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TREE OF LIFE JOURNEY FEBRUARY 2006
Itinerary (February 15 – February 26) Wednesday, Feb. 15th: Depart on Alitalia Flight # 605 @ 6:00 PM from JFK, via Milan. Thursday, Feb. 16th: Arrive in Tel Aviv from JFK at 3:10 PM where passengers will be transferred to a bus for the drive to Ein Gev, a Kibbutz on the Eastern side of the Sea of Galilee, opposite Tiberias. Friday, Feb. 17th: Travel to Haifa University for 9 AM appt. with representatives of Zochrot (Nakba in Hebrew). This is a Jewish Israeli group whose mission is to remember what happened to Palestinian villages destroyed by Israel. They mark the village sites, destroyed churches and mosques, etc. We will have a beautiful view of Bah’ai Temple in Haifa. Visit Elijah’s Cave. At 11:15 am depart for Mar Elias (box lunch from Ein Gev) near Nazareth to meet with Bishop Elias Chacour, author of “Blood Brothers” and “We Belong to the Land”. After, we will meet with students from Mar Elias. Then depart for Biram in Northern Israel, Dr. Elias Chacour, nephew of Bishop Chacour, will accompany us to Biram. Dr. Chacour will show us the destroyed village where Bishop Chacour raised. Return to hotel in Ein Gev for dinner. After dinner we will meet with Angela Godfrey-Goldstein for update on the Israeli Committee Against House Demolition. Saturday, Feb. 18th: Travel around the Sea of Galilee, Mt. Of Beatitudes, Capernaum, etc. Free time in Tiberias. Dinner at Ein Gev. After dinner, visit Hammat Gader, natural hot springs. Sunday, Feb. 19th: Sunrise Interfaith Service on Sea of Galilee at 6:45 AM. After breakfast, we will travel across the Sheik Hussein Bridge to Jordan. Drive to Jesus’ baptism site on east bank of Jordan River. (Possibility of meeting with representative of Queen Rania al Abdullah.) We will visit the site where Moses stood and looked at the Land of Promise, a stunning view of Palestine. Then we will drive to Madaba (Jordanian Christian village) where you’ll see one of the most beautiful ancient mosaic maps of Holy Land. We will have lunch in Madaba. We will then depart to Petra via the desert road where we will check into a hotel at the entrance of Petra. Monday, Feb. 20th: We will get an early start on our visit to the ancient city of Petra. Bring along good walking shoes for this part of the trip. We will view the site on foot, by horseback or horse-drawn carriage. The buildings in Petra are all carved into the stone – one of the famous ones is the treasury building. After the visit to Petra, we will return to the hotel for dinner after our big day of walking in this historical place. Tuesday, Feb. 21st: Morning drive to Wadi Rum, the desert area made famous by Lawrence of Arabia. We will check into a Bedouin tent which is our “50-star” hotel. We will be given a 3-hour jeep tour of Wadi Rum. In the evening we will have a Bedouin-style dinner (outdoors) under the open skies where we can look at the stars above. It will be an enjoyable night to view the stars because of the clear sky during this time of year. We can observe the Bedouin lifestyle as they move about on their camels. Wednesday, Feb. 22nd: Breakfast will be at 7:00 am. Depart for the southern entrance to Israel at tip of Red Sea (Eilat and Aquaba). Drive to Jericho, stopping by Ein Gedi for swim in Dead Sea. We will then visit Sabeel Ecumenical Palestinian Liberation Theology Center. Sabeel, Arabic for 'the way' and also 'a channel' or 'spring' of life-giving water, is an ecumenical grassroots liberation theology movement among Palestinian Christians which encourages women, men, and youth to discern what God is saying to them as their faith connects with the hard realities of their daily life. A presentation will be given by staff from Sabeel. We will have lunch at Sabeel, there is vegetarian and non-vegetarian available. There will then be a presentation by Avichay and Yehuda, members of “Breaking the Silence”. We will then be given a short presentation by Azra from the organization Payauch South Hebron Committee. Azra will be briefing us for our tour of Hebron on Thursday. Ariel Dloomy of the organization Dukium (Negev desert Bedouin). Depart for Bethlehem and will check in to the Paradise Hotel. Dinner in the hotel at 8:30 pm. Thursday, Feb 23rd: At 8:30 AM we will visit Greek Orthodox School in Beit Sahour, meet with principle, George Sa’adeh, member of the Parents Circle and the students who visited us in Old Lyme. We will then visit Bethlehem University. 10:45. We will be met by Br.Jack Curran .Dr .Shomaly . Maher will introduce the student ambassadors – Maher invites the guests to procede to the Chapel, on the way mention renovation, memorial, capstone. Inside Chapel Brother Cyril gives a brief explanation of the arts and history. Invites the guests to take pictures.
11:00 Maher invites the group to proceed to Furno Hall for multimedia presentation, and discussion with the students ambassadors. Ms. Samar Araj will join us at Furno Hall with students who play tennis to receive the racquets together with Br. Cyril from Samuel Baez. Multimedia presentation: Maher Moderator: Br. Cyril
Student distributing BUN and
renovation brochures: Student distributing visitors’ cards: Shireen Hanna Student taking pictures: Joseph Hodali 12:00 Maher invites the group to proceed to Hotel Management for lunch. Br. Jack, Br. Cyril, Maher and 4 student ambassadors. 1:15 Farewell at the main gate. At 1:30 pm we will depart for tour of Hebron accompanied with Azra from Payauch South HEBRON committee, , along with a Christian Peacemaker Team. Return to Paradise for dinner. Friday, Feb. 24th: Visit separation wall around Bethlehem with ARIJ (Applied Research Institute Jerusalem). The tour will be given by Miss Banoura. We will then visit the Church of Nativity, and then to Shepherd’s Field. Visit the Senior Citizen Center, which is the largest and the best in all of Palestine. You will be met by 120 members. They will be performing Palestianian songs in traditional clothes. Lunch will be at the Senior Citizen Center. Visit Arab Women Union where we will visit their center for people with special needs. They produce hand-woven carpets and carved olive wood figures. Then back to the hotel for one hour of rest. At 4:00 pm, we will visit Deheisheh refugee camp for presentation by Ibdaa dance group. Dinner at Paradise Hotel with the students who visited Old Lyme. Saturday, Feb. 25th: Early (very early) morning trip to Al Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock, Western Wall, and Church of Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. At 12:00 pm we will have lunch with Rami Elhanan and Dr. Adel Misk, members of the Parents Circle. After lunch we will have free time in Jerusalem for shopping, etc until 5:00 pm. Then back to Paradise hotel and then dinner in Shepherd’s Field Tent Restaurant in Beit Sahour with the students. Return to Paradise Hotel in late evening to rest for early Sunday morning departure (5:35 AM). Sunday, Feb. 26th: Depart on bus for airport at 2 AM! For our 5:35 AM flight home on Alitalia Flight #805. Arrive in JFK (via Milan) at 1:00 PM.
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