I went to Jericho a few weeks ago with friends Jennifer and Andrea who are both working with NGOs over here. We’d heard a rumor of cheap bikes-for-rent, and found the shop in Jericho’s main square—they charge about a dollar an hour. The owner took us to the back shed and started pulling out bikes wrapped in bubble wrap. New? we asked. Yes, very new. So new that they haven’t totally assembled them completely. I had to steer with my handlebars at a 30 degree angle in order to ride straight. Andrea’s back brake broke on the first downhill and her chain fell off when we turned around to get a less decrepit bike. And the appearance of newness wore off when the owner told us not to take off the bubble wrap. “No problem,” he said as I tried to wrench the plastic out of my jammed gears. So we cruised around Jericho, bubble wrap flapping in the wind, drinking fresh juice at this place:
and then cruising into the farm fields surrounding the town. A family working in a field waved at us as we cruised by, and we pulled over and were, of course, invited in for tea. The whole family (6 of the 7 kids were there) stopped working for tea time, then the kids took us around the farm, showing us their bunny hutch and their fields full of cucumbers and herbs and watermelons. We’re invited back and I can’t wait to go.
There was a not-well-reported news story back in March, when the Israeli military raided a Palestinian prison in Jericho, eventually demolishing the building before the prisoner they were after surrendered. You pass the ruined prison on the main road into town.
