The Divided City: Traveling to the Most Complicated Place on Earth

Y ese mismo edificio es administrado conjuntamente por seis comunidades cristianas distintas que no siempre se llevan bien entre sí.

And that same building is jointly managed by six distinct Christian communities that don't always get along with each other.

Durante siglos, la llave de la iglesia la ha guardado una familia musulmana, los Joudeh, precisamente para evitar que los cristianos discutan sobre quién tiene el control.

For centuries, the key to the church has been kept by a Muslim family, the Joudeh, precisely to prevent Christians from arguing about who has control.

I had no idea about that.

A Muslim family holding the key to the most important site in Christianity.

There's something almost poetic about that, and also very human.

Es un arreglo que existe desde el siglo XII, desde Saladino.

It's an arrangement that has existed since the 12th century, since Saladin.

Y sobrevivió a los cruzados, al Imperio Otomano, al mandato británico, y a todo lo que vino después.

And it survived the Crusaders, the Ottoman Empire, the British Mandate, and everything that came after.

Hay una lección de pragmatismo allí que los políticos modernos podrían estudiar.

There's a lesson in pragmatism there that modern politicians could study.

The British Mandate period is important here, because that's when modern travel infrastructure, and modern conflict, both really take shape.

Britain controlled Palestine from 1920 until 1948, and the decisions made during those years created the fault lines that still define the region.

Y los británicos, como en tantos otros lugares, prometieron cosas incompatibles a distintos grupos.

And the British, as in so many other places, promised incompatible things to different groups.

La Declaración Balfour de 1917 prometía un hogar nacional para el pueblo judío.

The Balfour Declaration of 1917 promised a national home for the Jewish people.

Pero al mismo tiempo, los británicos habían prometido a los líderes árabes apoyo para un estado independiente árabe.

But at the same time, the British had promised Arab leaders support for an independent Arab state.

Dos promesas que no podían cumplirse a la vez.

Two promises that could not be fulfilled simultaneously.

And the consequences of that collision are still being lived out today, including by the people trying to buy an apartment at a real estate expo in Manhattan.

Exacto.

Exactly.

Pero volvamos al viaje.

But let's go back to travel.

Porque uno de los aspectos más fascinantes de esta región es que tres de las religiones más importantes del mundo, el judaísmo, el islam y el cristianismo, consideran Jerusalén sagrada.

Because one of the most fascinating aspects of this region is that three of the most important religions in the world, Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, consider Jerusalem sacred.

Eso significa que hay millones de peregrinos que quieren ir, con motivaciones muy diferentes.

That means there are millions of pilgrims who want to go, with very different motivations.

Pilgrimage tourism is one of the oldest forms of travel in human history.

People have been walking to Jerusalem for two thousand years.

And what I find interesting is that the experience of that journey changes completely depending on who you are.

Un cristiano europeo con pasaporte de la Unión Europea llega sin visado, entra fácilmente, visita los lugares santos y vuelve a casa con unas fotos preciosas.

A European Christian with an EU passport arrives without a visa, enters easily, visits the holy sites, and goes home with beautiful photos.

Un ciudadano de un país árabe puede tener serias dificultades para entrar.

A citizen of an Arab country can have serious difficulties entering.

Y un palestino de Gaza tiene, en la práctica, prohibido el acceso a Jerusalén.

And a Palestinian from Gaza is, in practice, barred from accessing Jerusalem.

That asymmetry is staggering when you sit with it.

The same physical space, the same streets, the same mosques and churches and synagogues, and the access to all of it is determined by what passport you hold.

Y esto no es solo una cuestión política abstracta.

And this is not just an abstract political question.

Es la experiencia diaria de millones de personas.

It's the daily experience of millions of people.

Hay familias palestinas que tienen parientes a cuarenta kilómetros de distancia y llevan décadas sin poder visitarlos.

There are Palestinian families who have relatives forty kilometers away and haven't been able to visit them for decades.

No porque no quieran, sino porque el sistema de permisos hace que sea prácticamente imposible.

Not because they don't want to, but because the permit system makes it practically impossible.

Now, there are travelers who go specifically to the West Bank, not for the conflict but to see what's actually there.

Bethlehem, Jericho, Hebron.

These are ancient cities with extraordinary histories that most Western tourists never visit.

Jericó es una de las ciudades habitadas más antiguas del mundo.

Jericho is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.

Tiene más de diez mil años de historia continua.

It has more than ten thousand years of continuous history.

