Tobia Ziklik

On our seventh day in Israel, we headed back to the northern coast of the Sea of Galilee to see the Mount of Beatitudes, where Jesus delivered his Sermon on the Mount. The site is marked by an octagonal church funded by Mussolini.

After leaving the Galilee area, we headed north to Metulla where the Good Fence is located. For a period of about twenty-five years, ending in 2000, the Good Fence was the only border opening between Lebanon and Israel, allowing people from southern Lebanon to enter and work in Israel. But now, with the presence of Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, the Good Fence is a closed fence.

Just before leaving Metulla, we stopped at the Canada Center, a sports complex donated by Canada’s Jewish community. It’s apparently the only place you can play hockey in Israel. Too bad it didn’t exist when Arnon was living there.

Next we headed east to the Golan Heights, the northeastern-most area in Israel. This area is largely inhabited by Druze, many of whom still sympathize with Syria, which claims the Golan Heights as its own.

Our first stop in the northern Golan was Nimrod’s Fortress. According to Legend, Nimrod, a descendent of Noah, built both the Tower of Babel and Nimrod’s Fortress. He needed the latter, situated high on a hill (815 meters from the fortress to the valley below), to shoot arrows at god. In reality, the fortress was built by Muslims in the 13th century. Interestingly, their inscriptions on the walls refer admiringly to Nimrod.

Less than two kilometers west from Nimrod’s Fortress is Banyas (an Arabic rendering of the ancient name Paneas, which mean’s Pan’s Place). The turquoise waters of Banyas Springs cuts through the site, which has beautiful rock formations in wide patches of charcoal and orange.

Banyas is the site of an ancient sanctuary carved into the cliffside dedicated to the Greek god Pan, as well as the site where King Herod built a temple in honor of Augustus. It’s also where Muslims built a shrine above the grave of Nebi Khader (the prophet Elijah), and the site where it’s believed that Jesus gave Peter the keys to heaven and earth.

Next, we headed north through the orchard-laden Druze towns of Mas’ada and Majdal Shams to get to Mount Hermon, where you can ski in winter. There was no snow, obviously, but we did see lots of tanks on patrol.

Driving clockwise around the Golan Heights, we drove southward along the Syrian border until we reached Merom Golan. There’s an observation point there from which you can clearly see Quneitra, a captured Syrian town that Israel returned after the 1973 war but is now a ghost town.

Given that it was still relatively early in the day, we decided to head back west to Tzfat. Friends have told us that there’s an artists’ colony in Tzfat where people’s homes double as art galleries, making for a unique art viewing experience. However, Tzfat is also an orthodox town, and we were headed there on a Friday, so we had to hurry to get there before the Sabbath started.

Well, we discovered that Tzfat closes down at noon for the Sabbath, instead of sunset, so we took in the Crusader and Ottoman era ruins instead. We also walked down a long street of stair steps which used to divide the Arab and Jewish areas during the British Mandate. From the base of the steps, you can see the ancient Jewish cemetery in the lower valley.

The walk back up the steep steps was much harder, made worse by the heat. Along the way, we met a young man in army gear who seemed deeply amused that a woman could sweat so much. He also didn’t believe us that San Francisco does not get as hot as Israel does.

Near the top, we saw the spotlight that used to shine down the steps (a method used by the British to hinder Arab-Jewish violence). As I peered back down the steps, I could see that the walls were riddled with bullet holes. I wondered how many people had been gunned down there.

Exhausted, we headed back to Tiberias for the night.