walking the green line

06:00	Leaving Jerusalem for Mt. Gilboa – the most northern part of the Green Line. During the trip explanations will be given and material will be distributed.
08:30-09:30	Breakfast overlooking the Green line by Kibbutz Mairav overlooking the Palestinian village of Jalboun
09:30-12:30	Walking along the Green Line and the Separation Wall overlooking the Palestinian village of Faqua and the gilboa forests.
12:30-14:30	Lunch (if raining we will travel to Um el-Fahem; otherwise we will picnic in the forest by Mt. Barkan on the Gilboa
14:30-16:30	Walking on the Green Line by Mt. HaGiborim until Sandalah
Evening	Driving to hotel in Nazareth. Evening meeting with politicians.
Day Two: Friday, May 30, 2008
07:00-07:30	Hotel check-out, pack equipment in the bus, and breakfast
07:30-11:00	Driving to Uhm al-Fahem – if visibility is good, we will go to the Sheikh Eskander lookout. Otherwise, we will travel directly to the Um Rechan Nature Reserve and walk to Barta'a.
11:00-11:30	Free time in the Barta'ah market
11:30-13:30	Lunch in the village and meeting the mayor.
13:30-14:00	Traveling to Baqa al-Gharbiyeh
14:00-15:30	Meeting with Israeli Jewish and Arab social justice NGO’s (Shatil)
15:30- 16:00	Walking along the Separation Wall between Baqa al-Gharbiyeh and Baqa al-Sharqiyeh
16:00-18:00	Traveling to Bil'in and meeting with activists.
18:00-19:00	Traveling to Bethlehem hotel check-in
20:00	Dinner in a Bedouin tent – meeting with Palestinian politicians
Day Three: Saturday, May 31, 2008
07:30-13:00	Walking from Batir to Wadi Fuqin - meeting with residents of Wadi Fuqin and neighboring Tzur Hadassah
13:00-14:00	Lunch in Jerusalem – meeting with Jerusalem experts
14:00- 17.00	Traveling to Abu Dies – walking along the wall, meeting in Al Quds University with staff and students
18:00-20:00	Dinner and meeting with Israeli and Palestinian peace activists
20:30	Returning to the hotel in Bethlehem. Summary discussion and farewell

Above was the itinerary. I put it there so I can remember what happened and thus be able to write about it. (there is also a webpage- walkthegreenline.org)
We had a group of 15 people overall, being joined by people here and there along the way. Our group consisted of Sue from Cleveland, who is active in Muslim-Jewish dialogue groups there, Jethro and Leo (father and son) from New York, Patrik from Sweden who is writing a book for teenagers on Israel, David from Boston with a daughter also named Naomi, Amoreena from Oregon who is interning with IPCRI (the organization) and living in Bethlehem for the summer, my friends Alyssa and Leah from my program, Riman and Hann'a from east Jerusalem, Gershon and his daughter Elisha, a journalist named Daniella from New Jersey and Scott from Iowa, a pastor. Along the way at various points we were joined by wounded Israeli soldiers, a Palestinian politician and professor, and an activist from Bil'in. We were in a million different places, and I saw most of the West Bank, which I had never really been to before. I saw Al-Quds University, the barrier wall, agriculture, villages, schools, social actions centers; ate the most delicious food and had hookah in the Bethlehem tent restaurant, thought and thought and thought some more. I played at the Al-Quds interactive science and math museums, tasted freshly grown zucchini from a resident of Wadi Fuqin, passed through many checkpoints, walked on Mt. Gilboa and looked out at the land, hiked, drove, took the Arab bus, talked, thought some more.