Green Olive Tours had the pleasure to host an Al Jazeera television crew on a scheduled tour to Bethlehem and Hebron. It was one of the largest tours of 2011 with over 30 participants. An Israeli and a Palestinian, Fred Schlomka and Samer Kokaly guided the tour, which visited Abraham’s Tomb, the old city of Hebron, and had lunch with a Palestinian family. In Bethlehem the tour spent time in the Aida Refugee Camp, and walked a stretch of the Separation Wall before going to the Church of Nativity.

One interesting situation happened at the synagogue side of Abraham’s Tomb. A Muslim family from the USA was with the group and they were refused admittance due to the ongoing Israeli policies. Jews are also not permitted in the Mosque side of the Tomb. The soldiers were polite but firm that the family could not enter. This has been the situation at Abraham’s Tomb since the massacre perpetrated by Baruch Goldstein in 1994 when 29 Muslim worshippers were gunned down and killed, and a further 125 were wounded.