German Colony, Road to Hevron, Ramat Rachel

Images from Ramat Rachel

A few years ago I took a tour of Ramat Rachel. At the time, I remembered the view was fantastic from the kibbutz, but I didn't know for the life of me where I was. After purchasing a map today, I realized that I live very close to the Kibbuts and that it would only take me a few minutes by bus or about a half-hour stroll to get to the southernmost part of Jerusalem. So I packed my camera and took a walk. I went through German Colony, which I think is...an old colony that used to be German and is now Israeli.

The streets there have aqueducts and the houses resemble those of turn-of-the-century plantation mansions. Although most of them have been condominiumized into residential or office buildings, Israelis have maintained their terrific character.

At the end of German Colony, there are two options to go south, one is more of a throughway called the Road to Hevron, and the second is a little more homey, although not that much more, called the Road to Beit Lechem.

Regardless, at some point, I had to cross over to the road to Hevron. The region seemed to get a little more arid, a little less developed as I moved further and further to the edge of the city. Looking back, the view was fantastic. Part of the beauty is that much of the land is undeveloped, unlike America, where it seems everything has been overdeveloped and is almost flat in most urban areas.

It turns out the directions I was given to enter Ramat Rachel were a bit off. I ended up taking a dirt path that's usually used for tractors that take care of the kibbutz's crops. When I got to the top of the hill, the guard told me he couldn't let me in from that side and I would have to walk all the way around the town's gated boarder to get in to the Kibbutz. I tried to bribe him with some cool water I had just bought to no avail. It didn't really matter to me, I got the view I remembered.

To the South of the town (above left picture) is the southernmost Jewish section of Jerusalem called Choomat Shmuel. It looks like they're building up a storm there, I hope they don't plan on giving it away, it looks really nice! To the Southwest is called the 4th Hill (Above Images). Aside from an old mosque (far right picture), the Hill hasn't been developed at all, my guess is it's disputed and it juts into Israeli territory so Arabs can't build there and there is probably legislation passed where Jews resistricted themselves from building there as well.

The city seen behind the Hill on the right is called Gilo. Gilo's perifery was conquered and annexed in 1967. Though most people consider it a part of Jerusalem, there are some that dispute it as a settlement, particularly an offshoot of the city called Har-Gilo. I tend to think that 40,000 people is hard to consider a settlement and is almost a full-out city of it's own but no one elected me prime minister. Gilo overlooks a neighboring Arab village called Beit Jalla. A few years ago I had the pleasure of visiting Gilo and viewed the unfortunate havoc that was wreaked on the residents by extremists in the neighborhing village. Entire buildings facing the Arab village were sprayed with bulletholes, and it was clear that someone was not intending good things for this neighborhood. After 400 sum-odd incidents, the Israeli government built a 10 foot wall to block the fire and nearly demolished a specific home with a tank round that was firing particularly rabbidly at everyday civilians. The home turned out to be the residence of a prominant Arab who was pretty upset at the destruction of his home. To Israel's defence, his house harbored terrorists that severely injured several civilians regularly - even if his home was being used without permission, there is a point where neighboring governments must take responsibility for their own armies, law enforcement, and justice systems.