Recently the News told how Kirkcudbright man John McIntosh was preparing to fly to the Holy Land for a gruelling cycle ride in support of Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP).
Now safely back home, John has kindly agreed to share his experiences with our readers.
His 240 kilometre pedal through the occupied West Bank from Jenin to Jerusalem took six days - and was both an uplifting and heartbreaking experience.
John said: “I’m not long back from my MAP Cycle Palestine 2022.
“And my dreams are still full of the sights and sounds of the place.
“I’m not sure I realised at the time how big an effect the journey was having on me, physically and mentally.
“What was most memorable? The blinding light?
“The gasping slog on the bike in 40 degree centigrade? Or the neatly dressed kids walking home from school, lining up to high five us while shouting their few words of English and us replying with victory salutes and salaams?
“Our trip began when we landed in Tel Aviv on Saturday afternoon after an exhausting journey.
“Everyone was excited but there was apprehension about Israeli Border Security. Smile. Stay polite. Don’t rise to any provocation. And never, ever, lie to them.
“Soon we were on the bus to Jenin in the occupied West Bank, a two hour drive from Tel Aviv and our first overnight stop.
“Through bleary eyes I gazed out as Tel Aviv unfolded.
“It looked like an affluent American city with high rise buildings lining the coast, swimming pools in back yards and busy shopping streets.
“The city is apparently a relatively liberal enclave, with beautiful young people leading beautiful young lives very different to those of Palestinians over the border, which we crossed with little difficulty.
“When we reached Jenin we were surprised to see a Ferris Wheel and other fairground rides – and even more surprised when some of them started moving.
“I’d had little idea of what to expect but not that – Jenin had been one of the towns the Foreign Office had placed on an ‘amber’ alert.
“Travel only if necessary was the advice – but it felt safe enough.
“Also, the hotel felt more comfortable and well-appointed than I had anticipated.
“After dinner we were introduced to our assorted bikes and a motley assortment it was.
“Next morning, we met Nidal from the Siraj Centre, his son Simon, and Mohammed, our guides.
“Then we were off, hitting the road for Nablus. After two and a half years of delay it felt good finally to be turning pedals on the West Bank.
“By the time we reached the hilltop Palestinian village of Sabastaia, which is famed for its Roman ruins, I was almost too tired and hungry to care that it was the reputed scene of John the Baptist’s beheading.
“At lunch we were dancing with a group of fellow diners – Iraqi visitors celebrating a wedding.
“There was a lot of swinging keys on cords around heads – which is all fun and games till somebody loses an eye, as Christopher Brookmyre might say.
“When one of the wedding guests began brandishing a sword around his head,I was suddenly and unaccountably homesick for Glasgow.
“Happily, the sword was entirely symbolic, as it often is in Glasgow to be fair, and we all survived.
“Then we saddled up for Nablus, the second city flagged by the Foreign Office as a risk to visitors – and cycled in to a cacophony of car horns and shouting.
“Onlookers seemed a bit surprised but happy enough to see us.
“After dinner Nidal managed to organise some beers to be brought to the hotel – a surprise given the absence of alcohol in Nablus.
“Mohammed explained that the northern West Bank, around Jenin and Nablus was relatively free of Israeli settlements as there had always been a very active Palestinian resistance there.
“The West Bank is divided into three distinct areas – A, B and C – each with its own set of rules and regulations, its own permissions and controls on everyday lives.
“Separate Israeli-only roads are created, checkpoints are everywhere, ID papers must be carried at all times to be produced immediately whenever any young Israeli National Service soldier demands to see them.”
John added: “We left Nablus for Taybeh on Monday morning.
“En route we caught our first view of the Jordan valley running on our left down to the Dead Sea with the hills of Jordan behind.
“I thought then of all the songs and spirituals that had been written about the legendary river in which Jesus had been baptised.
“In the village of Duma we had lunch in the home of a Palestinian family.
“Then it was on to Taybeh, which comes complete with its own winery and brewery.
“It is a 100 per cent Christian town, yet Christians make up only four per cent of the population of the West Bank, the remaining 96 per cent being Sunni Muslims.
“I was happy to learn that Muslim and Christian communities exist side by side here with mutual respect.
“We were given a guided tour of the Taybeh winery, owned by Christian Palestinians who had returned from the US.
“We sat around the hotel lobby tasting wine which felt somewhat incongruous given the hardships of the people.”
John was often uneasy at complexities of life on the West Bank in what were often difficult circumstances.
He said: “That strange sensation of moving between worlds, of dipping a toe into the daily reality of Palestinian experience then snapping back to familiar concerns about wi-fi access and dinner, was a disconcerting feature of the whole week.
“That night, walking back from dinner with a local family, I fell into conversation with an old man who told me he was the local Orthodox priest, back on his annual visit from his new home in the US.
“He asked if we wanted to see the ancient church in the basement of his chapel house and I agreed, while everyone else continued walking.
“He disappeared upstairs before returning with a large bunch of keys but despite struggling manfully failed to open the door, blaming his cousin who looked after the place.”
The next day, Wednesday, brought John some easier cycling as the party headed to Jericho – and an insight into how the West Bank had been splintered.
“It’s the lowest place on earth,” he said. “We spent most of the run freewheeling down through breathtaking scenery of the Jordan Valley.
“We had to take a ‘sharing road’, used by both communities – naturally these roads are very smooth and well-maintained – before meeting a big red sign warning Israelis that they were entering Area A, and were, apparently, risking their lives by doing so.
“Area ‘A’ is administered solely by the Palestinian authority and Area ‘B’ jointly, both formed by drawing lines round existing Palestinian population centres.
“Anything falling outwith those lines automatically falls into Area ‘C’ administered solely by Israel.
“This creates, not by accident, a shattered patchwork of jurisdictions and a tangled bureaucratic nightmare.”
In Jericho, which sits on the northern shore of the Dead Sea, John and the group took a cable car up the Mount of Temptation.
He said: “It was here, the story goes, that Jesus was offered the whole world if he would only bow down to the Devil.
“The city, regarded as the oldest in the world, lay spread out beneath us.
“And that view hammered home just how far back into history this land stretched.”