Y sin embargo, poca gente que visita la región la incluye en su itinerario, porque existe la percepción de que es peligroso, o complicado, o simplemente desconocido.

And yet, few people who visit the region include it in their itinerary, because there is a perception that it is dangerous, or complicated, or simply unknown.

Ten thousand years.

To put that in perspective, the Roman Empire at its peak was less than five hundred years old.

Jericho was already ancient when Rome was founded.

Y hay una ironía terrible aquí.

And there is a terrible irony here.

Esa misma antigüedad, esa densidad histórica que hace que la región sea tan fascinante para el viajero, es también la razón por la que el conflicto es tan difícil de resolver.

That same antiquity, that historical density that makes the region so fascinating for the traveler, is also the reason why the conflict is so difficult to resolve.

Porque cada grupo tiene una reclamación histórica que se remonta miles de años.

Because each group has a historical claim that goes back thousands of years.

Let's talk about the settlements specifically, because that's what the New York expo was actually selling.

These are Israeli communities built in the West Bank after 1967, and their legal status is one of the most contested questions in international law.

La posición del derecho internacional es bastante clara: los asentamientos son ilegales según el artículo 49 de la Cuarta Convención de Ginebra, que prohíbe que una potencia ocupante traslade su población civil al territorio ocupado.

The position of international law is quite clear: the settlements are illegal under Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits an occupying power from transferring its civilian population to occupied territory.

Israel rechaza esta interpretación, y aquí es donde la política se vuelve muy compleja.

Israel rejects this interpretation, and this is where politics becomes very complex.

And there are now roughly 700,000 Israeli settlers living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

That's not a small community you can easily relocate.

We're talking about cities, infrastructure, roads that connect to Israel proper.

It's been described as facts on the ground, and the real estate expo in New York is literally selling more of those facts.

Y para el viajero que va a la región, esto crea una geografía absolutamente surrealista.

And for the traveler who goes to the region, this creates an absolutely surreal geography.

Hay carreteras en la Cisjordania que solo pueden usar los israelíes.

There are roads in the West Bank that only Israelis can use.

Hay zonas A, B y C con normas diferentes según quién las controla.

There are Areas A, B, and C with different rules depending on who controls them.

Es como intentar navegar un mapa que cambia de reglas cada pocos kilómetros.

It's like trying to navigate a map that changes rules every few kilometers.

The Oslo Accords.

That was the framework that created those zones.

Signed in 1993 by Rabin and Arafat on the White House lawn, and supposed to be a transitional arrangement toward a final agreement.

And here we are, three decades later, still in the transition.

Lo provisional que se vuelve permanente.

The temporary that becomes permanent.

Es una de las cosas más peligrosas en política.

It's one of the most dangerous things in politics.

Y en este caso, lo provisional que se volvió permanente afecta a quién puede ir a dónde, quién puede abrir un negocio, quién puede construir una casa, quién puede tener un campo de olivos y cosechar sus frutos.

And in this case, the temporary that became permanent affects who can go where, who can open a business, who can build a house, who can have an olive grove and harvest its fruit.

There's also something specifically interesting about the role of religious tourism in all of this.

Because Israel does depend on it economically, and that creates a strange dynamic where the government wants visitors but also needs to manage what they see and how they see it.

Es un fenómeno que se da en muchos destinos de conflicto.

It's a phenomenon that occurs in many conflict destinations.

El turismo necesita una narrativa.

Tourism needs a narrative.

Los guías turísticos, los museos, los letreros informativos, todos cuentan una historia, y en un lugar como Jerusalén, qué historia se cuenta es en sí misma un acto político.

The tour guides, the museums, the informational signs, all tell a story, and in a place like Jerusalem, which story is told is in itself a political act.

I remember visiting Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem.

And it's one of the most profoundly moving places I've ever been.

The architecture alone, the way it ends with you walking out onto a terrace overlooking the Jerusalem hills, is extraordinary.

But the location is also deliberate.

The narrative of return is built into the geography.

Y al mismo tiempo, a pocos kilómetros de allí, hay pueblos palestinos de los que la gente fue expulsada en 1948, lo que los palestinos llaman la Nakba, la catástrofe.

And at the same time, a few kilometers away, there are Palestinian villages from which people were expelled in 1948, what Palestinians call the Nakba, the catastrophe.

El viajero que solo va a los sitios turísticos principales puede no enterarse de que esos pueblos existieron.

The traveler who only goes to the main tourist sites may never find out that those villages existed.

Which brings me to what I think is a broader question about travel itself.

Is it enough to visit a place?

