme. I was confronted to see the wall separating the West Bank and Jerusalem however I was most confronted to hear about the terrorist attacks that happened in Jerusalem in 2001 when the wall wasn’t protecting us from the West Bank. This made me realise the importance of the wall as it helps to prevent terror attacks.

We then came back to the hotel and had dinner, which as usual was amazing! Ramat Rachel really knows how to make a good buffet.

After dinner we had more free time and we enjoyed the hotel facilities and there was an optional movie night.

Overall today was a pretty awesome and interesting day.

Yvonne Bocman - 3.12.2019