My Israel/Palestine Portfolio Committee Trip in pictures

 

                  

Church built over sight where Jesus was born

Palestine - Bethlehem - going to look at the spot where Jesus is thought to have been born

Israel - looking out over the Old City - always strange to think that the Mosque is situated on top of the site where the Jewish Temple was situated...

                                     

Israel - a view of the Old City at a dinner hosted by Israeli Foreign Ministry - Ambassador Avraham Granot - Deputy Director General Africa where I was introduced  to Arthur Lenk - Director Department of International Law and next Israeli Ambassador to South Africa.

Israel - Jerusalem - SA delegation getting serious with God!
This is a Church in the Old City that claims to be built where Jesus was placed in the tomb.

Israel - Stairway to the roof top looking out from the top of Mt Zion

Israel - Looking out from King Davids Tomb on Mt Zion 

In Old City Jerusalem

Meeting with HAMAS Speaker and HAMAS Leaders in Ramallah 

Israel - with colleagues Smuts Ngonyama and Ian Davidson looking over the Old City 

Palestine - PC members in Ramallah 

Palestine -Legislative Council - Speaker Dr Aziz Dweik

Palestines Chief Negotiator in Israel-PalestinePeace Process - Dr Saeb Erikat

In Ramallah - escorted by Palestinian security

PC Members with Foreign Affairs Minister Dr Riad Malki & SA Ambassador to Palestine 

Hon Magama with SA Ambassador to Palestine in the SA Embassy in Ramallah 

Palestine - Prime Minister Dr Salam Fayyad with SA delegation 

Palestine - H.E. Pres Mahmoud Abbas taking off in a Jordanian Helicopter 

'Breaking the Silence'

With veteran Israeli combatant who served in the military since the start of the second Intifada - campaigning for an end to a situation where there are Occupied Territories and military control over peoples lives

Israel – peace forum and pc Hon Davidson, Hon Booi, Hon Dudley, Hon Ngonyama, Ambassador Lian Baruch, Mr Gershon Baskin, SA Ambassador Sisa Ngombane, PC Chair Hon Magama, Hon September & Hon Sooliman

Meeting at the King David Hotel in Israel with NGO Peace Forum promoting on-going cooperation and interaction between active Palestinian and Israeli Peace NGO's 

With Ambassador Lian Baruch (NGO Peace Forum) and International Relations PC colleague, Smuts Ngonyama (ex Pres Mbeki spokesperson, now COPE)

*The committee is still to deliberate and when the official report is out I will put out my comments on the report*