Israel border tour
Channel: Daniel Rosehill
Date: 2020-09-20

I took advantage of a recent staycation in Israel to indulge in one of my stranger hobbies: visiting borders. I'm not sure why I find borders so fascinating but some of my earliest childhood memories are of seeing the (hard) border that divides the TNRC from Greek-controlled southern Cyprus in Nicosia. Between sightseeing up north and on the way back to Jerusalem we managed to see several interesting border sites:

1. 00:25  — 🇮🇱 / 🇸🇾  Between Israel and the UNDOF alpha line of the DMZ outside Majdal Shams. This (the Purple Line) marks the de facto international border between Israel and Syria (the states are legally at war and the only crossing, at Quneitra, is for special circumstances only). A watchtower with a Syrian flag flying is visible in the distance.

2. 02:08 — 🇮🇱 / 🇱🇧 Between Israel and Lebanon at Metullah. We stopped at a few sites here to check out the border — one just 5 meters from the border fence which straddles the Blue Line. The Blue Line, which is a UN-mandated withdrawal line carefully staked out with blue cylinders by UNIFIL, again represents the de facto border between Israel and Lebanon. Hizbullah is active on this border (see: the Hizbullah cross border tunnels, planned to be used in a mass infiltration, which were recently uncovered by the IDF). Hizbullah flags — and PsyhOps propaganda posters — can be seen clearly from the Israeli side. There is only one crossing between Israel and Lebanon at Rosh HaNikra / Naqoura. It's used for UN personnel (UNIFIL's HQ is on the Lebanese side). 

3. 🇮🇱 / 🇯🇴 We saw the Israel/Jordanian border at Gesher Adam (06:20) and Qasr El Yahud (11:00). Gesher Adam is a now defunct goods border that stopped operating around the time of the Second Intifada. At Qasr El Yahud, which is a pilgrim site, you can actually access the Jordan River itself at a part where it demarcates the border between the two countries. Israel has staked out its half with yellow buoys. I asked the Border Police on standby what would happened if I bathed on the Israeli side but stuck a leg underneath the buoys to the Jordanian side to which they responded "asur" (it's forbidden).

Many thanks to my travelling companion for patiently enduring my strange interest. If you also find borders interesting then feel free to be in touch — I figured that by posting this to YouTube I would find the rest of this tribe. 

By: Daniel Rosehill.
www.danielrosehill.co.il.