Or does a conscientious traveler have some responsibility to understand what they're walking through?

Creo que sí, pero no quiero ser moralizador.

I think so, but I don't want to be moralistic.

El turismo, incluso el más superficial, crea conexiones humanas que no existirían de otra manera.

Tourism, even the most superficial kind, creates human connections that wouldn't otherwise exist.

El turista que solo quiere ver la Cúpula de la Roca y comer falafel también está dejando dinero en la economía local y hablando con personas reales.

The tourist who only wants to see the Dome of the Rock and eat falafel is also leaving money in the local economy and talking to real people.

Eso tiene valor.

That has value.

And yet there are Palestinian tourism organizations now that offer what they call alternative tours.

Walking through villages, meeting farmers, understanding the permit system from the inside.

It's travel as a form of witness, almost.

Eso me parece valioso.

I think that's valuable.

Pero también me parece que hay que ser honesto sobre lo que puede y no puede hacer el turismo.

But I also think we need to be honest about what tourism can and cannot do.

Un fin de semana en Belén no va a resolver el conflicto palestino-israelí.

A weekend in Bethlehem is not going to solve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Lo que sí puede hacer es evitar que el visitante vuelva a casa con una visión completamente distorsionada de la realidad.

What it can do is prevent the visitor from going home with a completely distorted view of reality.

Okay.

I want to end on something practical for anyone who's thinking about actually making this trip.

Because for all the complexity, it remains one of the most extraordinary places a human being can go.

Sin duda.

Without a doubt.

Y mi consejo sería: habla con gente de los dos lados.

And my advice would be: talk to people on both sides.

No solo con el guía turístico oficial.

Not just with the official tour guide.

Toma un café con un israelí en Tel Aviv y toma otro café con un palestino en Ramallah.

Have a coffee with an Israeli in Tel Aviv and have another coffee with a Palestinian in Ramallah.

Las dos conversaciones son necesarias para entender el lugar.

Both conversations are necessary to understand the place.

That's the best travel advice for any complicated destination.

Talk to people, not just institutions.

The view from a café table is almost always more honest than the view from an official briefing room, and I say that as someone who has sat in a lot of official briefing rooms.

Fletcher, antes mencionaste que los peregrinos llevan dos mil años yendo a Jerusalén.

Fletcher, you mentioned earlier that pilgrims have been going to Jerusalem for two thousand years.

Hay una palabra en español que me parece importante para este episodio: peregrino.

There's a word in Spanish that I think is important for this episode: peregrino.

Y la uso porque tiene un significado que va mucho más allá de simplemente alguien que viaja a un sitio religioso.

And I use it because it has a meaning that goes far beyond simply someone who travels to a religious site.

Peregrino.

Right, I know that one.

It's pilgrim.

But you're saying there's more to it?

Viene del latín peregrinus, que significa extranjero, alguien que viene de fuera.

It comes from the Latin peregrinus, which means foreigner, someone who comes from outside.

Y en español, peregrino todavía tiene ese doble significado: es el viajero a un lugar sagrado, pero también puede usarse para describir algo extraño o poco común.

And in Spanish, peregrino still has that double meaning: it's the traveler to a sacred place, but it can also be used to describe something strange or uncommon.

Decimos 'una idea peregrina' para decir que es una idea rara, fuera de lo ordinario.

We say 'una idea peregrina' to mean it's a strange idea, out of the ordinary.

So the foreigner and the pilgrim are the same word.

That says something, doesn't it?

The outsider looking for something sacred.

And it gives us the word 'peregrine' in English too, as in the peregrine falcon, the wandering falcon.

The same root.

Exactamente.

Exactly.

Y creo que eso describe perfectamente a cualquiera que viaja a Jerusalén.

And I think that describes perfectly anyone who travels to Jerusalem.

Llegas como peregrino en los dos sentidos: eres un extranjero en un lugar que no terminas de comprender, y al mismo tiempo buscas algo que no puedes encontrar en casa.

You arrive as a peregrino in both senses: you're a foreigner in a place you can't quite understand, and at the same time you're looking for something you can't find at home.

Eso, en el fondo, es lo que hace que valga la pena ir.

That, at bottom, is what makes it worth going.

Una idea peregrina.

I like that.

Though knowing my track record with Spanish vocabulary, I'll probably use it wrong and tell someone their tortilla recipe is a foreigner.

Eso sería una idea muy peregrina, Fletcher.

That would be a very peregrino idea, Fletcher.

Pero ya estás mejorando.

But you're improving.

Poco a poco.

Little by little.